Politics (of the subaltern Other)

I think there's a correlation between one's outlook on humanity and their political stripe. This even extends to the so-called anarchists who tend to position themselves outside the political realm. The correlation I see is this: one's position on the political spectrum varies with the way one views how human the next person is relative to herself/himself.

I've come up with this conclusion after hearing people tell me again and again, "No, I don't need government, I know I'm not supposed to kill people. It's other people who need government who tell them what to do, who need laws and punishments for their crimes. Not me"

No one I've talked to needs government. It's always the other person. And after reading a couple books on the period of Spain before the civil war (and watching a great movie called "Libertarias") I've gotten a sense of how the facists saw the "other". Specifically, how they saw the peasants; namely as animals, beasts who needed to be exterminated.

And as you go from fascist to republican to democrat to socialist, and ultimately to anarchist, the pattern seems to be that the next person, the "other" is closer and closer to you as to her/his humanity is concerned. The fascists say, "Government is for the "other" who needs to be put on a leash, and do my bidding." The republicans say, "I don't need government (I am the government) but of course the rabble needs to be governed for their own protection." The democrats say, "I don't need to be governed, but there are a lot of bad people out there..." The socialists say, "We need a government that speaks and does for the people, because the people really can't get there themselves". The anarchists say, "I don't need government, and neither does my brother who I've never met, but we're both human".

So however much you believe the next person needs to be controlled, because of her/his inherent badness, that's a good indicator of your place on the political scale. Of justice.