One thing I like to ask anarchists is what specific mechanism they will put in place in order to prevent centralization and hierarchies from forming. This has literally happened in every society, and societies with more centralization tend to rapidly outcompete those that are more federalist efforts.
So, let’s say magic happens and anarchists find some way to abolish the state. Now, all the people who benefited from the original state structure get together and start rebuilding it. This is the core reason why Marxists insist on the dictatorship of the proletariat. When you bring this up then anarchists will eventually be forced to acknowledge that some form of central authority will in fact be needed to prevent this.
My impression is that most anarchists make the implicit assumption that vast majority of people are homogeneous and think as anarchists do. So, once you abolish the state people will just revert to this natural way of thinking and it’s going to be all ponies and rainbows going forward.
Another thing I notice is that most anarchists are highly privileged. They invariably live in the imperial core, they’ve never had to experience true hardship in their lives, and naturally the aspect of society that they care the most about are their personal freedoms. Anarchism is very much a liberal ideology at its core. Marxist view is more aligned with Maslow’s pyramid of needs where we say that material conditions must be improved before we focus on maximizing personal freedoms.
One thing I like to ask anarchists is what specific mechanism they will put in place in order to prevent centralization and hierarchies from forming. This has literally happened in every society, and societies with more centralization tend to rapidly outcompete those that are more federalist efforts.
So, let’s say magic happens and anarchists find some way to abolish the state. Now, all the people who benefited from the original state structure get together and start rebuilding it. This is the core reason why Marxists insist on the dictatorship of the proletariat. When you bring this up then anarchists will eventually be forced to acknowledge that some form of central authority will in fact be needed to prevent this.
My impression is that most anarchists make the implicit assumption that vast majority of people are homogeneous and think as anarchists do. So, once you abolish the state people will just revert to this natural way of thinking and it’s going to be all ponies and rainbows going forward.
Another thing I notice is that most anarchists are highly privileged. They invariably live in the imperial core, they’ve never had to experience true hardship in their lives, and naturally the aspect of society that they care the most about are their personal freedoms. Anarchism is very much a liberal ideology at its core. Marxist view is more aligned with Maslow’s pyramid of needs where we say that material conditions must be improved before we focus on maximizing personal freedoms.