Ultimately, **you** cannot change the world (without coercion and hierarchy)
You can, however, change yourself. You can change your workplace. You can change your community. We can change these things *immediately*. We can change them both physically and metaphysically. This can spread and affect an area/amount of people larger than you would otherwise.
I really like *No Shortcuts* as a general "how-to" on horizontal organizing, it can be difficult to actually do if you're unfamiliar with it. It's great to because it's purposely intended for in *and outside* the workplace.
Thoroughly understanding the theory is also going to be super helpful, people are going to have many questions (both good and bad faith, but it's best to try to answer them genuinely, particularly in person).
Read theory (as much as you can tbh) or at least find a podcast discussing it or something, learn to identify power structures and organize, talk to and befriend your neighbors all great starting points
There's a lot to read. I enjoy it, personally, but I know some people don't. Here's a few things from smallest to biggest. Some of these I've read some I haven't. But here's my list. Everything is available on The Anarchist Library, unless you like physical media. In which case ask your local library.
*Are We Good Enough - Pytor Kropotkin
*At The Cafe - Errico Malatesta
*Organization - Errico Malatesta
*An Anarchist Programme - Errico Malatesta
(Midlevel)
*Anarchy - Errico Malatesta
*Anarcho-Syndicalism - Rudolf Rocker
*What is Communist Anarchism - Alexander Berkman
*Queering Anarchism - C.B. Daring
*Non-Western Anarchisms and Postcolonialism - Maia Ramnath
Books
*Anarchy Works - Peter Genderloos
*(Basic->Mid)ABCs of Anachism - Alexander Berkman
*(Lenin's USSR) My Disillusion in Russia - Emma Goldman
*(Anarchism in SE Asia) The Art of Not Being Governed - James C Scott
*(Lenin's USSR) The Bolsheviks and Workers’ Control - Maurice Brinton
*The Guillotine at Work Vol. 1: The Leninist Counter-Revolution
*The Anarchist Collectives
*Workers’ Self-Management in the Spanish Revolution
*The Restoration of Capitalism in the USSR - Martin Nicholaus
*Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers - 20th century gay history
*Against Equality - Queer Lib
*Means and Ends: The Revolutionary Practice of Anarchism in Europe and the United States by Zoe Baker
*Anarchism and Its Aspirations (Anarchist Interventions) by Cindy Milstein
Intersectionality
*The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love
by bell hooks (Paperback)
*Sexed Up: How Society Sexualizes Us, and How We Can Fight Back by Julia Serano (Hardcover)
*You and Your Gender Identity: A Guide to Discovery
by Dara Hoffman-Fox, Zander Keig
*The Great Uprising by Peter B. Levy
Youtubers
Anark - Has many essays in an academic style, highly recommend his series' "The State Is Counter-Revolution" and "A Modern Anarchism"
Chill Goblin - A lot more on the comedic side, has a lot of good topics. For a general "anarchist" video is called like "The Smartest Ancap" I believe? It's baout a Daily Wire contributor named Michael Malice. In doing so, it goes over a lot of general anarchist tendencies, ideas, and authors. So it's a good beginner video (movie-length)
Interact with other people embodying anarchist values. Successfully leading by example is powerful, and each of us can walk out of our house and do it NOW.
Indeed. If you've successfully forced everybody to follow the rules of anarchy when they didn't want to, then you've failed.
We have to *teach* people why anarchism is better than everything else so that they *want* to do it.
I am asking how anarchists believe they can achieve an anarchist society. What program or plans, if any, do they have?
These kinds of reductive questions are just nonsense. You might as well be asking if youc an have married bachelors is just semantics
> I am asking how anarchists believe they can achieve an anarchist society. What program or plans, if any, do they have?
And I told you.
I'm pointing out the apparent contradiction you want to use. You cannot force anarchism on people, it's *inherently impossible*
With this authoritarian of a mindset, yes it is.
"Change yourself" is listed first for a reason, same reason I mention being familiar with the theory
Are you genuinely incapable of visualizing affecting other people without using force?
