3 ms·
Losing all your property? As I understand the surplus was socialized and they turned education, transportation, libraries and so on into public, free services.
by dgb23 6y ago
Losing all your property? As I understand the surplus was socialized and they turned education, transportation, libraries and so on into public, free services.
In real terms this meant you were able to just get your bread from a bakery without paying or otherwise trading directly, if you provided your services for free as well. Turns out that many don’t need greed, nor coercion as a motivation to contribute to their community, if that community is based on freedom and equality.
I think this kind of society is something that is worth thinking about and even a goal worth working towards in some capacity. So much energy and time is lost by working against each other, which is really disheartening.
- hutzlibu 6y ago"I think this kind of society is something that is worth thinking about" It absolutely is worth thinking about, but not blinded by ideology. I first read about the temporary anarchistic areas in spain praised as a Utopia. And I thought something like, wow, those evil capitalist forces did hide that from me and others. Reading Orwells Catalonia set things straight a bit. And Orwell was a socialist. But not one blinded by ideology. He wrote about, what he saw. Not what he wished to be seeing. Allmost all anarchistic literature I read, were very much on the wishful fairy tale side of things, when it came to real world events, like spain. Anarchism can be without violence? Yeah well, how do you remove people from their property in reality? You come with guns and ask them nicely to fck off? Yeah, that works, but is not really nonviolent.
- dgb23 6y agoI agree with what you’re saying. Political philosophy is and should be just a tool, to analyze ideas. Your portrayal of Anarchism seems a bit one sided however. There are many areas that can benefit from building on anarchic relationships to some degree, such as free software, foundational research, public service etc. And even on a micro level, in teams, communities that uphold the notion of equality and fluent leadership. So a pacifist implementation is rather about building and maintaining alternative relationships than abolishing existing ones by force.
- hutzlibu 6y agoDid I say Anarchism is all bad? I merely said most books about anarchism are more based on fairy tales and "wouldn't it be nice" than reality. And yes, unfortunately most anarchist I discussed in person with, just also uphold the same fairy stories from the books I read before. You can change that, by recommending me a book that does better.
- dgb23 6y agoYou might be more interested in Anarchism as a tool and process rather than a utopian ideal? In this case I‘d recommend something like Understanding Power, or works of Noam Chomsky, Voltairine de Cleyre, Max Stirner, David Graeber.
- jariel 6y agoYeah! We can just 'trade our services' for one another! But since we can't, you know, really trade 'wheat' for 'borrowed books' we can introduce some kind of monetary system - like 'social credit' or 'dollars'. Then we someone can 'make wheat' and 'books' exchange them for money. And it would be really fair if someone who made 'more wheat' got 'more money' from the wheat they 'traded for money'! And then, when everyone is contributing by providing services for one another (using money as a medium of exchange because it's useful) we'll finally have real socialism!