Anarchadelphia 2019

[jamesd at echeque.com]

On 2019-09-22 15:39, grarpamp wrote:
> On 9/21/19, \0xDynamite <dreamingforward at 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.