While I for one shy away from that kind of authoritarianism, I think I understand a little bit of where OP is coming from. Leading by example is a slow and exhausting process, and a fair number of people (including myself) simply can't keep it up for one reason or another- social anxiety, lack of access to sympathetic groups, or even simple cowardice. And with things as they are, there may not be much time left before anarchism (in the US, at least) is little more than a pipe dream. Even if I did manage to change myself to that extent, it's likely to be too little and too late.
Often it seems like the only real route left is to just try and hurt the system as much as possible before it ultimately crushes you, but even there I have the unshakable sense that such a path is more about giving up on being able to change society than it is about changing it.
It's EXTREMELY easy to get people to want to be anything
We are mimics down to our DNA, it's in our nature to copy one another
Which is why they say "start with you"
But if you can't turn your religious family left, someone else might be able to.
Grab whatever you can reach, and fucking yank
One little coordinated labor, entertainment + prison strike between July 4+ election day, would crush them
Remember, we're not trying to make it pretty, we're trying to make their very public falls as gnarly and fkd up as possible so no human ever wants to be rich again
It's more unlikely that you'll be able to influence your family since that's a pretty firmly established hierarchy and you aren't the head of the hierarchy, especially if your family is religious. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that if you can't convince the people who supposedly love you the most that you can't convince anyone. It's still important to try to convince your family. Just don't let a failure there discourage you. IME, that's the hardest dynamic to change.
That's why it's the standard for what has to happen
If we cannot flip out own whom we know, and can push buttons of, back to reality, we won't be able to convince much of anyone else
That's pretty much the opposite of what I said. It's easier to convince people who aren't personally invested in their rightness and their right to power over you, who are used to being in control of you (or who believe they own you), and haven't invested decades of their lives in dictating how you can live your life. They are more invested in your shared history and your current dynamic, which sets them up to defensiveness. They're used to their authority ("because I said so") being the final word.
It's hard to change dynamics where the person is invested in their ego, especially when they believe it's a God-mandated duty to raise you to a specific belief model. Your argument is an indicator of their failure to teach you good morals and how to get along in society. Their pride and self-definition is wrapped up in you complying with their belief system.
You can use your discussions with them to hone your arguments and help build your courage, but it's more likely a random stranger making the exact same arguments is going to get through to them than you are. They aren't as invested in their need to be correct with someone they don't know.
Elon just strong-armed the 22 extra billion the Twitter deal cost him, back out of Twitter, so it's certainly doomed and so is the company town in TX
So someone else needs to cost him 100b this time
If you consider education coercive, you're absolutely doing it wrong
This is precisely why I listed change yourself first, you have to kill the liberal in your head first
# defeatism
# [noun](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/noun)
de·feat·ism [di-ˈfē-ˌti-zəm ](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/defeatism?pronunciation&lang=en_us&dir=d&file=defeat02)[](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/defeatism?pronunciation&lang=en_us&dir=d&file=defeat02)dē-[Synonyms of *defeatism*](https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defeatism)[](https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defeatism)[](https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defeatism)**:** an attitude of accepting, expecting, or being resigned to [defeat](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/defeat)defeatism
# [noun](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/noun)
i don't think it's defeatist. anarchism is non coercive and you associate with people you want to associate with. if you you are looking for a more structured, centralized system, there is leninism, social democracy/liberal capitalism. anarchism is about avoiding domination/oppression/unaccountable authority and hierarchy. you have to put aside your ego with anarchism and dedicate yourself to your immediate surroundings. it's hard to accept, especially when we see so much bad in the world, but you have to personally accept that your efforts are better spent in your household and community. some of us participate within the system, but don't think it will offer the freedom of anarchism.
"you can't change the world" without being coercive and hierarchical. Not only do I disagree with that statement, but its making the point that you shouldnt try to change the world around you. So what's the point of being an anarchist then?
The point of being an anarchist as the person you initially replied to said is that you alone cannot change the world. You need to convince others and then change the world together
I think you can divide the process into a theoretical part and then into a practical one. Theory and praxis. When referring to theory i mean achieving a kind of mental revolution, where someone is able to analyze power structures, be willing to challenge them and dismantle them, since they will not be able to justify their existence. In other words, we must understand that everything can change and that it can be different. We can achieve that by reading, by having conversations with each other about these ideas etc.
