Board index ‹ Government and Politics

[Francis]

What from a Christian perspective do you think of Anarchism?

Anarchism is a left libertarian/socialist libertarian philosophy where “in the matter of boots, I defer to the authority of the boot maker” is the primary source of authority as opposed to coercive hierarchy(such as a state where force and power are put into central bodies and defined by them).

[jimwalton]

Not a fan. Anarchism is a rejection of hierarchy, but community control and workers' councils are going fail at self-governance and self-policing for the same reason the state fails: the will to power. As anyone versed in group dynamics will confirm, any assemblage of people will subdivide into hierarchies of control and power. You can't escape exploitation by simple rather than complex structures, and I can guarantee you that communities will govern with the same subsets of domination, injustice, exploitation and inequalities that are present in state hierarchies. Again, it's human will to power and the drive of pride that ends in corruption that is present in all systems, anarchy included.

[Tornado]

Oddly enough I think you may have nailed it. Which is why I'm not an anarchist. Still a leftist though because literally every problem that you pointed out can only be made better by it. But you're probably right, we do need to accept some basic form of a government in the end so just rejecting structure would be counter-productive. But like you said:

> Anarchism is a rejection of hierarchy, but community control and workers' councils are going fail at self-governance and self-policing for the same reason the state fails

Yep. Dissolving the structure of society, while obviously a tempting notion for many reasons, aint gonna solve the problems inherent to it. However, building a better version in its place would.

> Again, it's human will to power and the drive of pride that ends in corruption that is present in all systems, anarchy included.

This is however, I will say, fatalistic and unproductive. As if we couldn't actually address the problems of corruption ..we could. Anything that paints the picture that we are just stuck with things the way they are without knowing obviously the steps to take towards making things better ..is just hogwash.

The steps to take to make things better are entirely apparent. We aren't taking them because we have one of the worst Possible systems to work with as it is. But we could easily take those steps, and society could be improved dramatically. ...if only people knew what was good for them.

Corruption, as we experience it, is not present in all systems. Some amount of corruption may be innate to humanity, sure. But not the kind that we are currently experiencing.

This is an alien, unnecessary and all together unwelcome form of corruption. Not at all the best that we could do.

[astroman]

Anarchism is a rejection of hierarchy, but community control and workers' councils are going fail at self-governance and self-policing for the same reason the state fails: the will to power.

I completely agree with you, I do not believe that anarchism can control our society.

[jimwalton]

Despite that its name brings negative connotations to many, there are actually valuable ideas embedded in it, namely, where you give people a lot of control over their own lives and the decisions that impact them. But as I said, and you recognize, there is also embedded in it a fatal flaw that defeats any notion of goodness in the ideology: the will to power and the corruptness of the human heart. As you said, anarchism cannot be the controlling template for a healthy society.