Ok, ok… I’ll go first - I consider myself to be an Anarcho-Communist. Of all the branches of leftist thought and systems, the anarchists have appealed to me the most, and of course I also think that things do need to be organized to work well in the long-term.
I personally don’t believe that violent revolutions for the left are going to be successful long-term. History has shown that these breed nothing but reactionary counter-revolutions and efforts to thwart the advancement of the socialist systems you’re trying to implement and grow. It’s always three steps forward, two steps back, then another step back, then a few more steps back, to the point at which where we are now is worse than before the revolution.
I believe that for long-term success, we must start smaller and gradually make the philosophy part of the culture, which can only happen over the course of many generations. We must start in kindergarten and work harder on stressing to children the need for kindness and empathy, and the values of stewardship of society and the environment. And we need to continue to teach and expose the evils of selfishness and greed and violence.
If we can get to a stage in global human culture wherein the default thought is “Of course I’m going to help my neighbor! Why wouldn’t I?” instead of “This is my property and you have to pay me for it!” then we’ll be able to take bigger steps.
We also must overcome scarcity, and that’s going to involve the use of AI and central planning and a LOT of technological systems that need to be created. But we have the technology to do this now. We CAN overcome scarcity even within our own generation. It’s just a matter of will, at this point.
I personally believe that we need a single system that data is fed into that can analyze in realtime the needs and conditions of everyone on the entire planet, and coordinate distribution of goods and services. That’s possible with today’s technology. Amazon literally has the distribution method almost nailed. And honestly, nationalizing Amazon would be a great first step to this kind of thing.
Well, to have any type of society at all, you must have some level of organization. There are lots of anarchist models of “government” that involve federation, very similar to how Lemmy here works, honestly.
I think Bookchin is kind of my hero in all of this.
Yeah, a bit pedantic. I meant confederation, which is voluntary (as opposed to federation, which is not). But the idea still stands - why wouldn’t a group want to hook into the distribution system, especially if we make it super-efficient?
I mean yes that would be ideal, and I think it’s possible, it would just take a LOT of discussion and debate to actually get it up and running. Plus the issue of who is running the system itself to make sure we aren’t creating any hierarchies in the process.
A lot of what you’re saying lines up with the political concept of cultural revolution! In China during theirs’ they had programs to have students go out from their social circles and into the countryside to build solidarity with the workers and peasants and solidify a connection to the masses. Here’s a good video on it!
Ok, ok… I’ll go first - I consider myself to be an Anarcho-Communist. Of all the branches of leftist thought and systems, the anarchists have appealed to me the most, and of course I also think that things do need to be organized to work well in the long-term.
I personally don’t believe that violent revolutions for the left are going to be successful long-term. History has shown that these breed nothing but reactionary counter-revolutions and efforts to thwart the advancement of the socialist systems you’re trying to implement and grow. It’s always three steps forward, two steps back, then another step back, then a few more steps back, to the point at which where we are now is worse than before the revolution.
I believe that for long-term success, we must start smaller and gradually make the philosophy part of the culture, which can only happen over the course of many generations. We must start in kindergarten and work harder on stressing to children the need for kindness and empathy, and the values of stewardship of society and the environment. And we need to continue to teach and expose the evils of selfishness and greed and violence.
If we can get to a stage in global human culture wherein the default thought is “Of course I’m going to help my neighbor! Why wouldn’t I?” instead of “This is my property and you have to pay me for it!” then we’ll be able to take bigger steps.
We also must overcome scarcity, and that’s going to involve the use of AI and central planning and a LOT of technological systems that need to be created. But we have the technology to do this now. We CAN overcome scarcity even within our own generation. It’s just a matter of will, at this point.
Nice philosophy. The only real point I would nitpick on in a debate is what exactly you mean by a centrally planned economy.
I personally believe that we need a single system that data is fed into that can analyze in realtime the needs and conditions of everyone on the entire planet, and coordinate distribution of goods and services. That’s possible with today’s technology. Amazon literally has the distribution method almost nailed. And honestly, nationalizing Amazon would be a great first step to this kind of thing.
How do you reconcile that with the inherent decentralized nature of anarchism?
Well, to have any type of society at all, you must have some level of organization. There are lots of anarchist models of “government” that involve federation, very similar to how Lemmy here works, honestly.
I think Bookchin is kind of my hero in all of this.
I thought most anarchist models were based on confederation rather than federation? Or is that what you meant and I’m being pedantic?
Yeah, a bit pedantic. I meant confederation, which is voluntary (as opposed to federation, which is not). But the idea still stands - why wouldn’t a group want to hook into the distribution system, especially if we make it super-efficient?
I mean yes that would be ideal, and I think it’s possible, it would just take a LOT of discussion and debate to actually get it up and running. Plus the issue of who is running the system itself to make sure we aren’t creating any hierarchies in the process.
Oh absolutely. But I think we’ve seen lots of open-source projects work in a similar fashion.
A lot of what you’re saying lines up with the political concept of cultural revolution! In China during theirs’ they had programs to have students go out from their social circles and into the countryside to build solidarity with the workers and peasants and solidify a connection to the masses. Here’s a good video on it!
Yes, that’s great. And it’s absolutely what we need. Without the threat that the government will “disappear” you if you don’t follow along, however.