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The Anarchist Land

Savage Idealist

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Thought experiment:

Suppose an island the size of Washington state eixisted in the middle of the ocean. It was completely uninhabited by any other creatures, but abundent with plants and organic food. Now suppose we were to have an option to make this island an anarchist society, and for all those who live in our society, who would wish to live in a lawless/unstructured anarchist world, they could live on this island. Once on the island there would be no way off, but they would be free from the control of a modern society such as ours.

Discuss the moral implications of having a branched off anarchist society and whether individuals should be given an option to live there.
 

INTP

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namericanimage.jpg


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doesent really require alot of imagination..
 

Valiant

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People always have rules. Anarchy is not opposed to having that within a small group. Those you care for. Your brothers.
This is largely a tribal attitude, one which is the most natural for us humans, if you think about it.
These rules tend to be unwritten, and they tend to be less numerous/stupid and more about common sense coupled with violent retaliation.
Natural, all in all.

Example, in this society if you tell me my mother is fat, ugly and a louse-infested prostitute... Say if I strike you in the face a few times.
That'd end me up in jail and you'd get free plastic surgery to restore your face. AND I would have to pay you a ridiculous amount of money.
That whole thing would play out differently in a tribal society, then it would be within my full right to bash your head in if you disrespected my mother like that.
It's all good and natural.
Well, perhaps not if you've got a big mouth and a scrawny-ass body.
But it's natural, and as far as I am concerned a very good way of life.
Never really bought the "comfort in exchange for your freedom" thing in modern society.
And I never really understood why I must tolerate a bunch of bullshit and provocation from lesser men.
 

Valiant

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If you think about the whole tribal thing for a while, you'll understand why we have anarchists and criminals in our modern world.
The rest of you are just playing a role, you're not being real or true to yourself.
Why is there so much literature about the old times? Why are there reenactors?
The stress, the bureaucracy that infuriates you, the concrete jungles without green.

It's not natural, and it is not good or healthy. It traps us in a cage which we sooner or later must escape from in some form or the other.
Not least of all, if you believe in evolution, this form of society is making us weaker, less versatile, less adaptive.
What makes us human is our ability to adapt. Our strength. Our free minds and our broad skill set.
Strip that away with a few thousand generations...
I'm sick of the thought of it.
 

Savage Idealist

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^I agree, the modern world is, to controlling for my tastes. And yeah even anarchy societies have social rules that's true. But what if the U.S. did reserve an island for all those who don't wish to live in a technological bureaucracy like we do? Would it be moral to create a reserved anarchist society without external supervision?
 

Manis

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I don't think an isolated island that you aren't allowed to leave is really an anarchist's vision of paradise.

I'm not sure it's a very useful thought experiment. Are you looking for objections to anarchy or objections to a state refusing to intervene if bad things started happening on this island? Either way you're not being specific enough when you say 'anarchy'. There's a massive difference between the varied ideas and ideals that make up anarchism (many of which have existed for centuries or longer) and the lawless 'anarchy' boogieman that modern states use to scare their citizens into conformity.
 

Lily flower

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I think it would be miserable for the people who moved there, but I think it would be great to give people who want to be lawless a place to go and leave the rest of us in peace and safety.

I would, however, fear for the children who were born there and did not choose such a life.
 

Red Herring

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Either way you're not being specific enough when you say 'anarchy'. There's a massive difference between the varied ideas and ideals that make up anarchism (many of which have existed for centuries or longer) and the lawless 'anarchy' boogieman that modern states use to scare their citizens into conformity.

This.
Anarchy as in a lawless, ruleless "state of nature", where everybody does as he pleases and some weird form of social darwinism reigns? I´m highly sceptical, since we humans are a zoon politikon. Your tribes might not have a written codex to go by, but that doesn´t mean there are no rules! There are free market anarchists and no ownership and common ownership anarchists and loads in between. So the term is very vague and fuzzy.

The least lawless place might be a totalitarian dictatorship or absolutist monarchy, in that the powers that be can arbitrarily decide. But that would be the opposite of a lack of government/state/authority.

Grass root self administration has been done before. However, to the best of my knowledge, either there were rules to abide (in which case the experiment worked for a while until it abruptly ended, usually through external violence) or it was indeed a state of chaos, usually triggered by some form of war. In the latter case things tend to go nasty pretty fast. So radical democracy/self rule? Maybe. State of nature? Nah.

 

Aleksei

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Thought experiment:

Suppose an island the size of Washington state eixisted in the middle of the ocean. It was completely uninhabited by any other creatures, but abundent with plants and organic food. Now suppose we were to have an option to make this island an anarchist society, and for all those who live in our society, who would wish to live in a lawless/unstructured anarchist world, they could live on this island. Once on the island there would be no way off, but they would be free from the control of a modern society such as ours.

Discuss the moral implications of having a branched off anarchist society and whether individuals should be given an option to live there.
nuke4.jpg

kool-aid.jpg
 

Valiant

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Tssssk, spoken like a true ESTJ ;) :D
 

ajblaise

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Anarchy is the only political system that can't technically be enforced by anyone. And nature abhors a vacuum. So it's only anarchy until people inevitably group up and compete for resources, and then the dominant group tries to maintain their influence by formalizing their power. Anarchy leads to hegemony.

So on that island me and the other incredibly dominant people would take over.... then our group would eventually clash, and form two new opposing groups etc.... until we're back at anarchy again and then the cycle repeats.
 

anarchos

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Thought experiment:

Suppose an island the size of Washington state eixisted in the middle of the ocean. It was completely uninhabited by any other creatures, but abundent with plants and organic food. Now suppose we were to have an option to make this island an anarchist society, and for all those who live in our society, who would wish to live in a lawless/unstructured anarchist world, they could live on this island. Once on the island there would be no way off, but they would be free from the control of a modern society such as ours.

Discuss the moral implications of having a branched off anarchist society and whether individuals should be given an option to live there.

This 'thought experiment' has already been discussed in depth - Lord of the Flies, by William Golding.

OK, maybe not quite, since the kids don't arrive on the island willingly.

Let's make it less hypothetical. I'm a doctor by profession. I've arrived on the island, ready to offer my service in exchange for food & shelter.

...

Wait, or do I have to find my own food and shelter? No one wants to exchange services/goods for healthcare on this island? Cuz I sure as hell can't hunt or build! Help!
 

Manis

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There are no rules, so there certainly aren't any against me and whoever else can be bothered helping you pitch a shelter and tossing you half a rabbit here and there in return for the odd suture or amputation. Problem solved :D
 

Beargryllz

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This 'thought experiment' has already been discussed in depth - Lord of the Flies, by William Golding.

OK, maybe not quite, since the kids don't arrive on the island willingly.

Let's make it less hypothetical. I'm a doctor by profession. I've arrived on the island, ready to offer my service in exchange for food & shelter.

...

Wait, or do I have to find my own food and shelter? No one wants to exchange services/goods for healthcare on this island? Cuz I sure as hell can't hunt or build! Help!

Reality and fiction aren't always interchangeable. Great book though.

Personally I'm of the opinion that any anarchy is just a lull before order is established, a meta-stable state idealized for reasons I cannot comprehend.
 
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