Anarchists are often accused of only talking about the joys and wonders of a free world, devoid of politicians and men in uniforms running significant portions of our lives. It all sounds great...in theory. But how do we get there?
There are many paths to a free society, and my goal here is to help elucidate the realistic probability that a free society is awaiting us in the future. Let’s start briefly by looking at some basic facts about the State.
States do not last. They are not permanent. In fact, throughout history, every single one of them died off, most in bloody, disastrous fashion. Continually new States have sprung up. These States will one day die off as well. In fact, when looking at the biggest of them all, the United States of America, it’s quite possible we will see this happen in our lifetime.
The US government is currently borrowing from Central Banks in order to cover a significant chunk of our federal government’s annual expenses. There are legally-bound obligations to other nations, through treaties, and to our own citizens, in the form of unfunded liabilities. As these unrealized debts start to hit the books, the government will likely become completely insolvent. With millions of troops stationed around the world, tens upon tens of millions more literally dependent on the government to survive, and bills stacked to the White House ceiling that we can’t pay, how the hell do you think this will end any other way?
I’ll tell you how. We’re going to build a better world. We already are. We are slowly going to take over, piece by piece, all of the things the government does, and we’re going to do it better. Seem crazy? Shouldn’t, because it’s already happening. It’s been happening.
Bitcoin is a great example of how these dominoes are already stacked. Even if it isn’t valued today the same as major fiat currencies, it still is a monumental success and proof positive of where we are heading. We can build things that the State currently controls that function in a better way, without any possibility for State restrictions. More are being built, while even more are being thought up.
Imagine kids going to school and in the first month they manage to learn everything they were going to learn that entire school year, on their own. Seem crazy? It’s not. Why are we scrambling kids’ brains every 45 minutes with different classes? Why are we not encouraging them to learn what they actually want to learn? Why do they take summers off from learning? Why is learning a chore? Why does it stop when they leave high school or college?
Clearly there is a big market need for some major disruption with education, right now, today. Government is losing its grasp on our youth and all it will take is the right idea set in motion to liberate them once and for all.
Notice how this wasn’t a deep philosophical discussion about why a free-market education model is better for kids. Also notice how this won’t go up for “vote” and won’t get “debated”. It will just get built. It will just be better. People will use it without even thinking. The old ways will no longer have a use, and will rapidly die off.
These are the front lines of the battlefield, in my opinion. However, the front lines still need support and reinforcements. These come in many forms.
Peaceful, permissive parenting is proven to allow children’s brains to develop in ways that enhance their levels of empathy and compassion, as well as their sense of independence, just ask @sterlinluxan. Assuming authorities best be wary, as these children will grow up to laugh at them and their language of violence. They will also be far more prepared to face the challenges in building a better world. They will be our best reinforcements down the road.
Compassionate communication allows us to convey our ideas to others, while getting them interested in topics that would normally send them through the roof with rage before blocking us out. By delicately talking about radical things, we can connect with people by displaying our own levels of empathy, curiosity, and patience. This helps to foster more minds that will ultimately latch themselves to the ideas of freedom and become our support.
Steemit allows us to have a platform. We have a voice here. We aren’t the crazy folks on Twitter who simply tweet the same memes to themselves. We put ourselves out there and end up trending, because our ideas are pretty cool. Again, this creates an environment, where over time, more and more people will at the very least become curious about our ideas. The more that are curious, the more we can discuss the problems of our world, and get to work solving them, without asking for permission.
We have never had a seat at the table. We have always been the outsiders. Here at Steemit, we are the ambassadors of freedom. We are the voice that has been silenced. We are connecting with people peacefully, compassionately, and logically. Our arguments are morally and pragmatically superior. They will win out, if people listen. People have never listened, because they never had to. Now, they can’t skip over us. They can’t silence us. We are becoming a part of their fabric, like we never have before.
