Anarchists should never be "know-alls" but should always be prepared to listen, seek information to reinforce any truths they hold, always be open to new information that may come forward, and assess it, never hold to dictate, ideology or accept things because that's the way they have always been. However, who am I to give advice, instead let's listen to a voice from the grave. A letter from Élisée Reclus seems a better source of advice than anything I could ever pour out.

     This from VOID:

A letter to the young Anarchists- by Élisée Reclus

To the editors of la Huelga General in Barcelona.
Brussels, Dec. 4, 1901.
Corresp. III:238-240.

Dear comrades,
        We have an ingrained habit of exaggerating both our strengths and our weakness. During revolutionary periods, it seems that our most minor actions have incalculably great consequences. On the other hand, during times of stagnation, though we may be totally dedicated to our work, our entire lives seem barren and useless, and we may even feel swept away by the winds of reaction.
       What then should we do to maintain our intellectual vigor, our moral energy, and our faith in the good fight?
        You come to me hoping to draw on my long experience of people and things. So, as an elderly person I give you the following advice:
        Do not quarrel or deal in personalities. Listen to other people’s arguments before you present your own. Learn how to remain silent and reflect. Don’t try to get the better in an argument at the expense of your own sincerity.
      Study with discretion and perseverance. Great enthusiasm and dedication to the point of risking one’s life are not the only ways of serving a cause. It is easier to sacrifice one’s life than to make one’s whole life an education for others. The conscious revolutionary is not only a person only of feeling, but also one of reason, for whom every effort to promote justice and solidarity rests on precise knowledge and on a comprehensive understanding of history, sociology, and biology. Such a person can incorporate his personal ideas into the larger context of the human sciences, and is sustained in the struggle by the immense power he gains through his broad knowledge.
       Avoid overspecialization. Side neither with nations nor with parties [ni aux patries ni aux partis]. Be neither Russians, Poles nor Slavs. Rather, be men of truth, free from any thoughts of particular interests, and from speculative ideas concerning the nature of peoples, whether Chinese, Africans, or Europeans. The patriot always ends up hating the foreigner, and loses the sense of justice that once kindled his enthusiasm.
       Away with all bosses, leaders, and those who treat language as if it were Sacred Scripture. Reject such idolatry and value the words even of your closest friend or the wisest professor only for the truth that you find in them. If, having listened, you still have some doubts, turn inward toward your own mind and reexamine the matter before making a final judgment.
      So you should reject every authority, but also commit yourself to a deep respect for all sincere convictions. Live your own life, but also allow others the complete freedom to live theirs.
      If you throw yourself into the conflict to sacrifice yourself on behalf of the humiliated and the downtrodden, that is a very good thing, my companions. Face death nobly. If you prefer to take on slow and patient work on behalf of a better future, that is an even better thing. Make it the goal of every instant of a generous life. But if you choose to remain poor among the poor, in complete solidarity with those who suffer, may your life shine forth as a beneficent light, a perfect example, a fruitful lesson for all!

Greetings, comrades.
Elisee Reclus.

source: Anarchy Archives

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Why Are We Anarchists?

     A short extract from the writings of anarchist Élisée Reclus.

From Enough Is Enough, 

Why Are We Anarchists?

       The following lines do not constitute a programme. They have no other purpose than to justify the usefulness of elaborating a draft programme which would be subject to the study, to the observations, to the criticisms of all communist revolutionaries.
      Perhaps, however, they contain one or two considerations that could fit into the project that I am asking for.
      We are revolutionaries because we want justice and everywhere we see injustice reigning around us. The products of labour are distributed in an inverse ration to the work. The idler has all the rights, even that of starving his neighbour, while the worker does not always have the right to die of hunger in silence: he is imprisoned when he is guilty of striking. People who call themselves priests peddle miracles so that they can enslave intellects; people called kings claim to be from a universal master to be master in their turn; people armed by them cut, slash and shoot at their pleasure; people in black robes who say they are justice par excellence condemn the poor, absolve the rich, often sell convictions and acquittals; merchants distribute poison instead of food, they kill in detail instead of killing in bulk and thereby become honoured capitalists.[2] The sack of coins is the master, and he who possesses it holds in his power the destiny of other men. All this seems despicable to us and we want to change it. We call for revolution against injustice.
       But “justice is only a word, a mere convention,” we are told. “What exists is the right of force!” Well, if that is so, we are no less revolutionary. It is one or the other: either justice is the human ideal and, in this case, we claim it for all; or else force alone governs societies, and in that case we will use force against our enemies. Either the freedom of equals or an eye for an eye [la loi du talion].
      But why the rush, all those who expect everything in time tell us, to exempt themselves from taking action. The slow evolution of events suffices for them, revolution scares them. History has pronounced [judgement] between us and them. Never has any partial or general progress been achieved by mere peaceful evolution; it has always been made through a sudden revolution. If the work of preparation takes place slowly in minds, the realisation of ideas occurs suddenly: evolution occurs in the brain, and it is the arms that make the revolution.
      And how to bring about this revolution that we see slowly preparing in Society and whose advent we are aiding with all our efforts? Is it by grouping ourselves in bodies subordinate to each other? Is it by constituting ourselves like the bourgeois world that we fight as a hierarchical whole, with its responsible masters and its irresponsible inferiors, held as tools in the hand of a boss? Will we begin to become free by abdicating? No, because we are anarchists, that is to say men who want to keep full responsibility for their actions, who act in accordance with their rights and their personal duties, who impart to a [human] being his natural development, who has no one as a master and is not the master of others.
      We want to free ourselves from the grasp of the State, no longer to have above us superiors who can command us, putting their will in the place of ours.
       We want to rip apart all external law, by holding ourselves to the conscious development of the inner laws of our nature. By suppressing the State, we also suppress all official morality, knowing beforehand that there can be no morality in obeying misunderstood laws, in obeying a practice which they do not even try to justify. There is morality only in freedom. It is also by freedom alone that renewal remains possible. We want to keep our minds open, amenable in advance to any progress, to any new idea, to any generous initiative.
       But if we are anarchists, enemies of every master, we are also international communists, because we understand that life is impossible without social organisation. Isolated, we can do nothing, while through close union we can transform the world. We associate with each other as free and equal men, working for a common task and regulating our mutual relations by justice and reciprocal goodwill. Religious and national hatreds cannot separate us, since the study of nature is our only religion and we have the world for our homeland.----

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk