I have to agree with David on this one, Chuck. Surely you know that any better society is not as dependent upon people becoming, well, "good," as it is on developing instutitional means to hold coercive forces in check. The point isn't making people become angelic; it's constructing means to hold people to account and eliminating the aspects of modern institutions that allow some to unjustly dominate the rest (private property in means of production, etc.)
Of course, the defense of this sort of system would rely upon the vigilance of those who benefit by it. They would have to want it to work. If they didn't want it to work, it wouldn't.
Brian
On Tue, 13 Aug 2002 Dddddd0814 at aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 8/14/2 2:08:26 AM, you wrote:
>
> >Anarchism also has a vision of the society it would like to create. If
> >non-coercion, anti-authoritarianism, and anti-heirarchy become core values
> >for people, then that is a pretty good check on any instances of hierarchy
> >and statism that might develop.
> >
> ><< Chuck0 >>
>
> I'm sorry, but I can't help but notice how similar this is to the propaganda
> model of Stalin's USSR. Stalin maintained that socialism could be achieved in
> a single country, if only its citizens became "good socialists" and
> "anti-imperialists." This, Stalin maintained would, keep Capitalism "in
> check". The foundation for revolution rests on subjective moral imperatives
> and willpower, rather than actual material considerations. If only a
> universal ideology of "good", where people adopt a prescribed course of "core
> values", can be forced onto the masses from without, then "it's all good."
>
>
> -- David
>