A lot of this stuff simply parodies itself. I recall a section of the so-called “Anarchist FAQ” condemning hospitals for their “hierarchy.” Wtf?

The university the writer attends is most likely either a state institution itself or affiliated with a religious organization. These are authoritarian institutions by their nature, and the institutions that they spawn in turn carry the trait. The challenge of purging the school of the trait while preserving its more desirable aspects might be akin to purging God from the church while continuing the mass.

The authoritarianism in the family is a social disease that I hope to see die away just as I hope to see churches and states die away, and the use of the mentally imprisoning sort of authoritarianism is undesirable because (insert compelling argument here).

But I don’t participate in the writer’s university, nor do I participate with him in his family. What I do participate in with him is political society, no matter where I exist on the planet and no matter how much any of us might prefer it weren’t so. When I look at what we share in common and what we might change together for our mutual benefit, I see statism as our joint target of greatest interest. Statism also back-stops and provides justification and social model-myths which serve to justify non-consensual and/or controlling relationships in other contexts. Finally, the state is the institution that both of us are forced to participate in whether we like it or not, assuming we demand to continue living within its borders — and I do mean living, as in not being killed. To withdraw from a voluntary social grouping such as the university student body or one’s biological family past a certain age is something nobody will come to you for and put a gun to your head with a fresh demand for obeisance.

You can quit coming round for Christmas, and you can quit school. But you can’t quit the state. I see a fundamental difference there, and the primary target toward which I see it as desirable to focus on therefore is the truly involuntary relationship.

(more later, too many interruptions while replying)

Social or cultural authoritarianism, as in being told your place by others, induces a person to hold another’s values and perceptions as superior to his own. This is not only harmful to individualism in itself, but also contributes to the power of political authority.

As for the college dude in the example, he would apparently rather remove authoritarian values from the university than remove himself from the university. I can’t say I blame him. It’s also true that the person of usual college age is fresh from a life of experiencing almost constant social, cultural, and political authoritarianism, and is still frequently told that he is too young and inexperienced to know how the world really works. So it’s perfectly healthy to err on the side of anti-authoritarianism.

But as long as you’re for undermining the state and against forcing me to live a certain way, I’d consider you an ally.

Good post!