We can build a better world. We will build a better world. We need people like @blakemiles84 to join us. We need people like you to join us. We will do this together. We will come up with ideas that we never thought possible to address some of the most complex social issues we face. We will implement these ideas into everyone’s lives without them even noticing.
The State won’t die with a bang, but with a whimper, and all of us here will be a part of it...
Expanding on how I view education detaching from the government over time:
Steemit's Model Applied to Education
SteemEDU - Steem's Future Role with Education: Google Hangout with Kieran Nolan and Tom McGann
Some of my other Anarchist posts that may be of interest:
So You're Seeing a Lot of Anarchist Posts, But You're Not Anarchist, WTF is Going On?!
Meet @missjessica and our story of how we ended up together:
Follow some great anarchists thanks to @kennyskitchen's great list:
Compassionate communication, while potentially frustrating, is a really important factor, in my eyes. I'm an anarchist and pro freedom, but the problem I see with a lot of people with a similar mindset is the overly aggressive approach to communication.
There's a reason why anarchists and libertarians are generally thought of as a-holes, unfortunately.
And as long as that happens, the ideas of anarchists are not taken seriously by the general public.
Therefore, I'm a huge fan of analogies. Bring anarchy to the everyday life. I personally like comparing economic actions to human relationships, for example.
It's hard, but I see it as the only way. When people accept freedom - and most already do, they just don't know it yet - anarchy kinda happens by itself.
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It's amazing how many anarchists talk past people instead of with them. We were all statists once, and it's easy to forget our own challenges we had understanding all of this.
Most people do value anarchism, since we all value consent every day. In any other part of our lives, if consent is withdrawn, we see a problem. When it comes to the State's actions, does our consent all of sudden become worthless?
Asking people to be consistent can certainly be a challenge, but there's no use in making it more challenging than it needs to be by being angry and aggressive with people who don't understand us.
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Thanks for all the links. While I do not consider myself an anarchist yet, I have begun to see that government is more of the problem than it is the solution. I am open to reasonable alternatives and I like your style of presentation.
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Thanks @fraterralph! It was a bit of a process for me when I became one. It makes sense, but at the same time, seems completely ridiculous and insane. It took me a long time to really wrap my head around what it means to have a free society and how it really is inevitable.
At first, everything seems so complex. How would we manage roads? What about national defense? Courts, police, schools, I mean honestly, the State has control over so many "services" we all use. Rather than thinking of eliminating them all at once, I find it really valuable to walk through the thought process behind how we can and will do each and every one better through completely voluntary, emergent solutions.
I don't know the specifics of how these solutions will look. In fact, no one does. Humanity will value whichever solutions "work" the best. Until now, they've had little incentive or means to explore alternatives, but technology is rapidly changing this, and making these ideas possible in ways we've never seen. This is literally only the beginning of this process, as well, which is simply stunning.
There are loads of great resources out there, and the best part is, most of them are now here on Steemit, as well. :)
@kennyskitchen made a great list if you didn't catch it at the bottom of the post:
https://steemit.com/anarchy/@kennyskitchen/the-40-anarchists-you-want-to-be-following-on-steemit
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Will check it out. Thanks again!
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Thanks for the mention in there :) I've been looking forward to this since you replied to my post.
The Compassionate Communication resonated with me the most precisely because it's the one thing thats bothered me the most in the dialogue here.
I'm painted as a statist (or worse) because of my background in the military... with some added heat because I was in Special Operations. I'm obviously outnumbered here on Steem in terms of ideology, even though many of the anarchist/voluntarist concepts are things that I believe in as well.
Judging by a considerable number of responses I've gotten to comments or posts I've made, there are a number of anarchists that apply a strict ideological purity test and if you don't pass, you're counted as a dupe at best or a flat out enemy at worst.
tl;dr: I know I'll be writing more on this topic and I'm extremely thankful for you and your approach to this discussion, @derekareith. I'd love to do a podcast or hangout with you sometime if you're up for it.
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No problem on the mention! Thanks for the inspiration on the article!
