Antiestablishmentarianism

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Antiestablishmentarianism (or anti-establishmentarianism) is a policy or attitude that views a nation's power structure as corrupt, repressive, or exploitive.

Antiestablishmentarians adhere to the doctrine of opposition to the social and political establishment. Their purpose is to subvert from within. This doctrine holds that establishments lose connection with the people and have their own agendas which frequently destroy the things they blindly don't address.

Antiestablishmentarianism has ties to anarchism but should not be confused with antifederalism or antifeudalism.

In a country with an established religion (e.g. England), "antiestablishmentarianism" means support for the end of the special status of the established religion. In the 1800s, some English people opposed a movement to disestablish as the church exclusively recognized by the government as the official religion of the country. That countermovement was antidisestablishmentarianism. Antidisestablishmentarianism is usually cited as the longest word in the English language, but according to some definitions it is exceeded by several others.

[edit] Modernday Use

Someone born in the 60's or before should be able to identify with the Nixon era and the war the country was involved in--they should be able to give a firsthand account of the antiestablishment mindset.

This mindset was born from the anxiety and frustration/anger with the government during the Vietnam war. It was during this period that the younger citizenry were concerned about being drafted and sent away to war--a war that was not very popular. Many people were asking "Why are we there?" Others who believed we had made a grave error in entering Vietnam were protesting in different forms.

"Make peace not war" was a common cry. "Peaceniks" as some were named dressed with flowers (like as in Buddha and his gift of a flower--perhaps) in their hair and formed in some cases communities (see communes). Exploration with drugs to meditate and or escape. In essence, during this time period, the norm and the standard (establishment) were categorized as archaic thinking. Fueled by music from artists with a common dislike of the war and the sheer numbers giving reinforcement of this antiestablishment mindset a term came about, Antidisestablishmentarianism was the opposite. This was a backlash against the antiestablishment mindset and actions.

Common Use Definition:

This is the practice of being anti or against those who are most everything that was established as the norm (marriage, government and laws, and most obviously war).

[edit] References/sources:

Used Free dictionary.com for Peacenik [1]and Communes [2] Webcontent #1 used to ensure other sources available to record more detail in future substancive prooofs of the use in this context. ^[1] example music as influence [3] Example of use #2 [4]