Is it our duty as Anarchists to be in "riots" or is that just caused by hyped up people?

Question

I know Anarchists are actually pretty peaceful people, we have community gardens and Food is Free parties and help the homeless but, is rioting the way we literally fight back against the system?

Answer 1

neither. it is not our duty to do shit, and hyped-up people are not the issue: people who think they know the answer to what will make the change they want to see are the problem.

anarchists are not "actually pretty peaceful people."
some anarchists are peaceful, some are not.
most anarchists accept that violence is valid under some circumstances, and may disagree wildly on how to define violence and what those circumstances might be.

edited to remove repetition

Comments

How are 'hyped-up people' not 'people who think they know the answer to what will make the change they want to see'?

I often get excited about things that I do because I perceive them as having potential to make the change I want to see. Isn't that the same as being hyped?

If not, who are you referring to that 'think they know the answer'?

---

people who think they know the answer may or may not be hyped up.
hyped up people may or may not think they know the answer.

"having potential to make change" is different from knowing the answer. how different it is depends on the person and on circumstance and probably on other things too.

for a recent example of someone who seems to think he knows an answer, i refer you here
http://anarchistnews.org/content/racism-north-american-anarchist-black-cross-conference

but the most blatant examples are sort of boring.
we all have places where we think we know the answer, i expect. how we deal with that "knowing" is as much a personal affair as anything else. so perhaps the problem isn't the knowing, but the acting like a thing is known?
i dunno, how philosophical do you wanna get?

edited for parallel construction and... stuff.