TOTW: Bullshit Jobs and Anarchist Integrity




How does one make a living in this world and still have some kind of integrity as an anarchist? Usually this means handling money, and often that means having a job, and most likely that job is bullshit. But of course, none of this necessarily has to be the case.

Various sub-philosophies within anarchism have been advocated for how to do this, namely Illegalism (stealing for a living), Agorism (black market businesses), Rewilding (hunting & gathering) and Communalism (living & working on communes). But even though these approaches exist, very few anarchists seem to actually practice this. And those who do practice it don't tend to do it for very long or they treat it as a kind of side-hobby to engage in on their free time off of work (i.e., that which really pays the bills).

And then on the other end of the spectrum, there are the ways of making a living that are absolutely off-limits for anarchists. Usually these are considered to be jobs in law enforcement, the military and being a prison guard. Sometimes the sphere of forbidden jobs is expanded to include anything where one is employed by a government or where one is a boss who has the ability to fire & hire other people. But even with that, there are anarchists out there who have those kinds of jobs. So the zone where one can lose one's anarchy card based on one's profession then gets to be a bit murky.

So between these two extremes, pristine revolutionary purity on the one hand and complete hypocritical douchebaggery on the other, how do we navigate life in this world dominated by capitalism and statism, maintain some sense of dignity and integrity as anarchists, and still reliably get food on our tables and keep a roof over our heads? (and once you've figured that out please put in a good job reference for us)