Memes of Production

The first thing I learned is that anarchists don't know what an FAQ is.

As a basic level everyone has the same interests.

Food, community, shelter, utilities (in the modern era)

I wonder how old you are. Gen X was raised, rather uniquely, to make our own decisions. Schools allowed even kindergartners to make simple decisions, and we had to deal with it if we fucked up. Same for being latchkey kids. We were alone after school, had to decide what to do for ourselves and live with the consequences.

Had a stepson in elementary 20 years ago; my own kids are now 11 and 13. Schools are a fucking horror show. Kids don't even get a locker! We had to be responsible for getting books and whatever else was needed between classes. In 2nd grade, once that final bell rang, we were on our own. We could play in the creek, walk, skate or bike home, whatever. Now you're not leaving without a parent the teacher recognizes or on a bus. In high school we could leave campus at lunch, but you better be back on time, no excuses for poor decisions. You could light up with your teacher in the smoke hole. (An example of allowing bad decisions! Lord.)

Kids are no longer taught to think and solve problems. They are taught to pass standardized tests. Teachers are culled if they don't toe the party line, so the best are mostly gone. Neither the kids nor the teachers get to make decisions any longer. It's like the meat grinder from The Wall.

No rose colored glasses here! Teachers could beat the shit out of us. The number of pedophile teachers in my middle school was horrifying once we hit college and looked back. Hell, pedophiles were tolerated as mere weirdos!

But at least we were trained, perhaps inadvertently, to make decisions.

Do you presume that an anarchist leaning society couldnt have any structures in place to protect the whole? (Such as an environmental protections agency.) Its all a sliding scale, and you dont need to embrace total anarchy in order to avoid the problems associated with authoritarianism.

Why would Johnsonville as a group wish to continue poisoning Tablesville's water supply if the Tablesville community makes it clear to them that they are being harmed by Johnsonville's lack of adequate treatment? Johnsonville would likely be receiving mutual aid from Tablesville due to their close proximity, so it'd be really weird of them to willfully screw over their downstream neighbors whom they often exchange help or supplies with?

It would make sense why Johnsonville would want to skimp on water treatment under a capitalist society, as perhaps there are some corporations that don't want to deal with treating their waste water, so they lobby the local government to allow it. Profit motive can often overcome cooperative goodwill and empathy for others.

But in an anarchist society where there is no profit motive? Not saying it'd be impossible (perhaps Johnsonville is weirdly anti-science for some reason and won't listen to reason?), but it'd be a damn sight less likely than the same scenario under Capitalism.

That’s consensus you are talking about, and it is indeed a myth, at scale.

Every consensus run organization I have seen chokes up at some point due to a failure of psychology. Statistically, something like more than 10% of the population are guaranteed to be a problem for cohesion, for various reasons. Many are just contrarians and self-identifying as an outsider requires social sabotage. Some are cruel, stupid, or violent. Many are “dark triad” and dangerously deceptive.

So any functional and sustainable system has to acknowledge that fact and plan around never having consensus. There are many approaches to this, and anarchism can work without everyone in lockstep, and still get things done and maintain principles.

Your statement suggests you think that anarchism is hands-off laissez-faire, it’s the opposite. Self governance is DIY and thus constant maintenance of rules and arrangements and goals, and solving problems mutually. An endless hands-on meeting, at least until we are able to automate such things.

See, self-governance involves mutual self-defense, and violence by poison is a mutual problem which requires a lot of coordination to solve, so people will be motivated to get it resolved quickly; dumping might be a very dangerous decision. Anarchism doesn’t let you be a lone wolf, you have to deal with groups of equals and mutual dependence everywhere you go.