On 2019-09-22 15:39, grarpamp wrote:
On 9/21/19, \0xDynamite <dreamingforward@gmail.com> wrote:
But it is not false to say 'anarchism and capitalism can coexist.'
How will you protect that which capitalism builds? And will it all be barter?
Those seem meta questions that tend to solve themselves in open markets and education.
We have plenty of existing societies that approximate anarchism. In large parts of South East Asia the writ of the state runs mighty thin when you leave the cities. All existing such societies are neither capitalist nor socialist. It is dangerous for an outsider to wander about alone. Rather they practice self sufficiency and gift economy. Large scale economic activity is impractical. As a result, they are mighty poor, which poverty is alleviated by remittances from young men and women sent away to work in more orderly places. Capitalistic anarchic societies have existed, most famously Saga Period Iceland. But though the state in Saga Period Iceland was barely existent, and did not possess a monopoly of legitimate force, Saga Period Iceland had a state religion - which state religion endorsed the right of individuals to themselves punish wrongs done to themselves and others, hence the weakness of the state. It seems that you cannot get people to agree on what is lawful or unlawful without some sort of rather coercive imposition. Some group of people is always going to concoct a real or imaginary grievance and demand compensation for real or imaginary sins. Saga period Iceland could have a market economy because they had substantial agreement on what constituted taking, and what to do about people who took stuff, substantial agreement on what was lawful or unlawful, this agreement being mediated by the Godar. "Godar" is sometimes interpreted as chieftain, and they had a lot of power, but it means not chieftain, but God botherer, someone who prays, preaches to the congregation, and conducts religious rites. What tends to happen in a state of anarchy is that people form tribalistic groups on the basis of race, religion and ethnicity, and then impose law that favors their group against outsiders. Which leads to the development of the state, and when that somehow does not happen all that much, or the ensuing government is only strong in major population centers, life is insecure, and property considerably more insecure outside those centers.