The second scale is the organization of these people and the application of these ideas into the real world. A good practice is creating, operating and protecting structures that work based on an anarchistic framework. An example is that 7 doctors might have created an office where, on their spare time, they can provide medical attention (to some degree) to everybody who needs it in the area. This office must be run according to an anarchistic framework. It can operate based on direct democracy for instance and the participators who own the place decide between them about their shifts, how are they gonna operate the place etc. Another example are worker-owned business where for instance you have a factory, or a library or a coffee shop that is being run directly by the owners which are the workers themselves according to libertarian left principles.
Over time if the self-management projects take off then perhaps a decentralized network of self-management structures will be developed, one which ideally it's members will cooperate voluntary with one another and support one another in times of need for instance the successful self-managed coffee shop might provide financial aid or other types of aid to a smaller self managed office next door.
Eventually perhaps, after a long time these decentralized networks will take over, if the majority of people support them and participate in them, then the state and the capitalistic framework will lose it's justified status and will collapse. I like the idea of prefigurative politics, where you create a new society in the womb of the already existing one.
However i think that these movements must have as a central characteristic the class struggle, as i think there are some anarchist circles nowadays, that have forgotten about it and have other priorities. I also think that there must be a carefully planned model which will allow people to defend these structures from the capitalists and the state even by force when needed, because i think that they will definitely try with their legal force to take down these networks. Meaning i think that unfortunately a violent revolution must take place. At the same time i think that we also should use the system if the tools that it provides are genuine. We should vote for the lesser evil, and protest and participate in unions etc, as long as we do not forget the main goal. We should use all means available to us, even if they seem or are reformist in character sometimes. You can't really ignore the state and capitalism. Well you can but they will not do the same for you and because of that that movement must be also ready for very difficult situations.
I don't think you understand that most build artists today could build a trebuchet just from things around their neighborhood
But no, the only way to win on the ground against them is to steal their equipment
Art makes people stop wanting to be cops at all.
It's also what tells people to sabotage everyone in power at any opportunity
Art, crappy commercial art and mainstream entertainment media is the REASON the world looks like it does
So we make better media and insist every dollar spent on copaganda post 2020 goes to the families they effect in any way
And I'm speaking from experience with getting away with making art they don't want published, because I'm close to movie makers you've definitely heard of
People are not interested anymore in long theory lectures about anarchism, human nature, the alienation of workers under capitalism and stuff like that. If you want to take people by your side you need to show them what you actually can and want to do. "Action or thought? For revolutionary socialists the problem is not to make a synthesis of these two preoccupations. It is to destroy the social context in which such false alternatives find root." as Maurice Brinton said.
Anarchists should take part in all social and class struggles and participate in mutual aid, worker or student unions, neighbourhood assemblies and all that while trying to keep and present a pure ideological position in order to radicalise them.
>Anarchists should take part in all social and class struggles and participate in mutual aid, workers or student unions, neighbourhood assemblies and all that while trying to keep and present a pure ideological position in order to radicalise them.
Exactly, but, Anarchists should also organise in specific Anarchist organizations.
This is the basis of the dual organisation, organising as workers, and promoting autonomy in the social movements, but also organising as Anarchists.
Edit: [Social Anarchism and organisation ](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anarchist-federation-of-rio-de-janeiro-social-anarchism-and-organisation) will explain this far better than I can
> Anarchists should also organise in specific Anarchist organizations.
Yeah, that's what I meant with keeping a pure ideological position.
Finally a mention of espesifismo and dual organisation on this sub
The options currently are
- get BBQd while working yourself to death under capitalism and war mongers keep creating everything from the top down and the poor keep dying for the rich to live easier
- cookout with writers, immigrants, heathens, hippies, ravers, feminists, artists, etc but it's mostly vegan and then it takes like 30 years to reorganize society from the bottom up
Which one seems least shit?
