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All the anarchists I’ve met think citizens will spontaneously combust^W form committees, chosen by their peers using the Australian method, and those committees

All the anarchists I’ve met think citizens will spontaneously combust^W form committees, chosen by their peers using the Australian method, and those committees will cause work to happen by raising funds from interested peers. Like Mad Max, but with smiles.

logfromblammo 9y ago
Committees in anarchism are more like the PTA, band boosters, rotary club, or your HOA--everything that has no statutory authority, and no power to tax. They form whenever someone thinks it might be even worse to not have one, everyone hates attending the meetings, and they are almost entirely dependent on one to five people devoting too much of their own energy to holding it all together. There might be a contract in place, and it might mandate that dues be paid. In lieu of mandatory dues, they will always be strapped for cash and either begging for donations or coming up with annoying fundraiser ideas. They might fork, and one or both parts of the fork will fail, because some of the critical support went to the other part of the fork. And some of them will actually be more like organized crime families or street gangs than the PTA. In other words, anarchy is happening right now, and you can see how it works right now. A bunch of crazies devoted to renegade pothole repair is a perfect example. They come together because of potholes. They fix potholes. People pay attention to them as long as they care about potholes. When the pothole problem is fixed, everyone forgets they ever existed, then stop paying attention and giving money. They either drift away to find something else to do, or become the lonely, ignored crusaders against potholes that people remember hearing about that one time, but had no idea they were still around and still fixing potholes. It doesn't scale, though. Anarchy can only exist at the local level because governments tackle many of the big problems and force people to pay for the solutions with taxes. Imagine if your city government operated like the mafia (Chicago!), or if your state government operated like a giant PTA meeting. It might get as far as agreeing to set a budget of $500 for the spring graduation party before removing someone from the gallery for shouting about invading foreign armies, and would still be answering stupid questions about the dress code for service dogs when the soldiers started dragging everyone out. Mr. Humungus (a reasonable feller) is president of the Juicetakers Committee, Toecutter vice president, Feral Kid as secretary, Gyropilot as treasurer, and someone that looks exactly like your Mom covered in warpaint as the member-at-large. The president has advanced a proposal that you just walk away and give us your juice. We took a vote, and it passed unanimously. We are also selling cookie dough as part of our fall fundraiser. So give us the juice, and please buy some cookies on your way out into the desert. I'd prefer it if they were shooting guns at me.

logfromblammo 9y ago

Committees in anarchism are more like the PTA, band boosters, rotary club, or your HOA--everything that has no statutory authority, and no power to tax. They form whenever someone thinks it might be even worse to not have one, everyone hates attending the meetings, and they are almost entirely dependent on one to five people devoting too much of their own energy to holding it all together. There might be a contract in place, and it might mandate that dues be paid. In lieu of mandatory dues, they will always be strapped for cash and either begging for donations or coming up with annoying fundraiser ideas. They might fork, and one or both parts of the fork will fail, because some of the critical support went to the other part of the fork. And some of them will actually be more like organized crime families or street gangs than the PTA. In other words, anarchy is happening right now, and you can see how it works right now. A bunch of crazies devoted to renegade pothole repair is a perfect example. They come together because of potholes. They fix potholes. People pay attention to them as long as they care about potholes. When the pothole problem is fixed, everyone forgets they ever existed, then stop paying attention and giving money. They either drift away to find something else to do, or become the lonely, ignored crusaders against potholes that people remember hearing about that one time, but had no idea they were still around and still fixing potholes. It doesn't scale, though. Anarchy can only exist at the local level because governments tackle many of the big problems and force people to pay for the solutions with taxes. Imagine if your city government operated like the mafia (Chicago!), or if your state government operated like a giant PTA meeting. It might get as far as agreeing to set a budget of $500 for the spring graduation party before removing someone from the gallery for shouting about invading foreign armies, and would still be answering stupid questions about the dress code for service dogs when the soldiers started dragging everyone out. Mr. Humungus (a reasonable feller) is president of the Juicetakers Committee, Toecutter vice president, Feral Kid as secretary, Gyropilot as treasurer, and someone that looks exactly like your Mom covered in warpaint as the member-at-large. The president has advanced a proposal that you just walk away and give us your juice. We took a vote, and it passed unanimously. We are also selling cookie dough as part of our fall fundraiser. So give us the juice, and please buy some cookies on your way out into the desert. I'd prefer it if they were shooting guns at me.