> One of the deepest insights I found in Caste by Isabel Wilkerson was that most people, when put in the position, would capitalize on the opportunity to subjugate their fellow humans.
that’s the crux of it though isn’t it? democrats (lowercase d) don’t trust any individual to wield direct power over another so they limit their own power and transfer it to the state and then distribute control over the state. anarchists don’t trust others to wield power over them so they seek to remove themselves from obligatory power relations altogether.
i’m not convinced there isn’t a non-destructive path from democracy to anarchy. start where we are today, and increasingly make more systems “opt in”. “you want the power to buy/sell things without FDA approval? fine, but you’ll have to settle disputes outside of our court system.” and keep doing that until you’ve granted the diehard anarchist the legal freedom to legitimately opt out of all prior power relations, and start his village in the woods, no police, no taxes, no restrictions on exchange. actually i’m a little fuzzy on what proportion of anarchists would be satisfied by this, or if it would more likely be rejected as being ancap or libertarian.
that’s the crux of it though isn’t it? democrats (lowercase d) don’t trust any individual to wield direct power over another so they limit their own power and transfer it to the state and then distribute control over the state. anarchists don’t trust others to wield power over them so they seek to remove themselves from obligatory power relations altogether.
i’m not convinced there isn’t a non-destructive path from democracy to anarchy. start where we are today, and increasingly make more systems “opt in”. “you want the power to buy/sell things without FDA approval? fine, but you’ll have to settle disputes outside of our court system.” and keep doing that until you’ve granted the diehard anarchist the legal freedom to legitimately opt out of all prior power relations, and start his village in the woods, no police, no taxes, no restrictions on exchange. actually i’m a little fuzzy on what proportion of anarchists would be satisfied by this, or if it would more likely be rejected as being ancap or libertarian.