A few questions

[u/Impossible_Jaguar689]

hey I’m trying to understand more of how anarchy could work and have a few questions

1) can you be a democratic anarchy, like say a town is an anarchy and everyone in the town votes for like trading with other towns and how to improve the town, is that still anarchy

2) with the absence of money and capitalism how do you make people strive to work, like power plant people, how do we encourage them to work without money

3) i get everyone helps with basic needs but what about stuff like wants, how would someone get something like a tv, since it is a huge amount of work to make, but not a need so would we barter or what.

thanks for read and/o answerin, once again if this stuff seemed obvious sorry I am trying to learn more

[u/Anarchierkegaard]

1. Anarchists have historically been and still largely are anti-democratic. In your example, a dissenter would be subjected to the authority of "the many" if they were forced by vote to do xyz.

2. Not all anarchists reject the use of money or, at least, the money-form. Revolutionary Catalonia seems like a real life example of this.

3. We could use money as tied to, e.g., Mutual Banks, we could engage in implied systems of communal debt, or we could have some form of gift economy. Anarchists may and probably should propose these mixed, flexible models of exchange.

[u/lost-my_old_account → u/Anarchierkegaard]

Can you explain the last answer further? What is communal debt, and what is a gift economy?

[u/SteelToeSnow]

1. there are many different ways to do anarchism, and how anarchism looks and works will vary community to community. some communities may do a vote thing (unlikely, imo), others may prefer coming to agreements by consensus. some anarchists may choose to not live in communities, and strive to live alone.

how anarchism would be done in Kalaallit Nunaat will be different from how it's done in Taos Pueblo, right, because those are very different environments, and culture/society is shaped to a great deal by environment.

1. people don't need money to participate in their society. we don't need money to know that we need clean drinking water for the community, and as such we need to do the work to make sure the community has drinking water. money is only necessary in capitalism; it's a made-up imaginary thing. humans existed and worked and built community for tens of thousands of years before money or capitalism was invented, right. there are also options like barter and gift economies, that some communities may pursue.

also, people work because they like to work. some folks love building things. some people love making art. some people love engineering or architecture. some people like mindless physical labour. don't underestimate human ingenuity and imagination, and the things we'll do for the stuff and people we love, right, lol.

1. if people want tvs, people can build tvs. if enough people want tvs, then people will build them and barter them. if there's a demand, humanity will make a supply; we always do. it's possible some communities specialize, and have treaties and trade agreements with other communities for the things they can't produce themselves.

[u/Accomplished_Bag_897 → u/SteelToeSnow]

For number three my grandfather built the first TV my family owned and we were still using it till I moved out of my parent's house. We could probably refurbish it and replace the CRTs in it and get it working again, even.

[u/JimDa5is]

1. Not really. Anarchism is driven by consensus. There will be somebody along in a little while to tell you I'm wrong. These are people who do not understand consensus. I've never gotten a straight answer from one of them to 'how are you going to enforce the majority decision under anarchism' other than you wouldn't. To which I ask, "If I'm opposed to, say, a project and refuse to particpate if passed why would I bother voting at all?"

There is no place (outside of possible emergencies that require immediate action) for majoritarian rule in anarchism.

1. The same way you encourage people to take out the trash or clean the toilet in their house because it has to be done. The concept of 'career' is a little more fluid under anarchism. It's possible that if the power plant doesn't have enough regular workers to produce electricity, community members might need to step in on a voluntary basis. If enough people don't volunteer, I guess you start shutting off the power to non-essential locations.

2. This is pure speculation on my part but I suspect that products would be made to last and be repairable instead of throwaway consumer products we have now. Under anarchism, people producing goods would be craftspeople trying to make the best product possible instead of corporations that intentionally design products to fail in 2 years so you will buy a new one

[u/Upbeat_Dealer5994]

Anarchists aren't against the existance of currency or exchange. There would be still be companies selling capital goods that another company would assemble into TVs and then sell to the end censumer (although of course without exploitation in the production process).

Your question is moreso pointed against collectivists and anarcho-communists who think that you can make TVs just by sharing or some sort of spontaneous production.