The Case for Liberty (2018)
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- Опубліковано 15 лип 2018
- Transcript:
theanarchistlibrary.org/libra...
Anarchists think we should abolish capitalism, the state, white supremacy, ableism and cisheteropatriarchy. This is a vision of a society without these oppressive systems.
This video is an updated version of an old one I made a few years ago with similar ideas. If you're interested in seeing that, (though I don't think it's as good), check it out here:
• Video
![ОРБАН приехал к ПУТИНУ и "отчитался" о поездке в Киев 😁 [Пародия]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_0ukDovOWq8/mqdefault.jpg)
A few people have commented on the Orwell quote saying 'no beggars except the gypsies', and said that that's a racial slur against Roma people. I wasn't actually aware of this, so thank you for pointing that out. The main reason I included that phrase was that I wanted to avoid intellectual dishonesty, in the sense that the phrase in context says that some people were destitute, and I wouldn't be comfortable seeming like I was trying to cover that up.
When I said 'that's the world we want' I was referring to the rest of what he was saying, which is otherwise a good quote.
If you're into Orwell, please read 1984 and Animal Farm. Thanks.
I'd assume as well that the "gypsies" were the exception to this system due to them being travelers, ie. people passing through these communities rather than settling in them.
I'm no expert on history though, so I'd have to check that.
Thank you for your intellectual honesty
Captain Andy, nah we Romany were excluded due to bog standard racism. The Spanish Revolution was one of the highest points of human achievement but that does not mean that it was without flaws.
Orwell was a Communist, he wrote Animal farm while he was still a Communist. If you think those books are a critique of Communism you are sadly mistaken.
hey does anyone else here think the means of production should be collectively owned by the people?
tjb0607 here here!
tjb0607 here here!
owned by the workers who work there.
What did you think this channel attracts capitalist?
Its actually the same in anarchism. cuz you are free to volunteer to work and consume, take, occupy, use by need - you are "the people/worker" . This is the full emancipation of the people imcluding equality on all levels.
This video reminded me why I do this. Solidarity, comrades - wherever, whoever you are; hang in there. Whether you're a marxist or anarchist we're all on the right side of history - we need to stick together and fight for as long and as hard as we can. We need to show people that we can work together, and that we CAN improve people's lives. We need to show the world that solidarity breaks every chain, and bridges all divisions. A better world is possible, and even if we never see it we need to do our best in the hope that someone else will - otherwise, what is there?
"Rise, like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number!
Shake your chains to earth, like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you:
Ye are many-they are few!"
- Percy Shelley
Wonderful poem from Shelley there, so many great socialists and Marxists wrote beautiful poems and prose, from Wilde to Einstein; innumerable talents who could see the possibility of a better world where humanity could follow their passions and enjoy living rather than afflicting their fellows with needless suffering, difficulty, and injustice all for the perception of stability; at the subservience of those in power over the rest of humanity; granted this right through wealth and capital accumulation. To my mind one of my favorite, poetic, things Marx wrote that's I've enjoyed very much was the opening of his contribution to the critique of Hegel's philosophy of right, the symbolism he employed was so beautiful that it inspired me to write a poem of my own that is an attempted synthesis
of Marx's essay.
-To Cull The Living Flower
I've made a necklace for you
From the flowers of life's garden
'Twas to console your heart, so blue
And lift your spirit, fallen
Oh, you did love this gift
But before your shoulders settled
Life's fingers, they did life
And pluck away the petals
Oh, this was to your horror
This gift, so beautiful
You scream "Please take no more!"
As time rips them in handfuls
Each petal for you lost
It rends and breaks your heart
It seems too high a cost
To watch beauty depart
So now you stand there helpless
Chain round your neck now bare
You think that life is callus
And only wants despair
But life, it isn't cruel
Nor is it full of dread
For the necklace, though 'twas beautiful
The flowers, they were dead
Let not this loss of consolation
Cause now your heart to harden
Come, break the chain in celebration
And join me in the garden
And how do you make money?
Fernweh EXACTLY ✊🏼✊🏼
Woah percy Shelly my favourite Athiest man
Everything starts with making sure everyone can eat, and sleep indoors, no matter what. Hungry people don't care about political theory. Capitalism thrives on the fear of deprivation, which is why no capitalist state ever has true full employment, even when that is trivially easy to accomplish through reduction of work hours. They need you to be afraid of sleeping in a doorway.
Ya but who decides what "liveable" conditions are? Is it just mob rules?
The Conquest of Bread.
Boss Ross- there are essays and answers already existing go into greater detail about this than you'll get from a UA-cam comment. Read Peter Kropotkin, Mikhael Bakunin, about Cheran in Mexico or the CNT/ FAI in Spain.
