What do anarchists think about the potential of government shut downs?

Question

And should we even care? I personally have a pretty deep sense of ambivilance about it, and yet I can also imagine that it could provide strategic points for anarchists act.

Answer 1

The much-touted so-called shut-down only refers to low-level bureaucrats. The more basic functions of government are never shut down. The cops will still be out on the streets, the military will still be occupying Afghanistan and Iraq, the prisons will still be operating. The repressive infrastructure will not be affected just because some offices in DC might be closed.

Comments

That's a part of what makes me feel ambivalent. I know that it changes nothing so far as the oppressive apparati of the state are concerned (cops, wars, prison...)

On the other hand, if there is any real affect on everyday life in the US, it is likely to be in the loss of public services that many take for granted. Many of these are things that less stratified and alienated cultures would've handled through mutual aid. I wonder about the possibilities of leveraging that to further a critique of the state and the state-constructed social safety net.

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The recent economic situation has given right-wing statists the leverage to do even more of what they have been doing for the past few decades: hollowing out the welfare state. Will this prompt the populace to more radical understanding or action? Hard to say. It has been argued that FDR, in instituting the capitalist welfare state in USA, staved off a socialist revolution.

In today's situation i haven't really seen a lot of Occupy-esque protesters embracing a critique of the state in itself. The politicians that have injected themselves into the movement are explicitly pro-state (liberals and authoritarian socialists). But with economists talking about a "jobless recovery" it looks unlikely the situation for most of Americans (closer to 70% than 99%) will get much "better". One thing i find inspiring about Occupy is that many of the folks involved, if not hostile to government, have at least been empowered to take their lives into their own hands, not looking to the state for help, and indeed finding only the jackboot.

EDIT: I realize my response is tangential, and displaced in time from the original question asked when OWS was still a nascent movement, but i think Occupy is an aspect of the zeitgeist relevant to the question.

Answer 2

annoying question. ask every anarchist under the sun. should you even care? i dunno.  do you want to? its a choice eh. its all a matter of wat u want. (if you DONT care u wont be spanked in the afterlife by some vengeful deity of Anarchism and The Movement for Worker/Human [delete as applicable] Liberation).
for me its a matter of understanding why and wat it means and how that relates to wat i want and how i think i mite get that.

Answer 3

It's interesting to see this in hindsight. Honestly, on the East Coast it was a big deal, especially in the DC area. Even cuts to government are huge, mostly because absolutely everything is tied to government. It's strange to think about. Government shutdowns, downgrades of state's credit ratings and cuts to spending, effecting everything out here. Of course, many of us were excited and hoped that the economic apocalypse would come. But...no...

So,

Some: concerned, because of logistical reasons.
Others: excited, because of apocalyptic reasons.