The state isn't failing us. For many people, it's working exactly as intended.
Anarchism has one of the clearest and most historically grounded critiques of state power — one that long predates the modern left's debates about reform vs. revolution. In this episode of A Thousand Small Fires, we sit with that critique seriously: What is the state, structurally? What does it exist to protect? And what does it mean to build political life outside of — or against — it?
We look at the anarchist argument that the state is not a neutral container for democratic will, but a machine for enforcing hierarchy — of class, race, gender, and empire. We look at how state violence isn't a bug or an abuse of power, but its foundation. And we ask what it means to want something different, without falling back on a simpler state or a better government.
This isn't an episode about chaos. It's about clarity.
A Thousand Small Fires is an anarchist podcast exploring political ideas with rigour, care, and a refusal to simplify. New episodes drop every Monday.
Further Reading
Episode Tags
anarchism, the state, state power, political theory, state violence, police, prison abolition, Emma Goldman, Kropotkin, James C. Scott, Frantz Fanon, hierarchy, mutual aid, abolition, political philosophy, feminist theory, decolonisation, radical politics, anti-capitalism, anarchist podcast
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