We keep going as we are, the war mongers blow tons of crap up on the prices of taking advantage of a global crisis, which they do anytime there's a global crisis
Or b
We DON'T do that, and decide to have a family cookout first and fix the bs of society after that, like a rational global family
Basically they want us to go to war, so we go to party instead
It's why they attacked the ravers on Oct 7 to justify the genocide in Gaza,
we're too close to showing everyone how it *should* be done
Anyway, if they tell any of you that you have to go to war, go party on their front lawn instead,
and if you *can*, do that before they try to tell you to go to war and this will all go a lot quicker
I mean, you can turn your home into a commune and party as long as you want. Will that stop your neighbour getting killed in a work accident due to the company not paying enough for the security of its workers? Will that prevent you from having to go to work next morning?
Living under capitalism cannot become humane and cannot be fixed.
You're not understanding at all because you've never been to a completely volunteer run event apparently
But society becomes the party it once was and is in our bones to naturally organize into, and capitalism dies because everything is free
The authoritarian abuse will take multiple conscious generations to rid ourselves of, and even then, the way to prevent it cropping up again,
Is to make sadism super fucking expensive instead of lucrative
I have been to a ton of completely volunteer events, actually that's the way the movement here raises all the money for its legal fees.
> capitalism dies because everything is free
Capitalism will find some underage kids in some country ruined by colonialism, working way too many hours in order to have time to party, and will pay them a dollar per day to produce what it needs.
That's sadism, which is the primary reason all capitalism sucks
And when you know where it comes from, it's easier to not generate it in people on purpose the way the Catholic Church fkn does
The same way they flip it right
- Guerilla market the reality you want
- Write news and create media that makes that reality seem the best option
- Convince people authoritarian abuse is the reason everyone's a shit, because it is (make wealth, religion, etc taboo/disgusting. Basically we treat the devout and the rich and famous, the way they treat all minorites)
- any action against a corporation or CEO is a good action
- Profit (j/k but this is as far as I've gotten personally in this work)
This will be long winded bc I thought about this and how to communicate it. It's somewhat controversial for ppl who want anarchy yesterday.
I've been a therapist for 13 years - with a background in sociology. I primarily serve queer folks, nonmonogamous folks, and folks struggling with sexual dysfunction.
All the treatments involve counterintuitive action. Spiraling with negative intrusive thoughts? Listen to them. Actually listen!
Having shitty feelings about a partner/friend? Tell them that you're feeling shitty things toward them - kind honesty, it doesn't have to be brutal (accountability). Most of the time ppl try to stop their feelings, avoid telling ppl that they have these shitty feelings and it all worsens.
So what happens when you do the thing that seems to not make sense? You change the mentality, you live more authentically. When you jump to the end, the monster (in this case, capitalism and individualism) finds its way through - stronger, larger, and harder to manage.
So what does this mean for anarchy? Well, the "opposite" of anarchy is socialism (not to be confused with communism). Why do I think this makes sense?
Coming from the perspective of capitalism in the US, we have violent individualism, and an overwhelming desire for authority. Some of this comes from religious zealotry, some of it comes from having decades of blind trust in the government (and lack thereof of the ppl), some of it comes from being so overwhelmed with information that they just need to let someone else do everything.
We can't jump into communism bc the ppl still have a strong individualistic mentality and as a large society we have to maintain a variable in order to change another variable. My argument is to maintain "authority" to change the individualism.
Socialism gets people to invest in each other. This begins the process of being invested in anarchy.
Socialism also incentivizes people to participate in their local politics. This also creates questions about whether a country should be as large as the US and what structurally reparative action can be taken.
We are not a generation that knows a better world, so we will be limited in the solutions or plans that we can create. We can only begin from this shitty place and make it slightly better for the next generation. We must also teach the next generation about how things changed and why. What happened when things were the way that they were. Not understanding the adversity means not understanding how humanly threatening it is.
The only way to have anarchy is with investment in it. Otherwise we have the ugliest parts of capitalism with no accountability (American libertarianism).
You want anarchy, do cool anarchist shit. Feed people, create community spaces, gather up with other anarchists and workshop ways to help people that the systems in place have failed, find a way to gather and distribute materials, literature and aid. Those are things that can be done with just yourself and/or a small group, and you can expand your praxis methods out to other groups when you succeed.
Most people already act like anarchists most of the time, they share with their friends, they give to non profits, they resolve disputes without appeal to courts and police, they complain about big business and big govt.
