Geoff Stone, Obama's Review Group

Patrick Chkoreff pc at loom.cc
Fri Apr 4 14:58:58 PDT 2014


Cypher wrote, On 04/04/2014 04:25 PM:

> On 04/04/2014 09:24 AM, Patrick Chkoreff wrote:
>> Cypher wrote, On 04/03/2014 05:22 PM:
> 
>>> But, please, instead of ranting and wild arm-waving, educate me
>>>  if I am wrong. I would certainly /love/ to see a workable,
>>> large scale, anarchistic plan.
> 
>> Please, no large scale plans, I beg you.  I simply wish to see
>> the emergent effects of countless individuals interacting with
>> each other solely on the basis of mutual consent.  That is all.
> 
> Good response, Patrick. But how do you think we're going to get to
>  that? Without concerted action, and it has to be more than
> everybody doing their own thing IMHO, how will that goal be
> achieved? I hear a lot of anarchists saying what you say and it's a
> fantastic goal. But how do we get there?



An old friend of mine summed up the basic physics of the situation:

> Massive enslavement is the norm because it is possible to derive 
> sufficient revenue from it to pay the costs of maintaining it. As 
> long as that existential fact is true it does not matter what most 
> people think or want.


You mentioned that "concerted action" would have to be more than
everybody doing their own thing.  Not necessarily, if "doing your own
thing" means conducting one's affairs in such a way that minimizes the
net benefit to those who would restrict your freedom, while still
providing a net benefit to yourself.  That goes to the heart of my
friend's point.

He goes on to say that notions like "mass action" or "mass
enlightenment" are just more collectivist drivel, and he's rather
emphatic about it:

> The orthodoxy is that all you have to do is teach most people the 
> truth and they will throw off their chains, since the rulers
> depend for their power on fooling people into giving their consent.
> This is hogwash belied by all human history. It is only credible to
> people indoctrinated in the democratic myths that have arisen in
> the last 200 years reinforced by collectivist thinking.


It's all about the physics, though discussing the specifics can be
delicate.


-- Patrick



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