What is the State? A New Animated Video Primer From Agency & AK Press

As we collectively face an increasing level of social and environmental crises around the world, many people are questioning how the State—a system that wreaks so much destruction—even came to exist and why it has such a stranglehold on us. As anarchists we feel that it is important to acknowledge that the State is the framework for ordering and controlling relations among human society, the economy, and the natural world, and that we have the power to create a better world.

Recently, Agency’s Eric Laursen published The Operating System: An Anarchist Theory of the Modern State—a groundbreaking look at the State and how it performs like a digital operating system, providing a framework for every part of our lives and rendering itself essential to functioning in human society. Not only does Laursen’s book provide a rare anarchist analysis of the State, but it also calls on us to recognize that the State is something that was intentionally created and can just as readily be replaced with something better.  

We are excited to share with you a new animated video, What is the State? (3:44), which we produced with Eric Laursen and illustrator Seth Tobocman to capture the essence of The Operating System. We highly recommend that you check out the book from AK Press, and please share the video with your friends.

Credits:

• Voiceover & Text Based on The Operating System by Eric Laursen, published by AK Press
• Narrated by Eric Laursen
• Images drawn by Seth Tobocman
• Images inked by Tamara Tornado
• Editing & Animation by Steve Jeter
• Produced by Agency

Learn more about Agency, an anarchist PR project at: http://www.anarchistagency.com
Learn more about AK Press & The Operating System at: http://www.akpress.org