Grey wrote on Apr 1^st, 2013 at 4:24pm:



Thanks, and a tip in return - grow up.  Anarchism is unstable and unsustainable.  It exists only in a power vacuum and is a symptom of unrest.  Like a wonderful dream can only last until you wake up, anarchism can only last until someone grabs the reins of power, and grab them they will.

... wrote on Apr 1^st, 2013 at 4:39pm:


People have said much the same with each step of democracy. Anarchism will exist when the time is ripe. When the majority realise that what they have is broken and they are faced with a return to warlords and/or corporation wars or taking responsibility for their own society. The world has changed, Anarchist ideas have changed with it. People are not ignorant, neither are they savages, they are ready.

NorthOfNorth wrote on Apr 1^st, 2013 at 5:07pm:



No it isn't, anarchy is mob rule, Anarchy is not. Okay it was always problematic to take a perjorative and stand it on its head. Let's not say Anarchy, let's say Huarchy.  A political SYSTEM, that comes from below.

NorthOfNorth wrote on Apr 1^st, 2013 at 6:01pm:



The flow, (of power) comes from below NN. It's the trickle up effect.

Gonna wipe the smiles off these guys.



Practically, instead of 'the top' organising into gangs for 'the bottom' to cast away their sovereignty to, an Anarchic society would be founded on the 'bloc' a small neighbourhood. The needs/concerns of the bloc would be carried to a 'locality' meeting by a representative. Representatives need not even be voted for, it needn't even be the same person each time.

Localities (or wards) would however vote from time to time for representatives to represent the community on the other tiers of government. Local government would have very much more power than it does at present; including revenue raising.

For instance, if there's a perceived need for more child care facilities, there's no need to pass requests up the food chain to Canberra. Or to wait for some federal initiative that wastes most of the money on advertising proclaiming its goodness before passing some money to a bureacracy that uses it for building its own empire lah de dah down the line until by the time the allocation gets 'home' there's not enough to do more than buy a toy for the kindy.

In business  local government would assist the needs of local business and block the demands of retail corporations, that suck money out of communities.

That's the general thrust.

NorthOfNorth wrote on Apr 1^st, 2013 at 5:07pm:



Correct.

When I used to post on the late Guardian forum, there was a group of users who were focussed on Cuba. Whenever one of the Euro-left brought Cuba into a discussion as some kind of model, these guys jumped 'em.

But it was quite a while before I got into serious dialogue with these guys and realised that they and much of the Cuban emigre community in Miami hated Castro because they were Anarchisti not Capitalists.

http://libcom.org/library/cuban-anarchism-5

It's an interesting story, not only underlying yet again that Anarchism and Communism are mortal enemies, but illustrating how the wrong idea can be accepted by a movement, (socialism) and completely undermine it. For I hold Communism responsible for the collapse of 'the left' to this day.

It's analagous to the way Labour has been brought to disaster by the New Wave of Tony Blair, Rudd, Julia Gillard etc. Wiser heads cautioned, (Lyndsay Tanner in Australia) but it sounded good and brought early success. 

It's an inevitable result in a system based on leadership cults. As I've said many times it's not whose bum sits in the Oval Office that matters, it's the office itself. Once the bum sits down there, it stops thinking about ideals and starts thinking about its place in history, and we're all buggered.

And when the whole political apparatus is taken over by careerists and personal ambition, driven by market research, pollsters and focus groups, the race to the bottom is on.

Anarchism offers an alternative to that, it looks like the only alternative. So whether you're Left or Right, it's time to sit at the table of community politics. 

Ex Dame Pansi wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2013 at 3:51pm:


Yet people still vote for the major parties.

The 99% people didn't bring any awareness. The same time those protests were on in Brisbane (attended by about a dozen people), thousands of people lined the Brisbane river to see the Queen.

I found this pleasurable: They were willing to honour the old time aristocracy and rank ordering over the supposed democrats protesting about profits.

The feeling and instinct of awe for something higher still lives on in the common man despite the democrats attempts to eradicate it.

Grey wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2013 at 6:40pm:



Two generations of brainwashing and indoctrination will take time to reverse, but it's happening.