(Serious) Why are we not CONSTANTLY reminded of the other genocides?

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[–]Vulptex 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

I don't understand Kropotkin ideas of communism. Communism will never happen under anarchy because there's no state to enforce it.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

I don't understand Kropotkin ideas of communism. Communism will never happen under anarchy because there's no state to enforce it.

Yes, a valid criticism, ill try my best to convey the different lines of thinking about this problem

Kropotkin wanted to replace the state apparatus and representatives with direct democracy. The community would enforce it.

This sort of arrangement can and has worked on very small scales, like a few hundred people. There is an entire school of sociology devoted to this idea. I don't know if you have heard of Dunbar's Number, but this idea is straight out of this school of thought that looks at the dynamics of group size and the need for dedicated enforcement

I would say that Kropotkin's ideas could probably not work at a very large scale, and he did envision many small autonomous communities. However history also tells us that there were likely many small groups practicing this sort of arrangement, and were likely all conquered by larger and more organized statists.

[–]Vulptex 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

That's not libertarian then

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

That's not libertarian then

Not in the colloquial sense of American Libertarians. But in the sense of libertarianism being the opposite of authoritarianism. There is no authority putting themselves above the people, no centralization, only the people themselves, and in the sense that anarchism and libertariansm both have a dislike of hierarchcal authority. These two ideologies are fairly close to each other. Historically, libertarianism has not always been associated with conservatism like it is now in the US. Mostly due to their laissez-faire economic attitude being shared with conservatives

[–]Vulptex 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Direct democracy is authoritarian

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Direct democracy is authoritarian

Yes, a valid point, and I actually agree. It's rule of the masses. But it's a much different thing than top down authority. It's the polar opposite of the Marxist model that embraces top-down authoritarianism, because this type of authority is by dictate. I'd say it attempts to be anti-authoritarian by distributing the authority among many instead of a few, but ignores tyranny of the masses.

I'd consider this anti-authoritarian, because the aim is clearly to eliminate arbitrary dictates and reduce the power and authority of any individual. But I would also say this doesn't work as intended, and we end up with a different sort of tyranny that is not any better, or less authoritarian, just different

Both mobs and despots can be tyrannical