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FeralRobot
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12 Feb 2014, 4:38 pm

This is my first post on WP, but have been browsing the WP forums for some time, because finally, I have found people approaching the world from a 'different' perspective to those of the 'NTs' who surround me, a perspective which is more like my own, and since my biggest interests are Politics and Philosophy (currently perseverating on radical politics), I thought I'd post here first.
I am an anarchist-communist, and want a decentralized, grassroots-organised society of free-association-based communes - similar to the ideas of Peter Kropotkin or Murray Bookchin, this because I think that a free society in which everyone is provided with basic necessities would bring the greatest well-being for the greatest number of people, and that such a society is impossible to reach using vanguard parties because power corrupts. For a historical precedent there is the Paris Commune, the Spanish Revolution, the Makhnovists during the Russian Revolution, or the Mexican Zapatista movement. I also believe in radical social ecology, the idea that man's exploitation of Nature comes from the same oppressive hierarchical structure as man's oppression of man or woman, and also partially in the competitive, 'grow or die' nature of capitalism.
I was just wondering if anyone else here shared my opinions, or wished to debate them (love a good debate!).


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Last edited by FeralRobot on 12 Feb 2014, 5:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

RushKing
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12 Feb 2014, 4:47 pm

FeralRobot wrote:
This is my first post on WP, and since my biggest interests are Politics and Philosophy, I thought I'd post here first.
I am an anarchist-communist, and wish to work towards a decentralized, grassroots-organised society - in a similar vein to the ideas of Peter Kropotkin or Murray Bookchin, or the communes of Spain after the Spanish Revolution. I also believe in radical social ecology, the idea that man's exploitation of Nature comes from the same oppressive hierarchical structure as man's oppression of man or woman, and also partially in the competitive, 'grow or die' nature of capitalism).
I was just wondering if anyone else here shared my opinions, or wished to debate them.

I too, am an anarcho-communist.

Greetings comrade!



thomas81
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12 Feb 2014, 5:06 pm

I have certain anarchist sympathies, but i am first and foremost a technocrat and anti-capitalist.

I regard the anarchy-state dichotomy as a false.


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babybird
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12 Feb 2014, 5:35 pm

Hello feralRobot.

Welcome to WP.


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mr_bigmouth_502
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12 Feb 2014, 5:52 pm

I considered myself one when I was younger, but nowadays, I'm not quite sure what my political stance is. :P Really, I'm in favor of a government that helps its citizens out while expecting almost nothing back, other than that citizens respect one another and don't go around killing/raping/stealing/etc.



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13 Feb 2014, 3:37 am

I'm a post-leftist.



DentArthurDent
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13 Feb 2014, 6:01 am

RushKing wrote:
FeralRobot wrote:
This is my first post on WP, and since my biggest interests are Politics and Philosophy, I thought I'd post here first.
I am an anarchist-communist, and wish to work towards a decentralized, grassroots-organised society - in a similar vein to the ideas of Peter Kropotkin or Murray Bookchin, or the communes of Spain after the Spanish Revolution. I also believe in radical social ecology, the idea that man's exploitation of Nature comes from the same oppressive hierarchical structure as man's oppression of man or woman, and also partially in the competitive, 'grow or die' nature of capitalism).
I was just wondering if anyone else here shared my opinions, or wished to debate them.

I too, am an anarcho-communist.

Greetings comrade!


And just how do you two think you are going to achieve your goals?

To be fair, I should add that at heart I am a Trotskyist. We share similar goals, but have major disagreement over methods.


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RushKing
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13 Feb 2014, 11:04 am

DentArthurDent wrote:
RushKing wrote:
FeralRobot wrote:
This is my first post on WP, and since my biggest interests are Politics and Philosophy, I thought I'd post here first.
I am an anarchist-communist, and wish to work towards a decentralized, grassroots-organised society - in a similar vein to the ideas of Peter Kropotkin or Murray Bookchin, or the communes of Spain after the Spanish Revolution. I also believe in radical social ecology, the idea that man's exploitation of Nature comes from the same oppressive hierarchical structure as man's oppression of man or woman, and also partially in the competitive, 'grow or die' nature of capitalism).
I was just wondering if anyone else here shared my opinions, or wished to debate them.

