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The communist-anarchist concept is interesting, to somebody like me, who tends to be frugal (not wasting resources) and willing to work without some kind of car

The communist-anarchist concept is interesting, to somebody like me, who tends to be frugal (not wasting resources) and willing to work without some kind of carrot-stick mechanism. I can easily imagine living in a community of like-minded people. However, I'm not sure that it's for everybody, and it would be contradictory to try to force such a system on people against their will. What I'd like to see is more experimentation with different social and economic models, perhaps in special economic zones, instead of the prevailing notion that everybody must be forced into a particular model, just because a dominant group has decided that this is best. The question I have about communist-anarchism in practise is about how well it would manage supply-demand issues. I can imagine that you'd get massive overproduction in some areas, e.g., perhaps a lot of people would fancy themselves as artists. In other areas, needs would probably not be met, e.g., a lot of people might like to have all their meals in a nice restaurant, but there may not be enough people willing to operate the number of restaurants required. Or perhaps there's not enough land for everybody to get all they want, but some guy is farming 100 hectares with some crop that nobody wants, or getting very low productivity, but perhaps he has every right to carry on doing it. I remember in the classic anarchist novel "The Dispossessed" that some of these issues are considered, such as communal eating places which perhaps aren't especially fancy.

culi 5y ago
> What I'd like to see is more experimentation with different social and economic models You should check out the late David Graeber and David Wengrow's latest book The Dawn of Everything. It came out this year. It does a really amazing job of showing how a defining characteristic of many nonindustrial societies was radical experimentation with self-organization models. Something that many feel is lost today in the way we organize ourselves politically
beaconstudios 5y ago
> What I'd like to see is more experimentation with different social and economic models, perhaps in special economic zones, instead of the prevailing notion that everybody must be forced into a particular model, just because a dominant group has decided that this is best. This happened a lot in the 20th century, and often resulted in a visit from the CIA at the behest of international corporations. The US does not let experiments in political structures play out, it just kills the leaders and replaces them with puppets. See: Chile, attempted in Cuba, and all over Latin America.
NoThisIsMe 5y ago
> The question I have about communist-anarchism in practise [...] If you haven't already, look into Catalonia in the Spanish civil war. It's perhaps the closest thing we've seen to libertarian socialism at scale. It's said to have worked pretty well until it was smothered between fascists states on one side and the USSR on the other. There's also present-day Rojava, which AFAIK isn't as far along the path as Catalonia was, but still is really inspiring.
- incompatible 5y ago
  The few modern Anarchist systems have tended to fail due to interference by outside forces. It's also easy to imagine the system failing from within if human nature causes too many people to act in non-anarchist ways (by trying to force dominance, or by use of market mechanisms such as bartering to jump queues for scare resources). However, I'm interested to know if the system would work if these tendencies could be avoided. Perhaps fewer goods and services would be produced, but perhaps this may be a good thing if compensated with equality and less time spent working. Perhaps the system would actually encourage some people to work more, although in a way that they find enjoyable, not necessarily the most efficient way.

culi 5y ago

> What I'd like to see is more experimentation with different social and economic models You should check out the late David Graeber and David Wengrow's latest book The Dawn of Everything. It came out this year. It does a really amazing job of showing how a defining characteristic of many nonindustrial societies was radical experimentation with self-organization models. Something that many feel is lost today in the way we organize ourselves politically

beaconstudios 5y ago

> What I'd like to see is more experimentation with different social and economic models, perhaps in special economic zones, instead of the prevailing notion that everybody must be forced into a particular model, just because a dominant group has decided that this is best. This happened a lot in the 20th century, and often resulted in a visit from the CIA at the behest of international corporations. The US does not let experiments in political structures play out, it just kills the leaders and replaces them with puppets. See: Chile, attempted in Cuba, and all over Latin America.

NoThisIsMe 5y ago

> The question I have about communist-anarchism in practise [...] If you haven't already, look into Catalonia in the Spanish civil war. It's perhaps the closest thing we've seen to libertarian socialism at scale. It's said to have worked pretty well until it was smothered between fascists states on one side and the USSR on the other. There's also present-day Rojava, which AFAIK isn't as far along the path as Catalonia was, but still is really inspiring.

incompatible 5y ago
The few modern Anarchist systems have tended to fail due to interference by outside forces. It's also easy to imagine the system failing from within if human nature causes too many people to act in non-anarchist ways (by trying to force dominance, or by use of market mechanisms such as bartering to jump queues for scare resources). However, I'm interested to know if the system would work if these tendencies could be avoided. Perhaps fewer goods and services would be produced, but perhaps this may be a good thing if compensated with equality and less time spent working. Perhaps the system would actually encourage some people to work more, although in a way that they find enjoyable, not necessarily the most efficient way.