How are laws created now and how is it better than direct democracy?
Read Kropotkin's 'Law and Authority' essay. 'When ignorance reigns in society and disorder in the minds of men, laws are multiplied, legislation is expected to do everything, and each fresh law being a fresh new miscalculation, men continually demand from it what can proceed only from themselves, from their own education and their own morality'
If you need a law to tell you not to advise someone you are morally bankrupt. All of us live life every day without referring to laws for our conduct except in special circumstances. Anarchism doesn't change that.
Ok and what exactly does that have to do with who has the final say in what is "livable conditions" and who will arbitrate it?
I ask these things out of curiosity as I am genuinely interested in alternatives to Capitalism with the coming surge of full automation that will essentially kill off the working class in terms of Capitalistic competition. I feel that elements of socialism and communism will be needed going forward, but I'm interested in a way to maintain individual liberty while also going through the age of automation/post scarcity society. I think that elements of libertarian socialism can work, but the system as a whole is incredibly flawed and it's flaws can be easily deconstructed with even a layman understanding of economics.
I really hope no one tries to take your channel down.
Hey I just want to say thanks. I was a Marxist for a few years when I first got into socialism and Anarcho-Syndicalism is everything I ever wanted in an ideology. Your videos helped me understand Anarchism, while Rudolf Rocker showed me Syndicalism. Thank you so much and please keep up the good work.
It makes my day when you upload a new video!
Mine too.... You person with a Gerard Way profile pic... :P
Can't wait to throw this series at everyone I know
That's because most of you commies cant' articulate your beliefs on your own.
spicecrop Ever heard of Karl Marx? He was a commie who articulated his owned beliefs.
Sustainable sources of clean renewable energy and the development of an ecological-conscious society to complete the mix. Ⓐ ☭ 🏴
It’s really good to see this channel active again. You introduced me to Anarchism and I’m forever grateful for that, Cam :)
This. We need this.
Attempts at worker control of the means of production also happened in yugoslavia, algeria, tanzania, guinea bissau and cape verde.
ok
I'm going to watch this every day for the rest of my life.
I just love imagining this utopian world, and it makes me kinda sad we're so far away from that... Thank you for this video! 💖
It's not as far away as you think (remember such societies already existed)
Thank you comrade! Workers of the world unite! ✊🏼✊🏽
And what "work" do you do? What is the hardest job you have ever had?
spicecrop Piss off.
The boi is back!
Hey, as someone who is against ableism, and who has clearly written a script for this, would it be much trouble to request subtitles for those who are deaf or hard of hearing? Or, if it'd be too much work, could you release the script or a transcript and give permissions for a volunteer (perhaps myself!) to enter them for you? Keep up the good work!
Subtitles have been added. I script all of my videos, so I really need to get in the habit of uploading them in UA-cam's CC system.
If you don't believe in liberty then you're not a libertarian. Great video comrade, couldn't agree more. Solidarity! ✊️
Hopefully, we’ll live to see the main question go from “How do we get there?” to “How did we get here?”
Hi there, I’ve just started looking into socialism and anarcho-socialism and I just want to say that this playlist (and channel overall) have been very helpful to me. Thank you for all of your time and effort creating educational materials!
It’s nice to have a resource that is welcoming unpretentious.
I appreciate your work!
Man... I love you. I love how you articulate your arguments. Great job. Greetings from Colombia, South America.
Great video dude! You're a very convincing Anarchist but I'm still a Marxist. Keep making videos dude & keep spreading these ideas. A loyal fan from California.
There's a youtuber who is both a marxist and an anarchist. Her name is Zoe aka Anarchopac.
you can be an anarchist and marxist
Lots of Anarchists are Marxists. Anarcho-Communists for one
The views I gave here are really an attempt to synthesise anarchism with DotP and withering away of the state
What do you mean by marxist? Marxist-Leninist? Because Marxism is a term that focuses more on Marx's analysis of conditions (that's how I came to understand the term at least). From that point of view Anarchism and Marxism are not really opposed.
Agreed with every single word you just said comrade. Keep it up.
Also the term for creating a less than perfect longlivity of an item to ensure repeat customers for profit is called planned obsolescence for anyone wondering.
Is there any chance I could get a transcription of the video so I can share it with my friend who suffers from CPTSD and can't listen to things aloud without triggering trauma?
I want to thank you for consistently being such an amazing ally to transgender people. Your content is so amazing and so thorough dor how relatively short these videos are compared to the broad scope of topics they cover. Rock on, friend 💖
Great video. Very well structured and substantive.