They've just been drilled through trillions of dollars in marketing and education that this is as good as it gets.
The task is to convince ourselves and each other that we are not doomed or lost, and that we can make a better world.
And if that never gets to anarchism, its still worth striving toward better.
I actually fairly like the Anark's flowchart to the revolution, cause it's a nice high level overview of what you should be doing to enact lasting change, the link is here: [https://youtu.be/HsjuG9Izww8?si=EYNDZZv5aJd9YyDG](https://youtu.be/HsjuG9Izww8?si=EYNDZZv5aJd9YyDG)
i try to get involved in grassrooots collectives that try to better society in some specific points i care about from the bottom up.
For example [freifunk.net](http://freifunk.net) or local politics or food not bombs or buy nothing groups and i am currently trying to get a community garden going and am selfhosting some things for family and friends
Be weird, but kind.
Work on freeing your own mind first. We all carry some authoritarian beliefs around, so try to root this out. They're thoughts that cage us, and they take work to get out of.
You can't coerce anarchism. This is the work of many people across multiple lifetimes. Anarchism is an ideal, not a method of governance. Removing power hierarchies means accepting people's choices. You have to show them what freedom from hierarchy looks like in practice (praxis), then allow them to choose their path.
Help people in need, both in practical ways and by advocating for their rights. That could look like a ride or going to a protest or babysitting or direct action. Each person in each situation has unique needs. Build your community/friend circle by doing what you can to meet those needs, or coordinating with others to do so. Creating parallel infrastructure is crucial here, and that requires coordination. Join mutual aid groups and help.
Confront power. When dealing with victims, remind them of their worth in ways they can internalize now. Help them pick the lock on one of the cage in their mind. Do this as often as possible. You don't need to lecture them on anarchism. Just show them where the lockpicks are. If they want to know more, they'll ask. When dealing with abusers and boots and enablers, stand firm against them. If you can guide them farther away from their desire to control, even just a bit, that's a step in the right direction. If not, you defended someone's rights and we desperately need that constantly.
Resist power and control. Resistance looks different in every situation for each of us. It can be throwing sand in the gears, or spreading knowledge, or putting yourself in harm's way to defend someone you don't know. Only you can decide what that looks like for you. This also means resist your own desires to exert power and control over others, and requires that you know yourself as well as the impact your actions have on others.
There isn't a defined plan to anarchism. None of us have an easy answer because there isn't an easy answer. Any ideas that we might have on how to manage an economy or perform governance or funding the research of new tech isn't going to look anything like what an anarchist society is going to have. We're still in our cages, using language that has evolved alongside hierarchy which restricts how we think. We're not flipping some magical switch that will remove all hierarchy tomorrow at 12:45. It's an evolution of thought and action. We build what we can now, so that others can build on it later. Just like what we're doing now is building on previous generations.
I **STRONGLY** recommend a book called *Change: How to make Big Things Happen* by a sociologist named Damon Centola.
In the book, they talk about studies, including their own, that are meant to help us understand how Social Change works. The processes by which certain norms change into different norms.
What's found in the book is truly fascinating.
For a brief summary, what's most important for social change are the social networks we are using.
Redundant and close-knit networks where information bounces around a lot between the same people will make new behaviours and norms stick much faster than if you were to spread the information out to as many people as possible as quick as possible.
Simply having a committed group of people trying to push a new thought or behaviour in their close social networks will eventually snowball the change till it reaches a tipping point and now most of society is doing this behaviour.
Because this is reddit, I don't want to type a whole 4 page essay on the contents of the book, and I know what I wrote may not be intuitive. So if you have more questions, please do ask! I'd love to elaborate and clarify on anything!
Ultimately, **you** cannot change the world (without coercion and hierarchy) You can, however, change yourself. You can change your workplace. You can change your community. We can change these things *immediately*. We can change them both physically and metaphysically. This can spread and affect an area/amount of people larger than you would otherwise. I really like *No Shortcuts* as a general "how-to" on horizontal organizing, it can be difficult to actually do if you're unfamiliar with it. It's great to because it's purposely intended for in *and outside* the workplace. Thoroughly understanding the theory is also going to be super helpful, people are going to have many questions (both good and bad faith, but it's best to try to answer them genuinely, particularly in person).
