Posts by Russell Brown
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Look. honestly, it's all about how you live your life. It's about meaning and integrity.
Bollocks to your political revolution. Bollocks to your Establishment posturing (I'm talking to you, RB).
That was a pretty rapid default to name-calling ...
What matters is ideas. And art is the medium for ideas that affect society for now and evermore.
I think art is certainly a medium for world-changing ideas, but it's not the only one.
I've been energised lately by my contact with the open-source software community, and through talking to community and access broadcasters at their recent conference. I'm really excited by the way that the internet facilitates and focuses community through the power to publish and share. I try and do my bit (see humans.org.nz). But I think defining yourself against an "elite" that's to blame for everything bad is self-serving.
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Anarchism is more a challenge to the self-serving authority of elite groups than it is any kind of dogmatic belief.
And I'm way more comfortable with that with the more absolutist ideas I linked to earlier. I'm just a bit suspicious of utopian solutions predicated on "smashing the state".
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RB,
With respect, the only thing you've proved this afternoon is your own prejudice. It's like a straw man factory in here.It's not prejudice. It's an opinion you might wish to discuss. What do you think about the potential for a society with no elected leaders, law enforcement or commerce? How would you achieve it? Would anything but a tiny minority of people really embrace it of their own free will? How do you deal with people who insist on being capitalists or armed robbers?
I'm interested by the ideas outlined in those two manifestos, just not particularly impressed by the thinking.
I did have much more sympathy for the third page I linked to -- and it's interesting that, as Andrew pointed out, it is not unlike the Declaration of Independence.
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That's another one of the things I love about contemporary society, there are no more thieves, armed robbers or murderers anymore and the political elite work harmoniously with their corporate counterparts for the benefit of humanity *vomits*.
There you go again. Dehumanising anyone who participates in democratic politics is a handy way of not having to think about the much messier reality of people's hopes, dreams and motives. Every cop's a bad cop, and every politician is a sock puppet of the capitalist elite.
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If that happens I am outtie
Weird. I thought you wrote "I am an outtie", and I thought "Why is she talking about her belly button?"
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Yet if I was to say that capitalism didn't work on the basis that there's no pure capitalist countries I'd probably be laughed at. Yet people happily say the exactly same thing about socialism, anarchism etc etc.
Personally I don't think any of them work well in pure forms, which is why we're in the melting pot of ideas at the moment. Capitalism moderated by socialism. Authority moderated by anarchism. And vice versa.
And yet both the things I linked to seemed to take an absolutist stance: no capitalism, no state, period.
I did find this list of principles easier to swallow. As I noted, I have a good deal of time for community co-operation, the flattening of hierarchies, etc. I also reckon commerce is a bloody good idea.
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I would imagine an anarchist society would contain pockets of such people.
Would it also contain pockets of, say, armed robbers or simple thieves?
__I find the tendency to dehumanise anyone in authority quite distasteful too.__
So do I, which is why I'm against people holding authority. Just look what it does to them.
It certainly seemed to bring out the worst in yer man Makhno ...
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In both cases, your 'interesting social experiment' was set up and implemented in poor (especially by contemporary Western standards) countries that were in the middle of a war.
Unfortunately, there are no examples amongst peaceable market democracies to study.
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Nestor Makhno successfully established an anarchist society during the Russian Revolution.
From your Makhno link:
Skeptics on the Bolshevik side argue that the above description of Makhnovist Ukraine is a myth. They find it unrealistic that a war-ravaged, economically isolated, agricultural region like Ukraine (though eastern Ukraine included the largest coal and iron mines, in the former Russian Empire, and was relatively industrialized)[1] could be turned into an anarchist paradise in a few days or even months, simply by using correct anarchist ideology.
Trotsky, in a series of articles, charged that the "anarchist republic" was a military dictatorship with few or sham elections, and all the important ministers chosen by Makhno and his lieutenants, who frequently exercised the power to conduct summary executions. The most infamous example is the charge that Makhno, during the course of a simple conversation in his tent, decided that one of his officers was a reactionary and shot him outright. There is no evidence that this shooting occurred, but neither is there that popular democracy ever existed in Makhnovist Ukraine.
There were many claims of extreme atrocities committed by Makhno's Army. Makhno reserved a particular hatred of monarchists and aristocrats, and they were exterminated mercilessly whenever they fell into Makhnovists' hands, as were White Army officers. After the souring and dissolution of Makhno's coalition with Bolsheviks the captured Red commanders and comissars were similarly summarily executed. However, Makhno usually preferred to release the disarmed enlisted men that were captured, as "proletarian brothers", with a choice of joining his army or returning home, after all commanding officers were executed. This happened to an Estonian Red Army brigade that surrendered to Makhno in 1919, and several other German, Nationalist and Red Army units.
This clemency which Makhno applied to all enlisted men except the Whites, was not based on any Romantic notion, but formed a part of Makhno's strategy. It proved to be extremely useful, and greatly increased his army's manpower, as many chose to join the anarchists.
Neither of the two local primers I linked to venture on what you'd do should even a few citizens think differently and, say, insisted on comporting themselves as capitalists. It's implicitly assumed that everyone will agree.
I find the tendency to dehumanise anyone in authority quite distasteful too.
The irony is that the protocols for the internet, which has done so much to really subvert hierarchies and facilitate cooperative effort, were created by military researchers who struck a neat balance between community engagement and freedom and, where necessary, making authoritative decisions -- which were enforced in part by their control over state funding.
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Although it's doubtless scary for those involved, the current drama has given anarchism its best airing in years.
The Civil Rights Defence Committee has a What is anarchism? page:
Unfortunately, we see our lives being increasingly pushed to be competitive, violent and stressful, and for many, pointless and deeply unsatisfying. There seems to be no alternative to a life mostly spent trying to make ends meet, in front of a PlayStation or TV, or indulging in alcohol or anti-depressants, broken only by brief holidays. For the better off, travel and immersion in other cultures provides the colour and excitement that's lacking in their own lives. We think people deserve better. Of course, getting rid of capitalism and the state and instituting a cooperative society is going to take a bit of work, but do you really have anything more important to do?
It's a bit patronising, isn't it?
And Radical Youth, the organisation Omar Hamed is involved with, also has a What is Anarchism? page:
Anarchists believe that power and wealth should be shared equally, and not concentrated in the hands of a minority. When a person or a small group of people has dominance or authority over other people, they become corrupted. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely". Anarchists believe that not only is the government illegitimate it's also unnecessary. The kind of state violence that is committed daily on the poor all over the world, the poverty and wars are reasons that the state needs to be smashed.
It's not a half-measures philosophy ...
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