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[-] bearboiblake@pawb.social 2 points 1 month ago

Our current socioeconomic system is basically built on many intersecting hierarchies of coercion, oppression and control - i.e. some measure of power you can use to make someone do something they otherwise wouldn't want to do. A few examples of those hierarchies include patriarchy, religious authorities, the state, and capitalism.

All of those hierarchies must be abolished. If any of them remain in place, then you will end up with exploiters and the exploited. Eventually, this will stratify over time, as we've seen through history a number of times - the rich get richer, accumulate wealth and power until it becomes unbearable, then the current ruling class are overthrown and replaced by a new ruling class.

We need to NOT create a new ruling class. We need to abolish the ruling class and NOT EVER REPLACE THEM.

That's the mistake made by communism in the USSR - replacing the existing ruling elite with another ruling elite. No matter how cool and revolutionary the leaders of the revolution are, as soon as they have power, they WILL be corrupted by it.

So the solution to our shared problem is anarchism. We need to abolish all forms of coercive control, oppression, hierarchies, ensure that no one has power over anyone else. We need to learn to co-operate, work together, instead of competing and fighting.

Humans are the most co-operative animals in the world. We don't act like it, because the powers that be discourage us from co-operating. Because if we co-operated, we'd immediately realize the problems we have are coming from above.

[-] powerstruggle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

Genuine question, what happens in an anarchist utopia when your neighbors decide that they like your land? If you fight back en masse, doesn't that involve creating a military with a hierarchy that's ripe for seizing power? How can you maintain the social organization for building fighter jets or aircraft carriers or spycraft without those being taken over and used against the people? If you just don't, what happens when your neighbors are a global superpower that has all that?

It seems even more impractical and idealistic than Communism, which at least has an answer to that.

[-] bearboiblake@pawb.social 3 points 1 month ago

There's a lot of questions in there, and I'm genuinely really sorry to say, there's way more than I can hope to address with the limited amount of time and energy I have, but I think you're imagining an "anarchist state" or something like that - that's still thinking with a non-anarchist mindset. There is no country to invade, there's an amorphous blob of land, which I suppose another nation could attempt to impose itself upon, but in that case, all the working class needs to do is overthrow the new would-be autocracy. Why would a standing military force be more effective than an informal, organized resistance, fighting for their own land? You're imagining pitched battles and the like, instead imagine trying to occupy land where there's not really any clear military targets, but everywhere you attempt to impose control, your soldiers end up getting shot, stabbed, or having molatov cocktails thrown on them/their vehicles. Militarism does not protecting the people who live in a country, they're a tool of the ruling class to fight other nations. This is just my opinion, though - ask ten anarchists, you'll probably get twenty answers. We believe in creating a better society through consensus, which makes it a little tricky for anarchists to talk about solutions to specific problems on an individual basis.

I'd recommend you check out the anarchist FAQ if you have more questions - https://anarchistfaq.org/afaq/index.html

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this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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