Anarchy

All drunk up, the house was filled with violence, which Ammon

As a pacifist, dealt with, every moment, every day of his life

He said "You've got to be a pacifist", I said "Why?", he said "

It'll save your life", and my behavior was very violent then

I said "What is it?", he said "Well, I can't give you a book by

Gandhi, you wouldn't understand it, I can't give you a list of rules

That if you sign it you're a pacifist", he said, uh, "You look at it

Like booze, you know alcoholism will kill somebody, until they

Finally get the courage to sit in a circle of people like

That and put their hand up in the air and say 'Hi, my

Name's Utah, I'm an alcoholic', and then you can begin

To deal with the behavior, see, you can, and have the people

Uh, define it for you, whose lives you've destroyed"

He said, "It's the same with, with violence, you know, an alcoholic

They could be dry for twenty years, they're never gonna sit in

That circle and put their hand up and say 'Well, I'm not alcoholic

Anymore', no, they're still gonna put their hand up and say 'Hi

My name's Utah, I'm an alcoholic', it's the same with violence

You gotta be able to put your hand in the air and acknowledge your

Capacity for violence and then deal with the behavior and have the

People whose lives you've messed with define that behavior for you

You see, and it's not gonna go away, you're gonna be dealing with

It every moment and every situation for the rest of your life"

I said "Okay, I'll try that"

And Ammon said "It's not enough", I said "

Oh", I said, I said "Oh", I said "Oh"

He said "You were born a white man in mid-twentieth century

Industrial America, you came into the world armed to the teeth

With an arsenal of weapons, the weapons of privilege, racial

Privilege, sexual privilege, economic privilege, you wanna be

A pacifist, it's not just giving up guns and knives and, and

Clubs and fists and angry words, but giving up the weapons of

Privilege and going into the world completely disarmed, try that"

That old man has been gone now twenty years and I'm still

At it, but I figure if there's a worthwhile struggle in

My own life, that, that's probably the one, think about it

I'd always wanted to write a song for that old man

He never wanted one about him, he was that way, but

Something mulched up out of his thought, his anarchist

Thought, anarch-anarchist in the best sense of the word

Oh, so many times he stood up in front of Federal District Judge

Ritter, that old fart, and he'd be picked up for picketing

Illegally, and he never pled innocent or guilty, he pled anarchy

And Ritter'd say "What's an anarchist, Hennacy?"

, And Ammon would say "Why, an anarchist is anybody

Who doesn't need a cop to tell him what to do"

Kind of a fundamentalist anarchist, huh?

And Ritter'd say "But Ammon, you broke the law, what about that?"

And Ammon'd say "Ah, judge, your damn laws, the good people don't

Need 'em and the bad people don't obey 'em, so what use are they?"

Anarchy

Anarchy

Well, I lived there for eight years and I watched him, mainly

Watched him, and I discovered watching him that anarchy is not

A noun but an adjective, it describes the tension between moral

Autonomy and political authority, especially in the area of

Combinations, whether they're going to be voluntary or coercive

The most destructive, coercive

Combinations are arrived at through force

Like Ammon said, "Force is the weapon of the weak"

Anarchy

Anarchy

Anarchy

The weapon of the weak

Anybody know that name, Ammon Hennacy?