@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-09-13 23:43:29
TL;DR: what if nationalism, not anarchy, is futile?
Since I had the pleasure of seeing the "what would anarchists do against a warlord?" argument again in my timeline, I'll present again my extremely simple proposed solution:
Convince the followers of the warlord that they're better off joining you in freedom, then kill or exile the warlord once they're alone or vastly outnumbered.
Remember that even in our own historical moment where nothing close to large-scale free society has existed in living memory, the warlord's promise of "help me oppress others and you'll be richly rewarded" is a lie that many understand is historically a bad bet. Many, many people currently take that bet, for a variety of reasons, and they're enough to coerce through fear an even larger number of others. But although we imagine, just as the medieval peasants might have imagined of monarchy, that such a structure is both the natural order of things and much too strong to possibly fail, in reality it takes an enormous amount of energy, coordination, and luck for these structures to persist! Nations crumble every day, and none has survived more than a couple *hundred* years, compared to pre-nation societies which persisted for *tends of thousands of years* if not more. I'm this bubbling froth of hierarchies, the notion that hierarchy is inevitable is certainly popular, but since there's clearly a bit of an ulterior motive to make (and teach) that claim, I'm not sure we should trust it.
So what I believe could form the preconditions for future anarchist societies to avoid the "warlord problem" is merely: a widespread common sense belief that letting anyone else have authority over you is morally suspect. Given such a belief, a warlord will have a hard time building any following at all, and their opponents will have an easy time getting their supporters to defect. In fact, we're already partway there, relative to the situation a couple hundred years ago. At that time, someone could claim "you need to obey my orders and fight and die for me because the Queen was my mother" and that was actually a quite successful strategy. Nowadays, this strategy is only still working in a few isolated places, and the idea that one could *start a new monarchy* or even resurrect a defunct one seems absurd. So why can't that same transformation from "this is just how the world works" to "haha, how did anyone ever believe *that*? also happen to nationalism in general? I don't see an obvious reason why not.
Now I think one popular counterargument to this is: if you think non-state societies can win out with these tactics, why didn't they work for American tribes in the face of the European colonizers? (Or insert your favorite example of colonialism here.) I think I can imagine a variety of reasons, from the fact that many of those societies didn't try this tactic (and/or were hierarchical themselves), to the impacts of disease weakening those societies pre-contact, to the fact that with much-greater communication and education possibilities it might work better now, to the fact that most of those tribes are *still* around, and a future in which they persist longer than the colonist ideologies actually seems likely to me, despite the fact that so much cultural destruction has taken place. In fact, if the modern day descendants of the colonized tribes sow the seeds of a future society free of colonialism, that's the ultimate demonstration of the futility of hierarchical domination (I just read "Theory of Water" by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson).
I guess the TL;DR on this is: what if nationalism is actually as futile as monarchy, and we're just unfortunately living in the brief period during which it is ascendant?
@BootsChantilly@mstdn.social2025-08-14 20:54:38
JFC, he’s so fcking pathetic. Why doesn’t he just make up a NEW! BIGGER! MOST BEAUTIFUL! MOST AMAZING! peace prize ever and award it to himself, ffs?
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-called-norway-finance-minister-ask-abou…
@memeorandum@universeodon.com2025-10-03 04:16:06
Nearly a third of Americans have had a 'romantic relationship' with an AI bot, new survey says (Mike Bedigan/The Independent)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/americans-romantic-relationships-ai-chatbot-study-b2838217.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/251003/p1#a251003p1
@BootsChantilly@mstdn.social2025-08-03 18:52:31
I lived in KC for a decade. This is what we ALL must do. #Resist #ProtectOurNeighbors
https://www.
@ErikJonker@mastodon.social2025-09-20 11:03:25
“Zonder debat en binnen slechts 30 seconden is deze betreffende motie aangenomen. Die *lichtzinnigheid* past niet bij de verstrekkende gevolgen.”
Politie is bij monde van Hoofd Operatiën van de Eenheid Landelijke Opsporing en Interventies helder over stemgedrag van o.a. VVD. https://lnkd.in/p/e2eQ5mjC
@relcfp@mastodon.social2025-09-28 06:10:10
Illuminations from a Bright Mirror: Peter Gregory as Scholar, Editor, and Mentor in the Study of Chinese Buddhism
https://ift.tt/qSmzVko
Lessons for the Upcoming Age of Climate Refugees: Next meeting of the ASLH Environment, Law, and…
via Input 4 RELCFP
@memeorandum@universeodon.com2025-09-01 00:40:32
Bernie Sanders breaks with Democrats and endorses popular oyster farmer running against Susan Collins (Mike Bedigan/The Independent)
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/bernie-sanders-graham-platner-oysters-senate-b2817190.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/250831/p106#a250831p106
@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-08-25 23:51:10
Just finished reading "Theory of Water" by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. It's a departure from a lot of the other stuff I've read lately (mostly unchallenging fiction), but it's really great, and hits hard in this specific political moment. It's an Indigenous anarchist theory book, published this year, and unsurprisingly holds a lot of truths I found valuable to hear. Highly recommend it if you're feeling nihilistic.
#AmReading #Anarchist #Theory
@relcfp@mastodon.social2025-09-25 17:55:23
Illuminations from a Bright Mirror: Peter Gregory as Scholar, Editor, and Mentor in the Study of Chinese Buddhism #acrel https://networks.h-net.org/group/ann…
@relcfp@mastodon.social2025-09-25 16:05:52
Illuminations from a Bright Mirror: Peter Gregory as Scholar, Editor, and Mentor in the Study of Chinese Buddhism
https://ift.tt/FUgBRTf
Summer 2026 Vietnamese Language Study with Indiana University Kathleen Evans 09/19/2025 - 9:31am …
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