In my early 20s I became affiliated with a group from Columbus, OH called Arawak City Anarchists. The name Arawak refers to a Native American tribe that existed in the area before it was called Columbus, OH. There were not any Native Americans in the group. I had some fun times and community with this group from 2004-2007. In my later years I feel that this group was a cult in many ways. I got associated with them while opposing the War in Iraq. I also started having symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome in 2004. I got involved with anarchist groups because they seemed to have unique ways of living a frugal lifestyle.
I feel that they were possessive and controlling of me. They tried to separate me from my other friends. Two people from this group were bothering my sister in 2007 and telling her that I was more or less suicidal. This was not really true. She was devastated. It is true that three people from this group committed suicide between 2006-2010. One person committed suicide after a violent incident that involved another person in the group. There were other incidents in the group of violence, alcoholism, substance abuse, and harassment.
In 2006 I moved in with 2 other people from Arawak City. It was a fun time for a little while. The other two roommates were always letting other people stay in the home for free. They felt that this was "communal housing." I felt that it really was "us getting screwed over housing" because we were not wealthy people. Why should we be housing people for free? Some of the people there did not show us any respect. They stole from us and destroyed the home. There was one confrontational meeting that occurred in the spring of 2007. About 6-8 people, who did not live there or pay rent, were in my living room one day. One in particular had lived on the couch in the living room. The bums confronted the three people that actually lived there about our alleged unethical behavior. Can you imagine the nerve of anyone, who would confront other people in a home where they did not pay any rent? Can you imagine the nerve of people who would invade someone else's personal space? This comes up over and over again with these people. They have no regard for people's personal boundaries and don't care how much harm or damage they cause people.
A bunch of frivolous grievances were brought up that really did not amount to anything. We did not harm anyone or cause people damages. I was the oldest person in the group of three and had been involved with the group the longest. I felt like a lot of the criticism was directed at me personally on some level. I had opened my home to these people and this is how I was repaid. They could have simply left if they did not like what we were doing. It's not like we were a social services agency that had any obligation to to do things for anyone else. This was our home after all. This was one example of the many times my personal boundaries were violated by this group of people. They treated us like objects that needed to be punished and not like human beings.
It was later said that our group of three were "sexist." I was labeled a "manarchist." This term refers to a sexist male anarchist. No significant event or incident was brought up. This would lay the basis for a conflict that would happen later. There was no real evidence of any sexism that occurred in the group. All three of us were men. Some women lived in the living room or in an empty room without paying rent. The meeting was very confrontational and I felt threatened by having all of those people in my home. It seemed like they had planned out beforehand to all come in my home and confront us about our "evil deeds." There was only one woman present at this meeting and she barely said anything!
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