I live in the US south-west and I often have to translate leftist ideas into right-wing language, because my community is deeply conservative and are conditioned to immediately reject any kind of social justice language. Videos like this are useful because I can take the content and just swap out the words.
hearing your serious ass voice saying "triple x swagmaster 420 triple x" gave me life. Thanks for this series, btw.
May I ask how you can prevent free markets from forming in an anarcho-communist society without a state? Also, isn't democracy antithetical to anarchy? Democracy allows the majority to vote against the freedom of the minority, and I'd argue for democracy you need a monopoly on force that I'd refer to as a state.
does anyone know the song playing in the background in the middle of the video?
I didn't realize how much it would mean to me to have non-explicitly economic things being addressed explicitly. Those problems won't go away if we don't consciously work to include the input of all.
What's the CNT clip from at 2:38
from the movie libertarias
GREAT video! Also, I LOVE this channel! That being said, I want to bring up some points about anarcho-collectivism and labor vouchers.
The potential for economic accumulation in the form of labor vouchers is definitely an issue, but some collectivists have proposed mechanisms designed to prevent this. These usually take the form of either expiring and/or non-transferable labor vouchers. With respect to the former mechanism, when a labor voucher is dispensed for work done, it has an expiration date, say, a few years, after which it cannot be used, much like coupons today have expiration dates. With respect to the latter mechanism, when the labor voucher is used to “pay" for a good or service, it is not actually “exchanged", in the sense of “currency”, but is instead “used up", and can’t be used again. The former method is intended to prevent the individual workers who produce goods and services from accumulating wealth, while the latter mechanism is intended to prevent the institutions that manage the distribution of those goods and services from doing the same.
Another issue with collectivism, though, is what about all the people who, for whatever reason, can’t work to earn labor vouchers: like children; students; homemakers; retirees; people on family, sick, or personal leave; people who are chronically ill; people who are disabled; etc. A collectivist solution to this issue, though, is that the community could issue vouchers to those people similar to the ones that are issued to workers, in a kind-of anarchist version of a social welfare program.
Personally, though, I’m an anarcho-communist, but I still think that these attempts by anarcho-collectivists to address the issues within their system should be acknowledged. In saying this, though, I still don’t personally think that these measures go far enough, and I think that there are still other issues within the collectivist system that have yet to be addressed. Finally, with all this being said, even as an anarcho-communist, I am still personally willing to entertain the idea that a specifically *economic* form of transition period, in the form of mutualism and/or collectivism (as opposed to the Marxist notion of a *political* transition period, in the form of state socialism), *may* be necessary, until such time as the inefficiencies and contrived scarcities of the previous capitalist system are done away with, and society can transition into full communism.
What is your perspective of the systems and ideals of the pirate republic in Nassau and other areas such as Madagascar in the latter 1600s and early 1700s?
What are your thoughts on communal housing such as the ones in my home city of Eugene?
I personally do not live in communal housing, but I have walked by such houses from time to time. They interest me and I was wondering if there is any effectiveness to them in a future socialist society.
cannabased It is from Civilization IV Charlamegne senario. It is the portrait of the Pope in that particular one.
Any reccomendations on books to read for someone just starting to be interested in anarchism and politics in general to be honest? Have tried reading Chomsky but feel like I am struggling with the concepts I don't understand! Recently purchased Homage to Catalonia and currently reading Capitalist Realism. Also looking for ways to get involved and meet like minded people, I live in Edinburgh
The anarchist FAQ is a big online resource you might want to check out. I found it very helpful when I was starting to get interested in anarchism
Also if you're around on Saturday come along to the anarchist feminist bookfair
Thanks a lot for the response! Will definitely check both out. Loving the vids btw
Kropotkin, Spooner, rodulph rocker, proudhon, Peter maletesta, etc.
Great authors on revolutionary anarchist action and a call to change our bleeding societies.
You’re an incredibly intelligent and articulate individual. I really appreciate your videos. The statement “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need”, has been a line that has inspired me and challenged me for some time. Oddly enough, because they often are hyper conservatives, I noticed at a young age that the Bible says something similar to this “let those who are strong help to bear the burdens of the weak.” I volunteered with an NGO last summer, however, and the statement for myself and many working with me in the poverty ridden city started saying, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his desire.” We said this because it seemed the more we gave the more was taken from us without receiving anything in return, and ultimately, we were enablers of a way of life we were powerless to change. This is by no means a refutation of what you are saying, but what do you propose we do to start altering not only the environment but the mindset of people we wish to help raise out of poverty? I am asking this because poverty Is the area of focus for my work.... I am well aware of the disgusting ways in which rich people think. My point is only, simply giving away what you have is not a very effective nor healthy way to help end poverty. What is better is altering the environment. Let me know if this makes no sense! I’d love to hear your thoughts
Hey mate, I just thought that I would thank you for producing these videos. They introduced me to anarchism a long time ago, while I was a self-effacing Ayn Rand reader, then a Marxist, and finally an anarchist. As I am a PhD student, I do not have any amount of money, but, when I do finally have a 'real job,' I'll donate to your channel. By the way, have you read Post Scarcity Anarchism by Bookchin? I am a a bookchin fanboy and have been trying to mine it for science fiction ideas.
