Anarchy
From Chapter 20 of Anti-Hero: Memories of a Black Bloc Anarchist.
It is important to understand that in my mind, our actions were not intended to be symbolic. The most common question or criticism I received from other activists was how violence could possibly change people’s minds? But I was not trying to change anyone’s mind. That time had passed. Anyone was welcome to join us, but they had to understand we in no way saw ourselves as “petitioning the government for a redress of grievances.” To put it bluntly, we wanted to overthrow the government. And not only our own government, but all governments. We wanted to be the spark that would set alight a worldwide revolution. This obvious point was what most people missed. Anarchy means “an absence of government.” It is treated as a synonym for chaos, and so when people saw us do things like smash windows or slash police car tires, they assumed this type of situation was our ultimate goal. But actually, it was just a means to an end. We did not want chaos or violence, in the long run. We simply believed violence was necessary to overthrow a state built on violence and maintained with violence. What we truly wanted was a world free of oppression and violence and theft. We wanted to live in a world where people lived together in peace and in harmony with their natural environments. Anarchy, after all, is a utopian philosophy.