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Within capitalism, economics plays an important ideological role. Economics has been used to construct a theory from which exploitation and oppression are excluded, by definition. We will attempt here to explain why capitalism is deeply exploitative. Elsewhere, in section B, we have indicated why capitalism is oppressive and will not repeat ourselves here.

In many ways economics plays the role within capitalism that religion played in the Middle Ages, namely to provide justification for the dominant social system and hierarchies. "The priest keeps you docile and subjected," argued Malatesta, "telling you everything is God's will; the economist say it's the law of nature." They "end up saying that no one is responsible for poverty, so there's no point rebelling against it." [Fra Contadini, p. 21] Even worse, they usually argue that collective action by working class people is counterproductive and, like the priest, urge us to tolerate current oppression and exploitation with promises of a better future (in heaven for the priest, for the economist it is an unspecified "long run"). It would be no generalisation to state that if you want to find someone to rationalise and justify an obvious injustice or form of oppression then you should turn to an economist (preferably a "free market" one).

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This section of the FAQ indicates how both statism and capitalism affect the society they exist in. It is a continuation of sections B (Why do anarchists oppose the current system?) and C (What are the myths of capitalist economics?) and it discusses the impact of the underlying social and power relationships within the current system on society.

This section is important because the institutions and social relationships capitalism and statism spawn do not exist in a social vacuum, they have deep impacts on our everyday lives. These effects go beyond us as individuals (for example, the negative effects of hierarchy on our individuality) and have an effect on how the political institutions in our society work, how technology develops, how the media operates and so on. As such, it is worthwhile to point out how (and why) statism and capitalism affect society as a whole outwith the narrow bounds of politics and economics.

So here we sketch some of the impact concentrations of political and economic power have upon society. While many people attack the results of these processes (like specific forms of state intervention, ecological destruction, imperialism, etc.) they usually ignore their causes. This means that the struggle against social evils will be never-ending, like a doctor fighting the symptoms of a disease without treating the disease itself or the conditions which create it in the first place. We have indicated the roots of the problems we face in earlier sections; now we discuss how these impact on other aspects of our society. This section of the FAQ explores the interactions of the causes and results and draws out how the authoritarian and exploitative nature of capitalism and the state affects the world we live in.

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The socialist movement has been continually divided, with various different tendencies and movements. The main tendencies of socialism are state socialism (Social Democracy, Leninism, Maoism and so on) and libertarian socialism (anarchism mostly, but also libertarian Marxists and others). The conflict and disagreement between anarchists and Marxists is legendary. As Benjamin Tucker noted:

"it is a curious fact that the two extremes of the [socialist movement] . . . though united . . . by the common claim that labour should be put in possession of its own, are more diametrically opposed to each other in their fundamental principles of social action and their methods of reaching the ends aimed at than either is to their common enemy, existing society. They are based on two principles the history of whose conflict is almost equivalent to the history of the world since man came into it . . .

"The two principles referred to are AUTHORITY and LIBERTY, and the names of the two schools of Socialistic thought which fully and unreservedly represent one or the other are, respectively, State Socialism and Anarchism. Whoso knows what these two schools want and how they propose to get it understands the Socialistic movement. For, just as it has been said that there is no half-way house between Rome and Reason, so it may be said that there is no half-way house between State Socialism and Anarchism." [The Individualist Anarchists, pp. 78-9]

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This section of the FAQ expands upon section D.4 ("What is the relationship between capitalism and the ecological crisis?") in which we indicated that since capitalism is based upon the principle of "grow or die," a "green" capitalism is impossible. By its very nature capitalism must expand, creating new markets, increasing production and consumption, and so invading more ecosystems, using more resources, and upsetting the interrelations and delicate balances that exist with ecosystems. We have decided to include a separate section on this to stress how important green issues are to anarchism and what a central place ecology has in modern anarchism.

Anarchists have been at the forefront of ecological thinking and the green movement for decades. This is unsurprisingly, as many key concepts of anarchism are also key concepts in ecological thought. In addition, the ecological implications of many anarchist ideas (such as decentralisation, integration of industry and agriculture, and so forth) has meant that anarchists have quickly recognised the importance of ecological movements and ideas.

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Noi abbiamo una esperienza che i nostri figli non avranno che per sentito dire. Dovremmo farne tesoro.

L'esperienza dei partiti e delle organizzazioni colossali, svaniti per così dire in una notte di tempesta e rimasti esclusivamente nella coscienza e nelle convinzioni di pochi individui, quelli che veramente avevano una coscienza e delle convinzioni.

Queste sono le cose che contano e noi dovremmo concentrare il nostro pensiero sulle cose che contano dando poca importanza alle cose accessorie. Perciò non vi affannate troppo se vi sono quelli che vorrebbero mettersi in gara con gli arrivisti per far numero. Non è roba nostra. Se sono sinceri se ne accorgeranno o prima o poi; se non lo sono è tempo perso. In mezzo alla rovina totale delle cose e alla disperazione degli uomini, bisogna cercare di rimettere in onore l'ideale che può essere raggiunto ed è, in ogni modo, la sola guida sicura alla risurrezione. Senza fede nella vita, senza l'assegnamento di scopi elevati che la nobilitino e• la rendano degna d'essere vissuta, si va nel buio di disastro in disastro ripetendo all’infinito gli errori e le tragedie del passato.

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Noi abbiamo una esperienza che i nostri figli non avranno che per sentito dire. Dovremmo farne tesoro.

L'esperienza dei partiti e delle organizzazioni colossali, svaniti per così dire in una notte di tempesta e rimasti esclusivamente nella coscienza e nelle convinzioni di pochi individui, quelli che veramente avevano una coscienza e delle convinzioni.

Queste sono le cose che contano e noi dovremmo concentrare il nostro pensiero sulle cose che contano dando poca importanza alle cose accessorie. Perciò non vi affannate troppo se vi sono quelli che vorrebbero mettersi in gara con gli arrivisti per far numero. Non è roba nostra. Se sono sinceri se ne accorgeranno o prima o poi; se non lo sono è tempo perso. In mezzo alla rovina totale delle cose e alla disperazione degli uomini, bisogna cercare di rimettere in onore l'ideale che può essere raggiunto ed è, in ogni modo, la sola guida sicura alla risurrezione. Senza fede nella vita, senza l'assegnamento di scopi elevati che la nobilitino e• la rendano degna d'essere vissuta, si va nel buio di disastro in disastro ripetendo all’infinito gli errori e le tragedie del passato.

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