Dude, I want to make a yt channel on anarchism too, but I'm afraid of the public display of my political views (anarchism can get a lot of hate and miscomprehension) and the consequences it might have in my life. How do u deal with that? Can u do a video about it?
Where is the footage from at 4:00 ?
Clips from the film Libertarias, and after that Venus Project animations. I'm not pro-Venus Project, it's just that the animations are good to convey the need for automation
Libertarian Socialist Rants Pro-Venus project/Zeitgeister/RBE advocate here.
I do admit that there are some differences between our ideas. However, we do share similar goals of creating a freer and fairer world. I encourage you to look up on all of the work people like Jacque Fresco and Peter Joseph have done. PJ has recently, last year, released his book titled "The new Human Rights Movement" which goes into alot more detail on the matter.
Just feel the need to second the above, and recommend reading TZM defined as well.
www3.thezeitgeistmovement.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/The_Zeitgeist_Movement_Defined_PDF_Final.pdf
I would also highly recommend considering the implications of apparently exponential technological development on the re-shaping of our existing society into the future, including new barriers to, and opportunities for progress. For example ua-cam.com/video/9CO6M2HsoIA/v-deo.html
One of my thought on the whole decentralized workers councils and horizontal militias is the movement I'm trying to create called 'The Black Flag Society'. The Black Flag movement would create workers councils by occupying different urban areas and erecting barricades to block out the state. Here in the local assemblies would operate through participatory democracy, or 'libertarian municipalism' and would be defended by the Black Guards. The Black Guard Militia is also a Anarchist militia I'm trying to form which would be much like the Russian Red Guards but Anarchist and based on direct democracy, and completely decentralized. They would defend the councils, defend the autonomous zones (against the state and Reactionary militias, or Reactionaries in general) and uphold the laws created by the democratic assemblies. They would act as a replacement to law enforcement. The will of these assemblies would be placed in the autonomous zones and these zones would hopefully spread to cover entire municipalities and eventually the world.
If anyone is interested in joining me I'm in the US you can contact me at 707-280-9617 or over FaceBook by the same name
Could you explain a bit more the concept of *"restorative justice"* mentioned in 14:37 ? I believe that the idea merits a video essay in itself.
Great video, I love your content!
I also love your music-making videos so if you ever make more of those it would really make my day!
hey i thought this was a movie review. but can you do another list of US or UK authoritarian backed governments
I'm a Mutualist but I love the case you made for Anarchist Communism. Good job mate, glad I subscribed.
great to see you back!!!
I absolutely love your commentary, so eye opening. When i'm debating the issue of massive salaries managers / executives receive, the most frequent justification for this I hear is "There's a lot of responsibility being high up so it's very stressful" What are your thoughts on this?
Can't wait for the next video!
I just finished Ness and Azzellini's compilation of self-managed workplaces. It's a brilliant catalog. Thanks for mentioning it in the video.
_Spread the bread, comrade!_
I think this will go over the heads of A LOT of people who aren't already familiar with the topic.
Most people don't even know what the hell a worker co-op or workplace democracy is, let alone a network of workers of different types of production democratically agreeing upon a planned production that doesn't rely on trade and currency.
Just wondering, how would healthcare work (logistically not in theory) without a state?
While this is great, truly I love it, but I have to disagree with the description. The first one made me literally weep it was so good. It really drove home how our current system is dehumanizing us, opressing us, and bleeding us of our very humanity.
You disagree with the description? If anything the vision here is more far-reaching than the previous one.
Libertarian Socialist Rants i disagree where you say "this one is better" in the description but it's mainly a disagreement based on personal opinion, not based on this ones acedemic value.
Its not that I don't like this video, I do. But the first one, for me, was hard hitting. And a great realization for beginners where this one is more academic and teaching anarchist principles and how they play out in a free society.
I think they are just meant for two different things.
The first one was more so a introductory. a criticism of the current system and small glimpse at the alternative, where as this one is more of a thorough "advanced course" taking a hard look into the alternative and how it can be made viable and less about the criticism of the current system.
