I figure if we want to combat the use of the term “anarchy” to mean violence and chaos, we need to start calling people on it when they so use it. Here, then, are two letters I just wrote:
Joe Casey
c/o Marvel Entertainment, Inc.
417 5th Avenue
New York NY 10016Dear Mr. Casey:
In Zodiac #1 (which lists you as the writer), Zodiac says “I had a vision of a world where anarchy is a way of life.” Unless Zodiac’s vision is of a peaceful, egalitarian world without coercive authority, where all human relationships are voluntary, this is an inaccurate and defamatory use of the concept of anarchy.
Now I’m sure you can find a dictionary that supports your use of the term “anarchy” to mean violence and chaos – just as older dictionaries sometimes endorse defamatory uses of terms like “Jew,” for example. But the fact that dictionaries still promote negative stereotypes of anarchists and anarchism is no excuse for imitating them.
Etymologically, “anarchy” does not mean violence or chaos; it means “without a ruler” (an, without; arkhos, ruler). Those who equate the absence of a ruler with violence and chaos should ask themselves which group has caused more violence and chaos throughout history – rulers or the rulerless.
Andrew Kreisberg
c/o DC Comics, Inc.
1700 Broadway, 7th Floor
New York NY 10019Dear Mr. Kreisberg:
In Green Arrow/Black Canary #21 (which lists you as the writer), the villain says that “anarchy came swiftly.” Unless he’s referring to the advent of a peaceful, egalitarian society without coercive authority, where all human relationships are voluntary, this is an inaccurate and defamatory use of the concept of anarchy.
Now I’m sure you can find a dictionary that supports your use of the term “anarchy” to mean violence and chaos – just as older dictionaries sometimes endorse defamatory uses of terms like “Jew,” for example. But the fact that dictionaries still promote negative stereotypes of anarchists and anarchism is no excuse for imitating them.
Etymologically, “anarchy” does not mean violence or chaos; it means “without a ruler” (an, without; arkhos, ruler). Those who equate the absence of a ruler with violence and chaos should ask themselves which group has caused more violence and chaos throughout history – rulers or the rulerless.
Drop ’em a line of your own if you’re so inclined.
A couple of other comics-related notes:
- In Mighty Avengers #26, Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) tells Hank Pym that Zeno of Elea’s paradox “states that a traveler must always cover half the distance towards a goal before reaching it. Then half again. And again. And so on to infinity.” While I’ve often see Zeno’s paradox misdescribed this way, the smartest man in the world should really know better. Zeno’s paradox is not that after covering half the distance he then has to cover half the remaining distance and so on. Rather, it’s that before he can cover half the distance, he has to cover half of that first distance, and before he can do that he has to cover half, and so on. In other words, it’s not that a traveler gets closer and closer but never arrives, it’s that he can’t even start.
- I dropped Mike Grell a note about his Atlantis story (got up in his grell, as it were) (sorry) and heard back from him! Cool, no? Given that I’ve been a Grell fan since age eleven.
- ALERT for Orson Scott Card fans: Marvel Comics has been adapting Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow in comic book form, but they recently came out with a brand new one-shot Enderverse comic titled Ender’s Game: Recruiting Valentine, which, while it takes place during the same timeframe as those books, is not based on any pre-existing story. The credits list Jake Black as the writer, but Card as Creative and Executive Director, so the story clearly has Card’s blessing and probably some degree of input.
The nerd factor of this post is so overwhelming I am not sure I can handle it. Nerdy features of the post:
(i) It is about comic books.
(ii) It illustrates so much care about comic books as to write letters to those who produce it.
(iii) It assumes that the readership will care enough to write similar letters (which is TRUE, adding nerdiness).
(iv) It is about the use of the term anarchy.
(v) It talks about etymology.
(vi) It advances a strikingly libertarian message (very nerdy by itself)
(vii) It advances the cause of a particular sub-group of libertarianism (anarchists) with a worked out view (even more nerdy).
(viii) It’s written on a blog (still nerdy).
(ix) It’s written by a philosophy professor (nerdy).
Anyway, that said, I might send something along.
Whoa, back off there! It’s not like he called someone “friend” ironically.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I always thought too many people confuse anarchism with nihilism (the destruction of the present political, religious, and social institutions), perhaps due to laziness.
I think you are absolutely correct.
Maybe someone should tell Warner Brothers that “introducing a little anarchy” does not mean hijacking a hospital.
That reminds me: I cringed and gritted my teeth when I heard the Joker utter that line in “The Dark Knight” when I saw it in the theater.
Now the Joker shouldn’t be considered by anyone to be a reliable source on the proper definitions of terms, but still I knew that virtually everyone in that audience accepted his use of it at face value.
His use of the term “anarchy,” that is.
Why so serious?
Is that link broken, or is that just me?
http://libertarianleft.freeforums.org/why-so-serious-t366.html
Try it now.
Do let us know if you get a reply and what said reply states.
BTW: I told Mr. Rockwell about your Afghanarchy post, more specifically the PDF there in. He said that he missed the post but would find it. It was truly one of your better posts.
My memory, as well as wikipedia, suggest that there were several “Zeno’s paradoxes”. While you identify one of the paradoxes, the other well known one of Zeno’s was that of Achilles and the Tortoise. As far as I can tell, the example given was something of a poor mix of the two…rather than being exclusively the one you cite.
Hmm, seeing as how you mentioned your previous post, “Plato at the Earth’s Core”, you might want to reply to a couple of comments that were posted there awhile ago.
Richard G.
One should also promote cartoons that depict anarchy correctly.
That comic is embarrassingly bad.
Wow. Yeah, that is truly awful.
Here’s an anarchy-related cartoon I’m fond of.
I think it is quite so entertaining… Maybe it appeals to the unnerdy people that are surfing around the internet.
Roderick, I don’t know if you read Brian K. Vaughn’s EX Machina but I’d to see you give him a piece of your mind.
No, I haven’t read it.
It’s a frustrating read. It’s easily one of the most well-written comic series I’ve ever read but it’s basically a platform for the author’s politics. The protagonist is an ex-superhero who becomes mayor of New York City after saving tower two on September eleventh and apparently has the power to come up with eminently practical “moderate” remedies to every conceivable political ill. As Ayn Rand might say: “It’s a great work of art but I hate it.”