Anarchism

https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchism/comments/jp3q4p/comment/gbesw1p/

About preventing crime, the short version is that it starts in the home.

Much violent crime can be traced back to cultural factors. Violent crime, such as murder, would probably decrease dramatically in an anarchist society because most of its causes — poverty, televised glorification of violence, prisons and police, warfare, sexism, and the normalization of individualistic and anti-social behaviors — would disappear or decrease.

The differences between two Zapotec communities illustrates that peace is a choice. The Zapotec are a sedentary agrarian indigenous nation living on land that is now claimed by the state of Mexico. One Zapotec community, La Paz, has a yearly homicide rate of 3.4/100,000. A neighboring Zapotec community has the much higher homicide rate of 18.1/100,000. What social attributes go along with the more peaceful way of life? Unlike their more violent neighbors, the La Paz Zapotec do not beat children; accordingly, children see less violence and use less violence in their play. Similarly, wife-beating is rare and not considered acceptable; women are considered equal to men, and enjoy an autonomous economic activity that is important to the life of the community so they are not dependent on men. Regarding child-rearing, the implications of this particular comparison are corroborated by at least one cross-cultural study on socialization, which found that warm, affectionate socialization techniques correlate with low levels of conflict in society.

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-anarchy-works#toc42

As for the re-emergence of hierarchies, I think that the notion of anarchism is essentially 'checks and balances' turned up to 11. You get to a society that's an ecosystem of fluid social relationships, and an anti-authoritarian culture which makes it impossible in a million ways for anyone to accumulate power. If we could get there, I think it would be more robust than current liberal democracy, where the branches of government can cooperate and you need buy-in from less people to enable power to be accumulated.

IMO, good anarchist praxis is to 1) encourage and popularize anti-authoritarian parenting methods and 2) build strong community groups and mutual aid networks.

In the now, I believe in Mutualism and Solidarity Economies as a means for preserving liberty and keeping one another safe.

Hey, you guys showed up on “the front page” again. Real sorry about that.

But, hey. IMO, lemmy is anarchism. So there you have it.

The empirical evidence that we have available seems to indicate that anarchy is viable if people are either accustomed to it, or otherwise actively want it. This prevents a power vacuum, because people aren't seeking a ruler to guide them. In situations involving governmental collapse or some other rupturing of the social order, people are expecting that guidance and not receiving it. This allows a new, usually more violent authority to step in and take control. Obviously we want to avoid that.

Note that the examples we have of semi-anarchistic societies aren't perfect examples of what we want. Some only lasted a short time, or were small scale, or had some other flaws. They do serve to illustrate parts of anarchist theory, though. There are also various projects that do the same. The internet is one major example; a global information network used by 2/3rds of the world's population, but without a world government to create and manage it.

We have yet to see a large-scale, long-lived attempt to fully apply modern anarchism. At least part of the reason for this is that the left got intellectually derailed by Marxism and its derivatives for about a century. Prior to that, anarchism had been rising in popularity. We've been growing again for the last few decades, so we'll see what the future holds.

There are plenty of anarchist communities working in real life, so, yeah, it's viable. You can join an anarchist collective, or even start your own. These collectives are the reason life under capitalism is viable in a lot of countries. These collectives exists right now in your city, helping each other and the poor. You don't need permission from the oppressor to be an anarchist, just do it, stop subjugating yourself to the oppression, stop accepting it, normalizing it, and build the life you want with others. As others pointed out, anarchy is inside you first, it's not an external system, you decide to stop participating in violence. Anarchists then, tend to find each other and form communities. Be part of one, experience human life as it should, and become ungovernable.

"All is for all! If the man and the woman bear their fair share of work, they have a right to their fair share of all that is produced by all, and that share is enough to secure them well-being. No more of such vague formulas as "The right to work," or "To each the whole result of his labour." What we proclaim is The Right to Well-Being: Well-Being for All!"

We are capable of producing far more than we as individuals consume with modern technology. It's not a question of capability, it's a question of logistics, a question of messaging, and a question of how much inequity we are willing to accept.

All is for all. It took all of us to get here, everyone deserves a share of the rewards.

If by viable you mean able to be implemented without enormous problems, I would argue that capitalism isn't viable. I believe anarchism would be better for more people than the status quo, so I'd say it's viable in comparison

Edit: to answer the other part of your question, I practice anarchism in my daily life. Anarchism, to me, is a value more so than a political ideology. I don't believe in hierarchy, so I don't perpetuate hierarchy, and I actively work to dismantle it around me

No.

Unless this is the anarchism communi- . . it is?

Yes.

My heart says anarchy and my brain says communism. I can't live without either, so you can't make me choose. I'll maintain a materialist outlook and continue to act accordingly.

Well let's see. The concept of the state Is roughly 3,000 years old, and humanity is roughly 300,000 years old so.

But implementing it on any sort of scale alongside nuclear extractionist states would be pretty tricky. At the very least they would start dumping their waste into these zones if not openly land grabbing and hunting anarchists for sport.

Not if you take the traditional definition no. All natural life tends towards organization of some kind, which implies that organization is a consequence of life until proven otherwise.

If you take a more modern definition of anarchy where you mean decentralized rules, then I could imagine a situation in which it occurs. Though it's a far stretch to say that replacing a ruler with rules inherently solves the issue of power imbalance. Wether I am playing the game against an intelligent being or a logical system is irrelevant if the rules are unfair.

too disillusioned to even talk about it. I think it would be condescending of me to believe that masses that vote for asses deserve anything else.

Yes. Next question, please.