Two different videos achieving two different purposes but both amazing. But the first one was my favorite. Even though i was no "noob" to anarchism when i watched it the original put into words every thing that i ever needed to say about how cruel our current system is. And this one is the icing on the cake that shows how we can create a new society.
So glad to see you posting again. Thanks for the response! Please post more when/if you can. Im not the only one who misses you here
^ *editted to better explain myself*
How does the transition to a workers council system eliminate the need for profit?
Stupid question, but how will laws be enacted? Will the workers councils vote on these?
nice now you also use footage from tvp - we shd work all together (anarchists, tvp)
Exceptional work as always, keep up the good fight!
Most of the highly educated people educate to fulfil their need for hierarchical ranking. They avoid shame and seek pride through hard work. This is what fuels most of our technological progress.
I don't believe this is something we should or could eradicate completely, but should nonetheless strive to warn people against capitalistic competition and educate society about narcissism and how it dangerously fits into all of this.
nice use of the underworld clip at circa 4:40
you bring light in , libertariansocialistrants
Yessssssss you’re automatically my friend, meeting as we have in the intersection of LSR and Underworship :D
Loved this video! Thanks for sharing.
Dude I’d love to be able to contribute to your videos somehow. I’m broke, but I’d love to compose a score or something.........
big love from tx, we got yallidarity over here
I am going to keep 100 that ideal anarchist made me feel so happy and hopeful for the future.
So in this world you envision, does everyone get paid the same amount/receive the same resources irrespective of their labour contribution?
free cooperation between equals is a great description
I've been working the Iron Rule of Institutions into conversations that include concepts related to hierarchical power structures and their tendency to corrupt and self perpetuate. Just an idea.
Yeah. This is a fantastic video.
Good video. The only issue I have is the blur between gender identity and gender expression in the video, which is actually a pretty important distinction in my experience.
I used to watch you when I was a little kid years ago as cammieyabams (i think that’s how it’s spelled). It’s kinda weird to see how much you changed since then.
Just curious, do you see all of this actually coming to pass? Even after a revolutionary struggle?
It can with a long, hard struggle
I see you mentioned "bullshit jobs," are you familiar with more of David Graeber's work? Because you should make a video that talks about him
Great video, comrade.
I love your videos.
A great video, although I disagree on one thing (which is what separates me from Anarchists);
I believe that there is still use for a state, but not as we know it. I think that a democratically elected, centralised group of individuals are still needed to handle the distribution of wealth on a national level. Things like tax allocation to services everyone needs, like the NHS here in the UK, should be handled by dedicated teams of those who are experienced in economics and can reliably translate that information to the people.
My worry is that, under Anarchism, there could be a resurgence of Jim Crow laws or alternative medicine in communities which have these pseudo-scientific institutions entrenched by conformation bias. The same can be said about independent local militias, as we have seen with George Zimmerman; people who run neighbourhood watches enacting on pre-existing racial biases.
What I think needs to change is, as you said, a shift to restorative justice and a focus on the needs of the individual, rather than a set, one-size-fits-all authority as the police are now. So I think political pressure and reformation of the state should be the first step to achieving socialism, rather than jumping into a violent overthrow.
That said, I will agree that eventually the Capitalist ruling class will require a violent overthrow, given how they will use violence to defend their own greed.
What's the difference between libsoc and anarchism ?
Libertarian socialism is an umbrella term that includes things like libertarian Marxists who aren't self-identified anarchists. Other than that they're more or less interchangeable.
Amazing video
The rogue prince...
Smith that was all i could think about during the first minute of the video
I would love to see you share ideas face to face with either Peter Schiff or Brian from highimpactvlogs (brian now has a similar amount of subscribers now but pre youtube censorship had 500,000 as highimpactflix)
Small note: we will absolutely need to use nuclear energy if we want to minimize the effects of climate change. It's massively more efficient than any other source.
I agree with you. I actually had a debate with myself about whether I was going to include the use of nuclear energy in this video but I didn't include it because I was worried about getting a backlash and that derailing the socialist discussion
i’ve missed you
Great video, i found too much information in text, but i guess it couldnt be different
Ur such an amazing person.
I call myself a Democratic Socialist: socialism is collective ownership; meaningful control is a necessary condition for ownership; and, democracy is synonymous with collective control; ergo, socialism requires more extensive, direct and participatory economic democracy than is possible within the apparatuses of bourgeois representative democracy (in which, at best, people can passively select from amongst different modes of administering capitalism). I am aware that this is all trivial and that, therefore, the label of 'Democratic Socialism' is tautologous; nevertheless, I find that it's useful to distinguish socialism proper from the top-down state-capitalism defended by the tankier end of the ML spectrum and by Stalin apologists. I also use the term to distinguish democratic and anti-authoritarian socialists from MLs and Stalinists who acknowledge that the USSR did not achieve socialism, but who regard a long training in tyranny as the necessary prelude to the emergence of socialism.
