QUESTION: What is your poltical affiliation?

[Requia ☣]

No it doesn't, you need power to keep the assholes from seizing power.  Anarchy only lasts for the 5 seconds it takes the biggest asshole in the area to convince a couple dozen people to be his new army.

Also, I have decided on a new political affiliation.  I am now an assholist.  I recognize that no matter what happens, an asshole will be in charge, and am just concerned with getting an asshole thats on my side.

Lasted in Spain and the Ukraine until the Communists conquered them by force.

You could see that as the Communists being the biggest assholes if you really wanna, but it wasn't a quick thing.

So because the Nazi's conquered France by force does that make a Republic a nonviable political system?

The Nazi's were an external force,I don't know about Ukraine, but in Spain it was internal.

[Scribbly]

My understanding of the spanish anarchists set up during the spanish civil war is that they actually bore remarkably little similarity to what most people think of as anarchism.

For a start, they continued to use a form of currency, except that it was administered by a central bureaucracy and was handed out in the form of hours of work. It didn't matter what job you did, but you were given an amount of vouchers representing time worked, and used those to purchase products which were also assigned amounts of time as value.

Unsurprisingly, this required that members of the spanish anarchist movement take up full time jobs regulating the flow of vouchers, administering the cost of products, and handling the complaints that some things were too cheap and some things were too expensive. They also struck deals with the factory owners and managers, who continued to do their jobs, because it was easier to use the system that was already in place than to start all over again. Said managers ensured that they continued to get decent 'wages' in exchange for their cooperation. More than the workers got.

So essentially, what you wound up getting when the Spanish Anarchists came over, was a rewrite of the standard capitalist model which, given that bizarrely, you didn't get a commensurate amount of 'hours of work' strictly based on how many hours you actually worked, but some jobs haggled for more, would simply have wound up being the exact same system handled from a cumbersome top down perspective in about six months.

However, it is worth noting that the communists that crushed them were not Spanish, they were from the USSR which was 'assisting' during the civil war, and saw the entire experiment as a threat to glorious soviet communism.

That, at least, is the understanding I took away after it was touched on in my political ideologies module last year.

[East Coast Hustle]

Anarchy as a political model is so utterly fucking retarded that it's not worth talking about.

E/O/T.

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

Criminal behavior would certainly be defined differently.  if what you are doing isn't hurting anyone but you than nobody is going to give a fuck.  if it does, then the people in the community you live in are most likely going to do something about it. 

I don't see any reason that doing something about criminals is something that should be relegated to a specialized class who has, so far, done an incredibly poor job of it.

So instead of due process, warrants, protections against unreasonable search and seizure, protections against cruel and unusual punishment, and trial by jury, you think we should have a system based on mob rule, vigilante justice, and lynchings -- is that what you are saying?

Under that system, it seems that "criminal behavior" would be defined as anything that angers a mob, possibly including being a member of the wrong religion, dating the wrong color, or causing the latest drought/earthquake/hurricane/wildfire by angering God with your sinful lifestyle.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Criminal behavior would certainly be defined differently.  if what you are doing isn't hurting anyone but you than nobody is going to give a fuck.  if it does, then the people in the community you live in are most likely going to do something about it. 

I don't see any reason that doing something about criminals is something that should be relegated to a specialized class who has, so far, done an incredibly poor job of it.

So instead of due process, warrants, protections against unreasonable search and seizure, protections against cruel and unusual punishment, and trial by jury, you think we should have a system based on mob rule, vigilante justice, and lynchings -- is that what you are saying?

Under that system, it seems that "criminal behavior" would be defined as anything that angers a mob, possibly including being a member of the wrong religion, dating the wrong color, or causing the latest drought/earthquake/hurricane/wildfire by angering God with your sinful lifestyle.

Yep.  Say HELLLLLOOOOOO to pogroms.

[President Television]

I miss the Rhinoceros Party.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I miss the Rhinoceros Party.

Buncha drunken Newfies, right?

[President Television]

I miss the Rhinoceros Party.

Buncha drunken Newfies, right?

Damn right.

[Cain]

According to a former Cabinet minister, my political affiliation is "cynical nihilist".

I think that was meant to be an insult, however, I am starting to warm to the idea.  Since, you know, Labour are useless, the Tories are actively evil and the Lib Dems are pathetic beyond all belief.  Lets not even get into discussions about UKIP, the BNP, the Greens and so on.

And besides, I learnt all this cool stuff about insurgencies and organised crime and apparently the government isn't interested in hiring me to help them get around these problems....they do say you should work doing something you love....

[rygD]

Be careful though, Cain, as I tried to "do what I love" and ended up almost out on the street.  Kinda close to stuff that I enjoy now, but I want to choke everyone I work with, and hunt down every idiot who calls me asking for a fone number or to fix their account, etc...wrong fucking section.

[rygD]

Oh yeah, and the hours and the salary suck.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

According to a former Cabinet minister, my political affiliation is "cynical nihilist".

That's not possible, anymore.

[themenniss]

Criminal behavior would certainly be defined differently.  if what you are doing isn't hurting anyone but you than nobody is going to give a fuck.  if it does, then the people in the community you live in are most likely going to do something about it. 

I don't see any reason that doing something about criminals is something that should be relegated to a specialized class who has, so far, done an incredibly poor job of it.

So instead of due process, warrants, protections against unreasonable search and seizure, protections against cruel and unusual punishment, and trial by jury, you think we should have a system based on mob rule, vigilante justice, and lynchings -- is that what you are saying?

Under that system, it seems that "criminal behavior" would be defined as anything that angers a mob, possibly including being a member of the wrong religion, dating the wrong color, or causing the latest drought/earthquake/hurricane/wildfire by angering God with your sinful lifestyle.

if it worked, criminal behavior wouldn't exist. if the it worked...