Welcome to Gaia! ::

The way anarchy was explained to me was no government, but the people could co-exist in peace and get along but still live life the way they see fit. However, though I think it sounds really sweet, I don't think it's very realistic because i don't think it's ever going to happen. I feel this way because I don't think that there will ever be enough people who feel the same way about things and therefore there will always be conflict and I don't think that the people(at the rate humanity is going) would have the self-disclipline to settle the disputes themselves. I guess that's where people get the "chaos" thing from, they really think that without government everything would go to hell in a handbasket or something... so what I'm saying is, I know it's possible for anarchy is work in a small community (think: the band Crass living on a commune with friends and making music together and being happy), but I genuinely want to know if/how anyone feels it could work in a large-scale community, because I really wish we could all live in a utopian/anarchist society smile

I really want to hear everyone's thoughts, so please give me your input, and correct me if I'm wrong on anything.
ninja

A lot of crime comes from the way that society is currently set up. I think capitalism is more to blame than hierarchal governments. Not all crime, of course, but plenty of it.

We live in a society of people who have, and people who don't have. The people who don't have lie, cheat, steal, and kill to become people who do have. It's all about the money. The purpose of inner city gangs is to secure the ability to deal drugs in a given neighborhood. Car thieves want to strip cars and sell the parts for money. Robbers want money. And, how often do you hear about a white collar executive robbing a liquor store? Or do they not commit violent crimes because they already have money? Police are a band-aid, put on the festering wound caused by the systematic disenfranchisement of the working class.

Anarchism isn't about forming small collectives like Crass's Dial House. It's about returning the business of government to the people that are to be governed by it. Let's take a suburb as an example. Once a month, everyone on their block gets together and discusses problems they are having or things that they would like to see done. Ideas are presented and voted upon. At that time, one person is selected to be the Block Coordinator. The Block Coordinator is given a specific mission to take to meetings that take place among other Block Coordinators.

It sounds almost like our current government set up, but on a smaller and more local scale. The difference is that "elected officials" are given their posts to enact the will of those that elected them, not to make promises and then default on them. Instead of being retroactive, it's proactive. The community members are the ones who are empowered and in charge of things, and the "politicians" can only do what the community legitimately votes for.

That's a really good way to explain it. So, it IS kind of like "libertarian-communism"? Because all social classes are eliminated... am I correct? So, if we eliminate social classes, we eliminate poverty, therefore plummeting the crime rate?

I just want to make sure I understand everything. ninja

Well, there's not much left to be said, so I'll pretty much just be an a** and make a correction. =P lol

It's not really so much libertarian communism as it is libertarian socialism. Though both Anarchism AND Communism began in the First International, since both "founders" of the concepts, Mikhail Bakunin and Karl Marx, eventually had a falling out over this particular issue. You see, Mikhail was a socialist, though he didn't believe in totalitarian governments to hold them in place, because the corruption would simply s**t from capitalists to government officials. This is often known as the "Anarchist schism of Communism".

Ok, now that the history lesson's over, and hopefully everyone's still awake, as far as Anarchism itself, a large part of it does rely on altering what has already been taught to people by society; the greatest, in my opinion, being dependancy.

This for example, is why I distrust health care. Today I was just watching a video in my sociology class about self- victimization in America. Basically, people make crazy claims to disability and lay their entire lives living off of the government, and forgetting about who they can really be, and what the human spirit truly is. For example, and I know this may be a minority, but one man even went to the Federal office and gained dissability for being a drug addict. And funnily enough, he spent it on drugs. >_> -_-

Basically the logic of Libertarian Socialism is, freedom to be yourself, and equality of power, but that's just our philosophy. I recommend looking around and seeing what area of Anarchism appeals to you.

Yeah, primarily in my opinion, the law gets abused so much because it never defines what a "disability" is, so the courts are free to run away with it. Hell, if I really wanted to, I could probably sue my public high school for not having air conditioning and making me feel hot.

For example, in this one company, a group of four workers complained of having itchy red eyes is the morning and stuff like that, and bugged the Hell out of the company for it. Before there was even mention of a case, they had an environmentalist come in to examine the air around the building. He found everything normal, except he said that the copiers could possibly be emitting fumes from them. So, over each copier they placed these huge vents, the entire project costing over a million dollars. That didn't work, so the workers said it could be the carbonless paper. So, the company hired workers to photocopy every single document in the building, and put all of the remaining paper in the basement. But, that wasn't enough, so they retroactively copy every document in their archives...

In the end, they even gave the four employees their own room, where no carbonless papers would be brought to them, and they installed an expensive ventilation system into the room.

The kicker is, they would up sueing the company for over 80 million dollars. Right now the suit is still going through the courts, but I wouldn't be surprised if the courts gave it to them.

Good, I say. None of these corporations or businesses took the world's resources from us with any manner of honesty or integrity; so we're obliged to lie, cheat, and steal to get it all back. Oh boo-hoo, some multi-billion dollar corporation was forced to hand over a ton of cash to dangerously underpaid and overworked employees.

And healthcare is a damn universal right. If they won't give it to me, I'll take it.

I happen to be a green anarchist, which is quite different from the other ideologies mentioned here. Essentially, it is opposing civilization, because civilization is man's separation from nature, himself, and each other. This separation is what allows the ecocidal, genocidal, and self-destructive behaviors that characterize our culture.

Also, large-scale organizing of virtually any type of anarchism is ridiculous. Just as communism works great in communes, but not on a national level, same with anarchism. In order to be organized on such a large scale, somebody has to have too much power. Besides which, mass society interferes too much with experiencing the world around us.
Also, for more about green anarchy and anarcho-primitivism, check out my sig and this site. And I recommend everybody read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Just do it.