On the one hand, the methodology utilized by some anarchists to achieve the absence of hierarchy has bestowed a false interpretation of its goals on the collective mind. The use of violence and destruction, by these anarchists, has impressed upon the people the notion that violence and destruction is the aim of anarchism. On the other hand, governments and the establishment media have seized upon this mischaracterization to their advantage, propagating the distorted view that anarchism is not a philosophy with lofty goals, but an activity of miscreants. Anarchism is the belief that individuals are the basis of society. As the basis of society, anarchism reasons that only by the development and expression of individuality can society develop to its fullest.
Anarchism acknowledges the primacy of the individual.
Society, in the anarchist conception, is merely the epiphenomenon of individuality across the many instances of humankind. As such, society is not a thing in itself. It bears no causal relationship to the individual. As a thing that lacks essence, talk of the needs of society is futile and unproductive. When society is placed before the individual, the individual, an existing thing, is sacrificed for that which does not essentially exist.