Accordingly, I have a great deal of sympathy with anarchism as well as with the more anti-authoritarian Marxists, although I consider myself neither an anarchist nor a Marxist (a position which, I suppose, leaves me as the radical left analogue of a 'Centrist Dad', only less unctuous I hope). When the question of statism is debated, however, I think a great deal often ends up turning on nomenclature. The 'horizontal v. vertical' dichotomy makes good approximate sense, but I'm not sure how useful it is in borderline cases. For instance, decisions reached at the level of federations are on the one hand horizontal - to the extent that they are as directly democratic as possible. On the other hand, they are vertical in so far as they may be binding on dissenting member collectives or workers' councils of the federation - who may, rightly, face penalties of collective non-cooperation and in extreme instances coercion. Again, whether this capacity of democratic bodies to impose sanctions constitutes authority or hierarchy seems to me mostly a matter of definition.
It does not, however, seem in question to me that democratic bodies under socialism *should* have this right of imposing penalties, sanctions or even perhaps resorting to coercion. For instance, I think it would hardly be compatible with socialism if, say, the gold-mining workers' council could, with impunity, sell its gold on international capitalist markets* and begin employing wage-slaves or living in inordinate luxury at the expense of the community. Furthermore, there is a great deal of complex interdependence between enterprises (or industrial federations, or whatever units workers may be organised into): A depends on inputs from B, C, F; B depends on inputs from D, E; C from F, G, H, etc.There is no reason to assume, therefore, that the amount that A's workers' council wants to produce will be consistent with the amounts of outputs that B, C, D, etc. in other enterprises or sectors wish to produce. Nor is there any assurance that, if they did, there would be a sufficiently desirable correspondence between what is produced and in what quantities, and what the whole body of workers in their capacity as consumers want to consume. There is arguably some incentive to cooperate precisely because of the mutual interdependence of enterprises, but it seems to me that the resort to penalty must nevertheless be available. Thus, it seems that too much unfettered autonomy at the level of the enterprise or industry would not only result in unacceptable chaos and mal-coordination but that, in general, there are many cases when collective decision making has to be coordinated and effectively enforced at regional and national levels in order to prevent unacceptably substantial inequalities between enterprises, industries, sectors and regions from arising.
I want to emphasise at this point that I don't regard this as incompatible with a very meaningful degree of workers' self-management - only, I think that since there are often many stakeholders affected by decisions that collective ownership sometimes precludes input into decision from occurring solely at the lowest possible level. (And to right-wing critics, I want to emphasise that I regard capitalist market discipline as imposing even more onerous constraints on autonomy at the individual as well as enterprise level of decision making, as well as more coercive and iniquitous ones). I know that, at least, many traditional anarchist thinkers (e.g. Rocker) were aware of these sorts of issues and therefore proposed federations as the solution.
My primary point here is that I don't see much clear meaning in viewing things simply in terms of the horizontal-vertical binary. I think it's clearer to think about the level at which certain kinds of decisions are to be made and, as a separate question, the means by which they are to be enforced. I've already mentioned the non-violent sanctions of non-cooperation. With the exception of anarcho-pacifists, anarchists have no objection in principle to violence or coercion, per se. Rather, anarchists seem more concerned that whatever institutions are to administer coercive penalties are to be 'decentralised' and 'non-hierarchical'. Again, as far as I understand this, this simply means administering penalties through (direct/ delegate) democracy, in which case the same questions seem to arise about the appropriate level - i.e. local communities, regions, etc. - at which democratic decision making is to be made with respect to certain kinds of decisions. To my mind, it makes little difference to the autonomy of somebody being coerced whether or not they are being coerced by a workers' council, or a community collective or a regional federation; more important to me is whether the coercion is just or not.
The reason, then, that I doubt that I can call myself an anarchist in good faith is that I'm not entirely clear what it means beyond democracy. In so far as it means democracy, in my view anarchists often tend to overlook in their rhetoric the need for higher-level coordination of decision making and instead lay too great an emphasis on almost absolute autonomy of individuals or lower-level bodies. To an extent, I think this represents a valuable counterweight against centralisation, bureaucratisation and elitism emerging at 'higher-levels' of democratic decision making - which endanger democracy and and free-association. However, whilst I think the task of liberating ourselves from domination is likely to require continual vigilance and struggle, I think it is important to recognise that a certain amount of decision making has to be made at a relatively remote level. I think that, for those committed to democracy, the task is to ensure that as far as possible this decision making occurs through direct democracy or revocable delegates with very limited discretion, or that (as in the case of attaining economic equilibrium) the nature of this work is primarily administrative work (e.g. work in linear programming or cybernetics) undertaken in accordance with democratically agreed rules. If this is anarchism then perhaps I am an anarchist, in which case I am not sure why I should adopt the label - after all, 'Democratic Socialism' is quite clear.
