What about human nature? Don’t we need laws and police and other authoritarian institutions to protect us from people with ill intent?
If human beings are not good enough to do without authority, why should they be trusted with it?
Or, if human nature is changeable, why should we seek to make people obedient rather than responsible, servile rather than independent, craven rather than courageous?
Or, if the idea is that some people will always need to be ruled, how can we be sure that it will be the right ones ruling, since the best people are the most hesitant to hold power and the worst people are the most eager for it?
The existence of government and other hierarchies does not protect us; it enables those of ill intent to do more damage than they could otherwise. The question itself is ahistorical: hierarchies were not invented by egalitarian societies seeking to protect themselves against evildoers. Rather, hierarchies are the result of evildoers seizing power and formalizing it. (Where did you think kings came from?) Any generalization we could make about “human nature” in the resulting conditions is sure to be skewed.
If human beings are not good enough to do without authority, why should they be trusted with it?
The solution that many nations came up with is checks and balances. As much accountability as possible for authority figures. Multiple reviews by competing agencies. That sort of thing.
And while you might be 100% correct, your logic is counter-intuitive for a lot of folks. My car is stolen. I know who did it. If I approach them, they will laugh in my face and possibly do violence to me. What now? Or, my wife is murdered. I want justice, but I don’t know who did it or how to find them.
I’m genuinely curious how society handles these types of situations without a dedicated police force? What’s does crime-fighting look like in that world? How is justice meted out?
Nothing in those links provides an actual narrative of what society might look like on a day-to-day basis.
From what I gather, anarchism is more a set of philosophies concerning what to do as society collapses around you. A kind of “in case of apocalypse, break glass” contingency plan. Or it can be implemented on a microscale. “Do I insure and register my car? Or is my resistance worth the possible consequences?”
But I see very little about the day-to-day living experience. Suppose I’m homeless. I see a nice big house. I walk up to the house with a couple of friends and toss the owners to the curb. Is it my house now?
Yeah, thanks for the light reading assignment. JFC, I thought my Philosophy 101 textbook was a dry read, but that particular section of the document is on another level.
Here’s the relevant information that you can just copy/paste for the next person who asks:
This system could be based around a voluntary militia, in which all members of the community could serve if they so desired. Those who served would not constitute a professional body; instead the service would be made up of local people who would join for short periods of time and be replaced if they abused their position. Hence the likelihood that a communal militia would become corrupted by power, like the current police force or a private security firm exercising a policing function, would be vastly reduced. Moreover, by accustoming a population to intervene in anti-social as part of the militia, they would be empowered to do so when not an active part of it, so reducing the need for its services even more.
That’s your answer. It’s nebulous. It doesn’t address the resources needed for more complicated cases. It’s seems workable on a desert island, but it’s woefully inadequate for the modern day. Your murderer flees in a car with no license plates. How are you going to track him down? How are internal investigations carried out?
IMHO, anarchism has a real problem addressing how to get from HERE to THERE. How does one decentralize a world that runs on centralized systems? Especially when so many people like those systems and enjoy the benefits despite the flaws.
If you wanted light reading don’t ask such questions.
I’m not here to debate you.
Think what you want, a question was asked, answers and sources were provided. It’s late, I’m tired from working and studying, I’m gonna play some video games.
For the rest of your questions, that website provides many answers. The anarchist library is another good resource. You seem smart enough to do your own reading without having the need for some random on the internet to spoon feed you answers. Anarchism is vast, there’s no singular interpretation that is agreed upon or deemed correct. My answering of your questions wouldn’t achieve much but provide my individual interpretations.
The sidebar here has a selection of readings that provide the foundations:
https://crimethinc.com/2016/09/28/feature-the-secret-is-to-begin-getting-started-further-resources-frequently-asked-questions
Further reading: https://anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionI.html#seci59
Edit: linked to wrong section, correct link is here https://anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionI.html#seci58
The solution that many nations came up with is checks and balances. As much accountability as possible for authority figures. Multiple reviews by competing agencies. That sort of thing.
And while you might be 100% correct, your logic is counter-intuitive for a lot of folks. My car is stolen. I know who did it. If I approach them, they will laugh in my face and possibly do violence to me. What now? Or, my wife is murdered. I want justice, but I don’t know who did it or how to find them.
I’m genuinely curious how society handles these types of situations without a dedicated police force? What’s does crime-fighting look like in that world? How is justice meted out?
Click the link for further reading
Nothing in those links provides an actual narrative of what society might look like on a day-to-day basis.
From what I gather, anarchism is more a set of philosophies concerning what to do as society collapses around you. A kind of “in case of apocalypse, break glass” contingency plan. Or it can be implemented on a microscale. “Do I insure and register my car? Or is my resistance worth the possible consequences?”
But I see very little about the day-to-day living experience. Suppose I’m homeless. I see a nice big house. I walk up to the house with a couple of friends and toss the owners to the curb. Is it my house now?
Oop, sorry, I linked to the wrong section. Scroll up, it’s section 5.8 not 5.9 that is relevant
Yeah, thanks for the light reading assignment. JFC, I thought my Philosophy 101 textbook was a dry read, but that particular section of the document is on another level.
Here’s the relevant information that you can just copy/paste for the next person who asks:
This system could be based around a voluntary militia, in which all members of the community could serve if they so desired. Those who served would not constitute a professional body; instead the service would be made up of local people who would join for short periods of time and be replaced if they abused their position. Hence the likelihood that a communal militia would become corrupted by power, like the current police force or a private security firm exercising a policing function, would be vastly reduced. Moreover, by accustoming a population to intervene in anti-social as part of the militia, they would be empowered to do so when not an active part of it, so reducing the need for its services even more.
That’s your answer. It’s nebulous. It doesn’t address the resources needed for more complicated cases. It’s seems workable on a desert island, but it’s woefully inadequate for the modern day. Your murderer flees in a car with no license plates. How are you going to track him down? How are internal investigations carried out?
IMHO, anarchism has a real problem addressing how to get from HERE to THERE. How does one decentralize a world that runs on centralized systems? Especially when so many people like those systems and enjoy the benefits despite the flaws.
If you wanted light reading don’t ask such questions.
I’m not here to debate you.
Think what you want, a question was asked, answers and sources were provided. It’s late, I’m tired from working and studying, I’m gonna play some video games.
For the rest of your questions, that website provides many answers. The anarchist library is another good resource. You seem smart enough to do your own reading without having the need for some random on the internet to spoon feed you answers. Anarchism is vast, there’s no singular interpretation that is agreed upon or deemed correct. My answering of your questions wouldn’t achieve much but provide my individual interpretations.
The sidebar here has a selection of readings that provide the foundations:
https://hexbear.net/c/anarchism
HexBear isn’t an anarchist instance and their comm sees one or two posts a month.
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/c/anarchism is the most active anarchist community, on an actual anarchist instance and can provide much better help.
Aye, I only linked that comm for the reading recommendations in the sidebar. Something other communities are lacking
dbzer0 is more tankie than anarchist.