Wojtek Sokolowski:
> I do not think it is possible - it is like a perpetual motion machine,
> nice idea but impossible to achive. So while wasting time, energy and
> resources on trying to built something that cannot be built, instead of
> using them more efficiently, e.g. by restraiining the excessive power of
> selected institutions?
>
> Btw, I used be an anarchist, but I got turned off by its inherent
> individualism as a result of my US experience. Methinks excessive
> individualism is one of the main root causes of most social and
> political problems in this country.
The difference between thinking that perpetual motion machines can be built and thinking that human societies can exist without coercive institutions is twofold: (1) it can be shown from principles of physics, which are very well tested, that perpetual motion machines cannot be built, whereas it cannot be shown from any sort of science that societies lacking coercive institutions cannot exist. And (2) whereas there are no historical examples of perpetual motion machines, there are historical examples of societies which did not have coercive institutions.
The belief that it is impossible for human societies to exist without coercive institutions is, then, an article of faith; from an unresolved mélange of evidence and intuition, one picks what one likes and believes what one chooses to believe.
In any case, my complaint was that at least some Left politics were being misrepresented by being cast as a quest to abolish "all power". If you used to be an anarchist, I would think you would exhibit a higher-resolution view of anarchism.
-- Gordon