Anyway, I'm open to argument. Sorry for writing so much.
* Supposing - realistically, I think - that socialism would not come all at once across the globe, although I don't think whether or not this is the case is strictly relevant to my general point.
Point of clarification: I understand that your contention is that anarchism entails in addition anti-racism, feminism, anti-ableism, LGBTIQ+ allyship, in accordance with the underlying tenet of opposition to hierarchy and domination. I'm focusing here on what I perceive as the vagueness of the concepts of non-hierarchy, horizontal-relations and non-domination in the economic and political sphere as distinct from just radical political & economic democracy. If there isn't a distinction, then perhaps I am an anarchist in your sense, although I feel 'egalitarian' and/or 'Dem Soc & X & Y & Z' would be just as appropriate, if not clearer.
Furthermore no more Google
Rojava's the closest thing to anarchism that I know of in the world right now. What can anarchists/socialists/etc.. living far away from there do to help them?
"It is a tragedy, I feel, that people of a different sexual type are caught in a world which shows so little understanding for homosexuals and is so crassly indifferent to the various gradations and variations of gender and their great significance in life." ~ Emma Goldman
I have a Question: Let's say that we live in this Libertarian Socialist Society. And then, let's say that I and some other people, we VOLUNTARILY organize our own Community which has CAPITALIST businesses, and we do not FORCE ANYONE to participate in our capitalist society. Are we ALLOWED to do this without anyone VIOLENTLY prohibiting us?
Nice
love the video but are no one going to comment on the fact that the quote at 3:30 contains "no beggars except the gypsies" and the video narrator at 4:16 saying that's the world we want
Two people have. I'll put an annotation correcting that.
Damn, annotations are no longer an option. I suppose a pinned comment will suffice
Always knew Divayth Fry was an ancom
I fucking love you.
How is the state a class when there is fully functional direct democracy in effect in revolutionary socialist states?
Because it creates two distinct classes- people who have an innate advantage solely because they are party members or role holders within the party.
Are you trying to suggest that the appointment of the general secretary of the USSR in Lenin or Stalin's place could be done as democratically as in a horizontal Anarchist example of democracy?
Definitely a George Soros funded bot Sectarian opportunist spotted, ignore your way to the gulag, bandit.
Don't worry, Plugs, they can only frown with a 100% failure rate, disable Facebook for a full year and these fucking liberals will disappear out of existence.
This world will come
Underworld fan, by any chance LSR? :D :D :D
Yup
Libertarian Socialist Rants oh man... There's me thinking I couldn't love you any more than I do. Also what I wouldn't give for a 4K version of Two Months Off's video - ok HD... And that Bravia bouncy balls ad while we're at it. I'm happy to leave capitalism behind though honest
Comrade this video was excellent, I just want to let you know the G word you used to describe Romani people is a racial slur.
He simply quoted George Orwell as it's writing in the book. Anyway words don't mean anything it's the context behind the words that counts
Josip Hrgovic you bring up context yet fail to realize the reason why that word is a racial slur is it’s historical context. It’s would’ve have been easy to avoid the slur by simply paraphrasing rather than directly quoting.
Like I said I consider the video to be otherwise excellent.
Coming in to “we’ll actually” me like I’m not aware that he was directly quoting Orwell was unnecessary & condescending.
Thanks, see the pinned comment
You are fan of feministfrequency. You don't know what "liberty" means. You support a woman who supports censorship.
I agree with most of what your saying but I believe that the capitalist class is a sole economic entity that exercises control over the state and the people as well as enforcing ideas that most people do not approve of such as racism, sexism and able ism. If the capitalist class is eliminated and you only have the middle class, upper middle class and poor being the only classes in society then the state would be given the incentive to work for the majority of the people's interest and not be financially lobbied by the capitalist class for the individual owners benefit through profit. In my ideal society workers would work for the financial benefit of society through profit to finance their workplaces, would not work under any hierarchical circumstances from anybody because the capitalist class or wealthy would be abolished and a substantial amount of the profit would be given to the state which would finance building projects like building roads, schools, bridges, environmentally friendly uses of energy etc in order to grow and benefit society as a whole based solely on the public's interest. Profit is money and it depends on how the society uses it. The problem with capitalism is that money is not being used wisely because the majority of people are being ignored.
