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Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)

theanarchistlibrary.org

131–140 of 839 posts

Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)

#131
In my younger years, I'd respond to anarchists espousing their theories by taking their wallet out of their back pocket or purse, and seeing how long it takes for them to threaten to call the police (it can take a surprisingly long time in a bar setting).

Nowadays I just ignore them.

Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your assumption that people must behave better in the presence of authority - and therefore worse in the absence of it - is exactly the assumption that is under question.

I certainly behave better in the presence of authority. It's unlikely I am the only one.

How do you behave when you yourself have authority? Would you stop respecting social norms and expectations if you did, and go on an egomaniacal power trip?

Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)

#133
I don't understand anarchy. Take littering for an example. Would an anarchist system (oxymoron alert) have fines for littering? How about signs and a slogan? TV advertisements?

Another example: I regularly volunteer at conventions. Somewhere between 90 and 95% of people follow the rules without much prompting. 5-10% of people don't... but I sincerely believe that without volunteers watching, that number would go up sharply. Another reason people behave is the threat of their badge being revoked.

> "For thousands of years people lived without governments. In many parts of the world people live outside of the control of governments today. They do not all kill each other."

Hahaha no. Just no. People may not have lived under the control of formal governments, but there is always some sort of power structure. They may not have killed each other with systematic warfare, but small raids and personal violence killed a lot of people per capita.

---

Having said all that, I do think that internalizing the rules of society does far more than overt displays of power, like police or military parades; but I also think that the police play an important role in decreasing public crime. However, I also do not think that simply adding more police or increasing the harshness of enforcement will decrease public crime further.

It's all Pareto Principle.

Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)

#134
post #120
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't have to behave better in the presence of authority, they are forced to, that's kind of the point of authority :-)

Unfortunately authority doesn't behave better in the presence of itself

True, but the real world is about compromises and lesser evils.

Formal authority is quite often better than arbitrary, informal authority. And make no mistake, humans are social, their natural congregations are hierarchical.

Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)

#135
post #80

This was interesting, I learned something. The problem with anarchy is that everyone must be a good anarchist for it to work. Our current society is also dependent on most people being good anarchists, but it's also more resilient against non-anarchists. Also, removing state power structures will not remove all power structures. There will still be people with lots of material or social capital providing them with po…

Anarchism would also remove private property, and for it to work people would have to organize in ways to minimize social capital.

How do you do that though? There would of course be no enforcable private property, but ownership would not disappear as a (albeit nebulous) concept.

Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)

#136

> Anarchists are simply people who believe human beings are capable of behaving in a reasonable fashion without having to be forced to. [...] But it’s one that the rich and powerful have always found extremely dangerous. So you're telling me they don't behave well on their own? Also: > Do you believe [...] that certain sorts of people (women, people of color, ordinary folk who are not rich or highly educated) are inf…

Do you not see the fundamental difference between disliking people for what they are and disliking people for what they chose to do and become?

Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)

#137

“Anarchists are simply people who believe human beings are capable of behaving in a reasonable fashion without having to be forced to.” My anarchist sympathies want this to be true but this is a demonstrably false fairy tale. Just look at how we treat the planet and other living things in the presence of lawful order. Why would you assume that we would act righteously in the absence of law? It is painfully obvious th…

> "> Just look at how we treat the planet and other living things in the presence of lawful order"

On the contrary, it' and indictment of the current law system, it has utterally failed to protect the environment and other living things, where-as anacistic organisations, charities and protest movement have done a lot for the environment. In fact they are the only ones that have done anything at all.

If a given CEO damages profits for the sake of environment, he can be removed as he is not fullfilling his legal duty, maximising profits. So even if a hypothetical environmentalist became the chielf of ExxonMobil, he wouldn't be able to do much.

Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)

#139

“Anarchists are simply people who believe human beings are capable of behaving in a reasonable fashion without having to be forced to.” My anarchist sympathies want this to be true but this is a demonstrably false fairy tale. Just look at how we treat the planet and other living things in the presence of lawful order. Why would you assume that we would act righteously in the absence of law? It is painfully obvious th…

I see this when dispersed camping, simple things like cleaning up at the campsite before leaving. Most people don’t have a problem with it but there are small groups who don’t care about anything. Those small groups tend to ruin it for everyone.

You don’t see that at managed campgrounds because you will be fined.

Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)

#140

“Anarchists are simply people who believe human beings are capable of behaving in a reasonable fashion without having to be forced to.” My anarchist sympathies want this to be true but this is a demonstrably false fairy tale. Just look at how we treat the planet and other living things in the presence of lawful order. Why would you assume that we would act righteously in the absence of law? It is painfully obvious th…

I think the whole point of the article is not insist that anarchy is a suitable organizing principle for society as a whole, but that pockets of anarchy already exist and perhaps we should consider allowing a bit more anarchy before we smother everything in heavy-handed power structures and legislation.
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