I’m traveling around south east asia working remotely and staying in small expat communities for a few years at a time (long term visas are still hard). There are a lot of small communities all over the place here in Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Laos, Cambodia. I’d hesitate to call them anarchist per se because it’s still kinda overseen by local authorities when it comes to crime and visas etc. but it’s pretty close otherwise!
That being said I don’t know how anarchism could be sustainable at scale without a major cultural reset, so I’m not sold on the idea it would work for giant homogenous places like China or US.
I think I’m anarchist in terms of personality, but I’m not quite there politically. Like you, I’m not quite sure how to get there from here. If we do things like mutual aid and support unions, I don’t think we’ll go wrong, and that could end up leading to anarchism at some point in the future.
Where I’m anarchist in personality is that I fundamentally don’t understand why you would want to be an authoritarian. When I first read 1984 in high school, and there’s the bit from O’Brien about how the system is there for power as an end to itself, I didn’t understand why anybody would want that. I can kinda see power as a way of gaining a comfortable life for yourself–usually at the expense of others–but not as its own end. I still don’t understand it, but have come to accept that there are people like that.
Some of those people are draped in thin blue line flags, and some of those people are draped in a hammer and sickle.
Yup, though it seems like we missed our chance at this long time ago. Can you imagine what would have to happen for US or China to split up in this day an age? That’s world-war territory and tbh I’d rather have what we have now.
I’ve been reading “the dispossessed” by Ursula k le guin, and I’m becoming increasingly interested in anarchy. Where should I look for more information on it?
George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia was pretty inspiring to me
(I’ll also add that Anna Funder’s Wifedom make Orwell seem a bit fucked in his personal life. I haven’t read it yet, just had convos with people who did. Seems maybe Homage to Catalonia could have been a better book if he was less of a mysogynist)
Me too though luckily I’ve only learned about Neil Gaiman just before all of this shit broke out.
I think cancel culture might actually be a net good and hear me out. There are a lot of really good people and role models out there but it’s a crowded space and we should move quicker with social judgement to sort out the marbles. We still hadn’t figured out how to do it in a more organized manner but yeah fuck Neil Gaiman, there are thousands of other brilliant writers who are also great human beings, we should give them space to thrive!
A theory I have is that cancel culture as we will eventually know it will be considered to have simply had a rocky start. Instances where social cancellation is greatly overapplied or underapplied to an unjust degree continue to happen, but to a lesser degree each year it seems.
The social media revolution was a huge shock to popular culture and the social patterns that communicate it. It makes sense that it would take time for society to level out its reactions in response.
You could try anarchism instead
Problem is Anarchism is hijacked by people who want to destroy specific governments.
Yeah, I’m quite fond of it!
I’m traveling around south east asia working remotely and staying in small expat communities for a few years at a time (long term visas are still hard). There are a lot of small communities all over the place here in Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Laos, Cambodia. I’d hesitate to call them anarchist per se because it’s still kinda overseen by local authorities when it comes to crime and visas etc. but it’s pretty close otherwise!
That being said I don’t know how anarchism could be sustainable at scale without a major cultural reset, so I’m not sold on the idea it would work for giant homogenous places like China or US.
I think I’m anarchist in terms of personality, but I’m not quite there politically. Like you, I’m not quite sure how to get there from here. If we do things like mutual aid and support unions, I don’t think we’ll go wrong, and that could end up leading to anarchism at some point in the future.
Where I’m anarchist in personality is that I fundamentally don’t understand why you would want to be an authoritarian. When I first read 1984 in high school, and there’s the bit from O’Brien about how the system is there for power as an end to itself, I didn’t understand why anybody would want that. I can kinda see power as a way of gaining a comfortable life for yourself–usually at the expense of others–but not as its own end. I still don’t understand it, but have come to accept that there are people like that.
Some of those people are draped in thin blue line flags, and some of those people are draped in a hammer and sickle.
Maybe China and the US shouldn’t be giant and homogeneous.
Yup, though it seems like we missed our chance at this long time ago. Can you imagine what would have to happen for US or China to split up in this day an age? That’s world-war territory and tbh I’d rather have what we have now.
Drag hopes California secedes
I’ve been reading “the dispossessed” by Ursula k le guin, and I’m becoming increasingly interested in anarchy. Where should I look for more information on it?
George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia was pretty inspiring to me
(I’ll also add that Anna Funder’s Wifedom make Orwell seem a bit fucked in his personal life. I haven’t read it yet, just had convos with people who did. Seems maybe Homage to Catalonia could have been a better book if he was less of a mysogynist)
Why is it hard to find people that aren’t shitty? I’m still recovering from learning Neil gaiman was an abuser
Me too though luckily I’ve only learned about Neil Gaiman just before all of this shit broke out.
I think cancel culture might actually be a net good and hear me out. There are a lot of really good people and role models out there but it’s a crowded space and we should move quicker with social judgement to sort out the marbles. We still hadn’t figured out how to do it in a more organized manner but yeah fuck Neil Gaiman, there are thousands of other brilliant writers who are also great human beings, we should give them space to thrive!
A theory I have is that cancel culture as we will eventually know it will be considered to have simply had a rocky start. Instances where social cancellation is greatly overapplied or underapplied to an unjust degree continue to happen, but to a lesser degree each year it seems.
The social media revolution was a huge shock to popular culture and the social patterns that communicate it. It makes sense that it would take time for society to level out its reactions in response.
Well said! More people need to hear this.