Comment on Anti-government violence is growing. The response needs to be more than just increased policing
Sasha@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 days agoI don’t quite understand what your example is meant to demonstrate, but I think you’re confusing me with a libertarian (the weird fascist kind) or something which I am absolutely not.
We don’t need a government to keep everyone in line, that’s a fact. We can organise, decide rules, enforce them and have actual justice without a violent system of domination built on hierarchical power.
shads@leminal.space 3 days ago
My example? That there are people who refuse to act rationally or reasonably? This was someone who needed an intervention from an authority to motivate him to act in a way that cost him nothing but that he was ideologically opposed to.
Governments are always going to have a strong advantage against other frameworks that seek to decentralise power, trying to overthrow a centralised power structure is likely to be extremely violent and bloody. We aren’t there yet.
I have read Alastair Reynolds and I would love to be a Demarchist, but I don’t see that being feasible in the forseeable future.
Sasha@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 days ago
Right, that’s what I thought you might have meant, simple misunderstanding then. I’m not saying we don’t enforce things, just that we don’t need hierarchical systems of authority to do so. Someone putting the community at risk like this can be stopped without the use of violent state thugs, probably with much better outcomes too.
Sure, revolution isn’t on our doorstep, but I still want things to be different. I don’t think there’s anything wrong or objectionable about aspiring to a better society. Why would we talk ourselves out of the idea just because change isn’t right around the corner?
Demarchist? I afraid I’m not familiar with the term, so I won’t make assumptions. Regardless I still don’t think we should give up so easily.
shads@leminal.space 3 days ago
Democratic Anarchy, it is a system that would rely on a couple of generational leaps in computers and mind machine interfaces before we could even aspire to it. Nowhere near as appealing as the Culture would be, but also only dependent on moderately Clarke tech computers not massively Clarke tech.
Anyway I’m not defeatist, more just realistic. This guy would fall pretty squarely into the capitalist bootlicking Libertarian camp. He only really responds to violence (or the threat thereof) as motivation, in other words your typical boomer small business owner. He is never going to comply without some form of threat to back things up.
Its great to be idealistic, but I sincerely doubt we will see change in my life time, or that of my kids. We as a species are wired to listen to the ape that shrieks the loudest too much.
Sasha@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 days ago
Ah right, I guess I hadn’t heard the name but I know the vague concept (imo it’s a bad name because anarchy is usually democratic) Is it just the idea that instead of organising locally and then at larger and larger scales, you just have everyone everywhere voting without the intermediary steps? Even with the technology to do that, it seems like a bad idea.
When I say we would still enforce rules, I’m not saying we just ask nicely, there are still consequences for breaking rules and this person would have to face them. I’d say the idea that someone only responds to threats of violence is probably more a product of police almost exclusively using violence and violent threats. That said, it’s not like violence is a tool we can’t use, but I’m not well versed enough in the theory for community defense/justice to get into details.
Being idealistic is one thing, but there’s plenty of us here who are actively building anarchist communities, I’ve been heavily involved in one myself. There’s work that can be done to move things forwards, I hope we see something better in my time even if it’s operating within/alongside the current system rather than replacing it.