When I affirmed "the voices of prophetic protest and the lives of prophetic witness," I conceived of the "voice & witness" as an integral reality, which is to say that it was a distinction that was not also a dichotomy or not 2 different approaches or strategies. And I think @Tim well described the undesirable consequences that ensue when voice is divorced from witness. Tim also nailed it in describing some of the dysfunctional dynamics that invite critique from Assange et al. More concretely, I was thinking of different pacifist, eremitic and monastic traditions & movements, even of what I like to call anabaptist "sensibilities." Do any of you consider any historical manifestations of such traditions & sensibilities to be authentically anarchist in character? (e.g. Dorothy Day) and which may have otherwise missed the mark? and what would you consider to be some good examples of good concrete, well-conceived & well-executed anarchist responses in today's world? and what criteria would one use in identifying them? Also, for all the fun people have drawing distinctions between anarchists and libertarians ( http://www.stumbleupon.com/group/anarchy/forum/81874/ ), still, there are many (First Things & The Acton Institute, Cato & their ilk) who subscribe to classical liberalism as an ideal consistent with the Gospel & I'd be more sympathetic to their view if we were designing political & economic strategies for the choirs of angels. Of course, anarchist strategies have been critiqued for their impracticality but that's often from those who are committing category errors by applying criteria & methods that Christian anarchism, properly understood, would not recognize vis a vis its own ways & means from its vantage point "on the margins." As it is, the only reason the classical liberal approach has enjoyed any level of practical success is because it has been attenuated by distributist strategies? but the best that might be said about either is that it enjoys its existence as a necessary evil? and that the goal of distributism is a progression into classical liberalism which would progress further into anarchism? which as a sort of eschatological reality has thankfully broken through proleptically in various anticipatory realizations (discussed in the above paragraph). I apologize for an density here as I am grappling with some of this for the first time and more clarity & brevity would be the fruit of better understanding, which I lack but strive for. This has been a cool thread and I thank everyone who has contributed.
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