But could we still keep the World Cup?
Players could organize in teams through voluntary association around the world instead of organizing according to their nationality :)
So actualy i am not the only wierdo thinking about the abolition of gender :3
Yeah gender abolitionism is like a thing
Yup, we must abolish sex as well
What you mean by abolishing sex? Is not a usuless social construct like gender. If you mean that we need a more nuance concept of sex yeah sure (intersex genital mutilation as an example)
From wikipedia page of "gender"
Sexologist John Money introduced the terminological distinction between biological sex and gender as a role in 1955. Before his work, it was uncommon to use the word gender to refer to anything but grammatical categories.[1][2] However, Money's meaning of the word did not become widespread until the 1970s, when feminist theory embraced the concept of a distinction between biological sex and the social construct of gender. Today the distinction is strictly followed in some contexts, especially the social sciences[4][5] and documents written by the World Health Organization (WHO).[3]
Money's meaning of the word did not become widespread until the 1970s.
Today the distinction is strictly followed in some contexts, especially the social sciences[4][5] and documents written by the World Health Organization (WHO).[3]
I guess you can't read...
Anarchism seems too idealistic of a theory to work in reality. How could a system based almost strictly off morality, not collapse? Everyone has different perceptions, experiences, perspectives, unconscious biases etc - for this system to work, the people would have to feel like they're a part of, and contributing to the betterment of society. Money in capitalism is value and time, it takes a certain amount of time to acquire a certain amount of money (obviously the amount varies greatly from person to person). People will pay for what they deem to be valuable based off their needs, perceptions, perspective, experiences, etc - the difference between anarchism and capitalism seems to be that capitalism is ammoral while anarchism relies on moral choices. Morality is too broad a spectrum to run a huge society on; although, it can function in small groups. In large groups there are too many contradictions and who is there to overlook the decisions of others to make sure they are benefiting the group? Who's to say what would or would not actually end up benefiting the group in real life? I think this is why capitalism works, it's because when there is a gap in the market, people come in and fill it to try and benefit themselves, not because there's a moral need to do so; therefore, if something has value behind it, eventually it will be 'taken advantage of.' No one can see into the future and predict what we'll need but the market can evolve to fill those gaps due to the constant change of value. There is value in factory work, janitorial work, construction workers laying roads, because the employer assesses that there is. People would work monotonous, but necessary factory jobs, clean the streets, and lay/repair roads out of the goodness of their hearts? 🤔
Ya I'm trying to see how any of this would work in practice but it really seems to come down to a "utopian" view of society. I also fail to see how redistribution of wealth and the workers owning means of production is a stance for liberty. It's quite the opposite in fact. Socialism involves forcefully taking things away from one person to give to another. Hierarchies will always exist in various facets and no utopian world view will change that.
As someone who was influenced by you into the Libertarian Left, I can say that I desire to live in an ancom society, but I believe in more of a broad interpretation of liberty for people. We should have left anarchism and right anarchism, and as long as both sides agree not to aggress against the other, then that's how it should be. I'll even go a step further, if a group of white nationalist KKK wizards want to make their own national anarchist society where they'd be away from what they perceive as "degenerate" and other cultures they dislike, they should be able to. I'm going to get a lot of shit for saying that National Anarchism is a legitimate form of anarchism, but I don't care. I'm personally an individualist, but that's me. You may be something else, and if a bunch of racist white people fuck off from their multicultural cities to form their own white society, how would that be negative?
What ancoms never realise is the whole world will not adopt your ideas, as much as you (and I) want them to. To many cultures such as some Abrahamic religions, capitalism is built into their message under a present day interpretation, where they literally talk about lending to other nations and never borrowing, holding them captive in a financial manner through debt. This can be found in Deuteronomy 15:6, which can be both found in the Torah and Old Testament. We have tried throwing the blanket of communism over places and people resisted it. Marxism Leninism has failed every time to result in the end goal of communism. Catalonia is hardly a success. To ensure it succeeded, the people living there killed clergymen and property owners in decent numbers and the collectives also banned luxuries like cigarettes and coffee. Many people will never agree to that. If you want a better view for modern day anarchism, I recommend looking at the Zapatistas, and an attempt at an ancap society in Norway, which I personally find very fascinating. It's called Liberstad. Look it up if you want.
'if a group of white nationalist KKK wizards want to make their own national anarchist society where they'd be away from what they perceive as "degenerate" and other cultures they dislike, they should be able to'
That's not what white nationalists do in practice. They organise to exterminate the groups they deem inferior. Anarchists cannot allow that.