If anarchists wish to cast stones at ex-military, well then they might as well hate on @adamkokesh @hilarski and many, many more. I understand the anger and frustration they feel, but it is so counterproductive to turn people, like you, off to our ideas in this way.
The way I look at it, I can talk with a Bernie supporter, a Trump supporter, a Hillary supporter, whoever, and we can ALWAYS find common ground and then build off of that. If the talks are extended, then by the end, they almost always end up agreeing with everything I'm saying. The only reason is because I actually listened to them, I heard them out, I thought about what they said, and responded in a way that they'd appreciate, while getting my point across, making it a productive conversation. While they may not call themselves anarchists after talking, they will at least have some ideas planted in their head that could grow into something big for them later.
I'd love to do a hangout sometime. I just did one last night with educators @kdnolan and @tommcgann to talk about applying Steem to an education model.
https://steemit.com/edtech/@kdnolan/steemedu-podcast-1
It's the first live one I've done and I think we did a pretty good job diving into it all for the first go. Kieran will be talking with some people from http://www.bitcoincenter.co this week about Steemit and future applications, like education. He'll be doing a podcast with educators, developers and a student majoring in blockchain tech. Then, we're going to get together later in the week to catch up on everything with another Hangout. They're in Australia, so it's been a little late for me, but it'd be great if you could join us for the next one. We could do an anarchist talk another time as well :)
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I don't know about ideological purity here... I've seen more ancaps and ancoms than pure anarchists.
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Thanks for sharing this material. I like what you posted. Thank you so much
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Truly excellent post @derekareith. Well said. This is basically a way better way of what I try to tell people when they say IF the governments go away they will be replaced simply by violent mobs that become the new state.
My answer: Sure if you believe Anarchy is a short term solution. It isn't. If you did it today you'd still have most of the population believing people have the right to have authority over them.
Anarchism as a solution is a long game. It requires education, it requires changing mindsets one step at a time. Only when the vast majority of people truly understand what it is, would it have a chance of working.
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Thanks @dwinblood!
I agree with your assessment that if we "flipped the switch" the world would not be ready. Maybe parts of it would sustainably manage themselves peacefully, but for the most part, the cycle would likely repeat.
I used to ardently believe that an anarchist society could only be achieved through education and changing mindsets. This still certainly could be our path. However, I see new paths opening up, ones where we are in control and the State is helpless. If we can keep trimming the State back, then over time, there really won't be much left, and as we go, we will continually get better at building out alternate, competing models for its various services.
It certainly will be difficult overcoming the many obstacles in our way, however, it IS possible to bring about a free society without people even understanding why its better. Not only that, it may not take that long. It seems crazy and far out, but so did the concepts behind cryptocurrencies, digital reputations, and all of the other brilliant crypto-anarchic thought. It's all coming. All of it. Far quicker than any of us realize, in my opinion.
Education and discussion are still very important, as that's what will allow us to bring more minds and talent into the fold. However, it no longer is the only path, which gives me so much hope and optimism for seeing a much freer world in my lifetime.
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The possibility of living in a free society in my lifetime used to seem hopeless, but things are changing so fast, it now seems inevitable to me.
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Great post, Derek. I often find the "how do you propose getting there" question one of the hardest ones to explain to a statist. I think it's because we are trained to think in terms of what we will do this year, and possibly up to five years hence. People have short attention spans and little ability or desire to envision a future farther out than the next presidential race.
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No one sees the future coming. We should all know, given the rapid rise of social media, smartphones, crypto, and so much else in such a short time span...
Remember in 1998 Paul Krugman said this:
Disruption happens quickly and silently, while the world gradually becomes aware of the superior disruptive model. People doubting these models will look like end up looking like Krugman XDhttp://www.businessinsider.com/paul-krugman-bitcoin-2013-12
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"We can build things that the State currently controls that function in a better way, without any possibility for State restrictions."
This. Cooperative Agorism will be able to replace anything the state can offer --- including social safetynets.
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Cool
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