could anarchy work, under any conditions?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

though theocracy has not been implemented in recorded human history.

The Taliban.
The Mullahs of Iran, circa 1980.
The Mexica (Aztecs).

Shall I go on?

[namu]

Also, religious authorities have had a lot of say in many european monarchies over the last couple milleniums.

[gnimbley]

i knew an otherwise inteligent man who argued with me rather badly over the ridculaous notion that non central government system knwon as syndicalism, was anarchism. except anarchy Init's TrueForm, is oppsoed to all cooperative systems, except possibly outright slavery. but hen again that's nto qutie anarchism either.

Ha ha ha ha. Syndicalism was tried in Italy in the 30s. It eventually
evolved into Fascism. For the American version of syndicalism see
Hillary Clinton's health care proposal.

[Slarti]

Wow, lots of responses, and lots of good points. I think we've established that unless humanity happens to have a major major major consciousness shift, anarchy would not work. We need some form of government.

Gnimbley, you're right. I'm still too caught up in aristotelian logic i guess. There are obviously a lot more options than Anarchy/'What we have now'. I guess you could just try to guide society towards anarchy as much as you can, knowing that you're probably not going to get there. You're still improving the balance of it all though.  For a more anarchaistic (sp?) society to working, people will have to rely on each other, and be friendly and get along, etc.

Delusion, did you come up with the term CIF? i like it a lot, it seems like a good description of the way things are in america.

Bob, i think you're right there. I don't think complete anarchy would work in the long term.

.

[namu]

Anarchy can work if you have groups of less than 2 persons.

[Z³]

Anarchy works best as a personal philosophy. Its essentially the same basic thing as modern satanism, except you dont have to read all that la'vey bullshit. Maybe I'm biased though, I think of anarchism as being an inherantly selfish thing. The only true anarchists I've known were the type of people who got by in life through very non-conventional methods, hopped trains, and spouted off inane political ranting at the drop of a hat. I thought they were all nuts... I just dont see the need to try and circumvent morals by claiming that it serves some sort of cause.

While walking across town today, I realized that there is a fault with my morality. That is, I'm a moral person out of fear of consequence and not a genuinely moral person. This is a problem, because I get all the limitations of morality and yet I'm not a better person for it. If I was less moral, but still cautious, I could benefit myself without feeling bad about it. If I was a truly moral person, I could benefit from this with a sense of pride. I think that Anarchism, as i've seen it in the past, is kind of a psychological cheat to get around this. A person who despises corporations in general can feel good when they scam them. In a way, these people have their own sense of morality, albeit different (some would say twisted.) Its the same way discordians might feel good when they pull off a decent jake (like that ever happens), or a subgenius might feel when he attains a good deal of slack.

In the end, this just leads me to believe that most anarchists these days arent anarchists, they're crust-punks.

[Delusion]

.  Pure feudalism, theocracy, hierarchy, democracy, republicanism, militarism, lottery, and some communist sects come to mind, though theocracy has not been implemented in recorded human history.

the taliban was a theocracy. i'm sure there have been others., in fact i'm pretty sure iran is democratic theocracy(that is, it has a democratic(elected by popular vote of citizens) element which quti eremsebles western deomcracy models which is subservant to the dominant council.

Where was Allah when the US bombed Afghanistan?  Where was Quetzalcoatl when the Spaniards took Tenochtitlan?  Where was JHVH when the Romans took Jerusalem and various flavours of rampaging nomads took Rome?  Where was Wotan when Berlin fell?  Where was the dialectic of history when they took out a loan to build a Mao button factory in Beijing?

The gods were, at most, giving little suggestions ("Hey, I'm on your side, so what if these guys have a few centuries industrial edge on you, you'll win...  SUCKER!") or too busy punishing them for being disobedient to bother running the damn countries.

They may *call* themselves theocracies.  But when push comes to shove, the
priests seem to make the decisions...

btu no, while i liks eomse aspects of soem the forms of anarchism i've seen, i dont; think any system with the name of anrchiy or wahtever would workl. in fact, sorry to say it this way but it's the stupidest thin g i;ve ever heard. i knew an otherwise inteligent man who argued with me rather badly over the ridculaous notion that non central government system knwon as syndicalism, was anarchism. except anarchy Init's TrueForm, is oppsoed to all cooperative systems, except possibly outright slavery. but hen again that's nto qutie anarchism either.

generally, i have the prejudice that that people callign themselves anarchist are either the type of people that get all worked up and break stuff for fun (or angst as it were) or the type of fool that think the plmbers are simpyl going to fix everyone's plumbign because it needs to be done.

At some point, the former fools get it politely explained to them that "the system" didn't build the fragile object they are eyeing, and that the builders are considering a little breakage of their own, and the latter fools break down and fix their own damned plumbing.  At least, so I would hope...

and so anarchy sucks. and doesn't work. because people like me , and peopel liek you. and people like my neighbor who between her two kids and her full time job, doesn't have time to sit in on the realistically 100 hour a week meetings that would realistically nbe needed to coem to a consensus agreement on everything, in order to avoid tyranny at all costs, at the cost of becoming a tyranny in and of itself.

Consensi are overrated - one needs a clear-cut dividing line between "this must be agreed to by all in open council" and "they're my toys and I'll eat them if I want to.".

in fact he whoel anarchist ideal(on the brighter side of it) has really coem to erode my own ideals as i wander into teh opposite there off in contemplation of a somewhere that works without teh corruption seen ni both elected and absolute or near asbolute power structures.

[Delusion]

Delusion, did you come up with the term CIF? i like it a lot, it seems like a good description of the way things are in america.


.

Industrial Feudalism (unqualified, if I recall correctly) was first sighted by me in Desolation Road (by Ian MacDonald.)

[/o\]

Anarchy is working right now.

[East Coast Hustle]

ANARCHY = EXCUSE FOR TEENAGERS & HIPPIES TO ACT LIKE IDIOTS

[DJRubberducky]

"Anarchy is your sixth grade gym class for all eternity!"

http://somethingpositive.net/sp12102002.shtml

[LMNO]

Why do some people feel that anarchy means the absence of personal responsibility?

[Chef]

Why do some people feel that anarchy means the absence of personal responsibility?

BECAUSE, WITHOUT LAW, ALL OF MANKIND IS TALUFA.

CHEF DIESEL,
DOESN'T LIKE THAT THOUGHT.

[LMNO]

Hey!  Educate the Noob.  What the fuck is "talufa"?

After I know what you're talking about, I can better respond.

[EraPassing]

Now probably Chef will tell us who Talufa is.

I'm frightened.