Anarchy

[Intro] I learned in Korea that I would never again, in my life, abdicate to somebody else my right and my ability to decide who the enemy is [Verse] Got back from Korea I was so mad at what I'd seen and done I wasn't sure I could ever live in the country again I got on the freight trains up in Everett, north of Seattle And kind of cruised the country for two years Making up songs, but I was drunk most of the time so I forgot most of those I'd heard that there was a house in Salt Lake City by the Roper Yards of the Denver and Rio Grande Western There was a clothing barrel and free food So I got off the train there I was headed for Salt Lake anyway And I found that house Right where they said it was But most of all I found this wiry old man Sixty-nine years old Tougher than nails, heart of gold Fellow by the name of Ammon Hennacy Anybody know that name? Ammon Hennacy? One of Dorothy Day's people, the Catholic Workers During the thirties they started Houses of Hospitality all over the country There are about eighty of them now Ammon Hennacy was one of those He'd come west to start this house I'd found Called the Joe Hill House of Hospitality Ammon Hennacy was a Catholic anarchist pacifist draft-dodger in two world wars tax refuser vegetarian one man revolution in America I think that about covers it It was pure hell First thing he did was he said After he got to know me, he said "You know you love the country You love it. You come in and out on these trains Singing songs about different places and beautiful people You know you love the country You just can't stand the government Get it straight." He quoted Mark Twain to me "Loyalty to the country always Loyalty to the government when it deserves it" (Get it straight) (Get it straight) It was an essential distinction I had been neglecting And then he had to reach out and grapple with the violence But he did that with all the people around him These Second World War vets, you know On medical disabilities and all drunked up The house was filled with violence, which Ammon, as a pacifist, dealt with Every moment and 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, "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 and I'm an alcoholic' And then you can begin to deal with the behavior, you see And have the people define it for you whose lives you've destroyed." He said, "It's the same with violence You know, an alcoholic, they can be dry for twenty years They're never gonna sit in that circle and put their hand up and say 'Well, I'm not an alcoholic anymore,' No, they're still gonna put their hand up an say 'Hi, my name's Utah and I'm an alcoholic' It's the same with violence You've 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 going to be dealing with it in every moment and every situation for the rest of your life." I said, "Well OK, I'll try that." And Ammon said, "It's not enough!" I said, "Oh." (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 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's 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's probably the one Think about it I always wanted to write a song about that old man He never wanted one about him, he was that way But something mulched up from his thought His anarchist thought Anarchist in the best sense of the word 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'd say, "An anarchist is anybody who doesn't need a cop to tell him what to do." Kind of a fundamentalist anarchist, huh? And Rittre'd say, "But Ammon, you broke the law, what about that?" And Ammon'd say, "Aw, 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 I 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 gonna be voluntary or coercive The most destructive coercive combinations are arrived at by force Like Ammon said "Force is the weapon of the weak." (Anarchy) (Think about it) (Anarchy) (Think about it) (Force is the weapon of the weak?) (Anybody know that name? Ammon Hennacy?")