I too, am an anarcho-communist.

Greetings comrade!


And just how do you two think you are going to achieve your goals?

To be fair, I should add that at heart I am a Trotskyist. We share similar goals, but have major disagreement over methods.

The only stance anarcho-communism has on acheivment (like other forms of anarchism), is that the state must be abolished at the same time as capitalism. There are multiple stances on achievement among anarcho-communists including; platformism, synthesism, and insurrectionary anarchism.

I believe in education, propaganda through deeds like food not bombs, and then a general strike leading to expropriation and state abolition. I also believe in federalism, and lean toward platformism.



FeralRobot
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13 Feb 2014, 11:45 am

Quote:
And just how do you two think you are going to achieve your goals?


- Dual power (the creation of communes, participatory worker's councils etc. to challenge the authority of the state)
- the creation of anarchist organisations or networks to educate and provide discussion, which is facilitated by information technology, particularly the internet.
- A general strike leading to the dissolution of the state and abolition of private property is one possibility.
Certainly the creation of a vanguard party is a bad idea, because it would just abuse its power, and a state, since it is a hierarchical system, just leads to social inequality again - a stateis social inequality.



thomas81
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13 Feb 2014, 11:50 am

what do you think of the idea of a holarchic system, where there is no elite or political vanguard but instead each of those who are specialists in his or her field are the governors of his or her field?


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RushKing
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13 Feb 2014, 12:22 pm

thomas81 wrote:
what do you think of the idea of a holarchic system, where there is no elite or political vanguard but instead each of those who are specialists in his or her field are the governors of his or her field?

I have no problem with people being authorities in their own expertise. I have a problem with people being in authority, beuase than they are no longer held acountible for mistakes. In direct democracy people have an incentive to fix their mistakes, but a person in authority does not.

In science, no one is a governor of their field. Agreements are achived by consensus. I believe in a healthy democracy the experts should have a place to discuss where other people can listen and decide which side they agree with. This dosn't mean I believe scientists in labs, should get everyone to vote on every action they take.



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13 Feb 2014, 1:53 pm

In my heart I am an anarchist. I detest and despise government because government in its essence and at its root is an enemy of liberty and freedom. Unfortunately very few people are intelligent enough and have enough self control to make anarchism practical so we are stuck with government as an alternative to howling disorder. Think of Somalia here or Haitii. Government is the lesser of evils, not the best of good things. No government, however noble and hopeful its start has avoided turning into tyrancy somewhere down the line. Thus there are no good governments anywhere on the planet or anywhere in history. There are only bad governments and worse governments.

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13 Feb 2014, 2:41 pm

I'm an ultraminimalist dread pirate. I believe in courts, not states, that are agreed on a basic legal system that protects person and property (actual property, not "intellectual property", or an arbitrary claim to land), and not funded through coercion. When no-one has to work for a living, because of open source automation managed by the adhocrats at the local hackerspace, it's not hard to manage that. All volunteer police services, and you can start your own court if you want to - but if you're not actually being a just court, don't expect people to let you continue. Contract law can be handled through private arbitration. If people want to buy McBurgers, that's up to them, though McCompany are going to have to internalise the costs of being big, and customers will probably prefer the cheaper local place. I don't mind local councils though, to manage property that the residents have collective rights in - roads, parks etc. But they'll be nothing more than a corporation in which every resident has a share. If people want more interference in their neighbors lives, they can go live in a planned community - it would not surprise me if the majority of people ended up there, where they can enforce their own laws, and exile anyone who doesn't, maybe fining them for breaking the covenant that they signed when they joined.

Not quite an anarchist, but no friend of the state.



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13 Feb 2014, 2:47 pm

In a true anarchy, a manipulative sociopath will eventually seize power and become too powerful. Think of him as some kind of evil successor to Papa Smurf.



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13 Feb 2014, 3:10 pm

I did have an anarchist-communist phase for a little while when I was 13. These days I'm just a typical Marxist-Leninist.


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13 Feb 2014, 3:10 pm

Welcome FeralRobot
I agree with your ideal's, I used to passionately endorse such beliefs until I realized that unfortunately 'Might makes right' and that human nature will always prevent an altruistic government.


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