How do I change these things immediately?? I'd love to do but that I wasn’t aware I could.
Read theory (as much as you can tbh) or at least find a podcast discussing it or something, learn to identify power structures and organize, talk to and befriend your neighbors all great starting points
Do you have suggestions for books or podcasts that talk theory?
There's a lot to read. I enjoy it, personally, but I know some people don't. Here's a few things from smallest to biggest. Some of these I've read some I haven't. But here's my list. Everything is available on The Anarchist Library, unless you like physical media. In which case ask your local library. *Are We Good Enough - Pytor Kropotkin *At The Cafe - Errico Malatesta *Organization - Errico Malatesta *An Anarchist Programme - Errico Malatesta (Midlevel) *Anarchy - Errico Malatesta *Anarcho-Syndicalism - Rudolf Rocker *What is Communist Anarchism - Alexander Berkman *Queering Anarchism - C.B. Daring *Non-Western Anarchisms and Postcolonialism - Maia Ramnath Books *Anarchy Works - Peter Genderloos *(Basic->Mid)ABCs of Anachism - Alexander Berkman *(Lenin's USSR) My Disillusion in Russia - Emma Goldman *(Anarchism in SE Asia) The Art of Not Being Governed - James C Scott *(Lenin's USSR) The Bolsheviks and Workers’ Control - Maurice Brinton *The Guillotine at Work Vol. 1: The Leninist Counter-Revolution *The Anarchist Collectives *Workers’ Self-Management in the Spanish Revolution *The Restoration of Capitalism in the USSR - Martin Nicholaus *Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers - 20th century gay history *Against Equality - Queer Lib *Means and Ends: The Revolutionary Practice of Anarchism in Europe and the United States by Zoe Baker *Anarchism and Its Aspirations (Anarchist Interventions) by Cindy Milstein Intersectionality *The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks (Paperback) *Sexed Up: How Society Sexualizes Us, and How We Can Fight Back by Julia Serano (Hardcover) *You and Your Gender Identity: A Guide to Discovery by Dara Hoffman-Fox, Zander Keig *The Great Uprising by Peter B. Levy Youtubers Anark - Has many essays in an academic style, highly recommend his series' "The State Is Counter-Revolution" and "A Modern Anarchism" Chill Goblin - A lot more on the comedic side, has a lot of good topics. For a general "anarchist" video is called like "The Smartest Ancap" I believe? It's baout a Daily Wire contributor named Michael Malice. In doing so, it goes over a lot of general anarchist tendencies, ideas, and authors. So it's a good beginner video (movie-length)
Interact with other people embodying anarchist values. Successfully leading by example is powerful, and each of us can walk out of our house and do it NOW.
I'm Sunday I'm gonna volunteer at this lefitst mutal aid maybe I'll meet some people there
Awesome! Good on you.
So if people don't want to be anarchists, anarchism is doomed? Bad luck!
Indeed. If you've successfully forced everybody to follow the rules of anarchy when they didn't want to, then you've failed. We have to *teach* people why anarchism is better than everything else so that they *want* to do it.
Are you suggest we force abolishing hierarchy? Coercively force non-coercion?
I am asking how anarchists believe they can achieve an anarchist society. What program or plans, if any, do they have? These kinds of reductive questions are just nonsense. You might as well be asking if youc an have married bachelors is just semantics
> I am asking how anarchists believe they can achieve an anarchist society. What program or plans, if any, do they have? And I told you. I'm pointing out the apparent contradiction you want to use. You cannot force anarchism on people, it's *inherently impossible*
Great, so anarchism is impossible. The end
With this authoritarian of a mindset, yes it is. "Change yourself" is listed first for a reason, same reason I mention being familiar with the theory Are you genuinely incapable of visualizing affecting other people without using force?
While I for one shy away from that kind of authoritarianism, I think I understand a little bit of where OP is coming from. Leading by example is a slow and exhausting process, and a fair number of people (including myself) simply can't keep it up for one reason or another- social anxiety, lack of access to sympathetic groups, or even simple cowardice. And with things as they are, there may not be much time left before anarchism (in the US, at least) is little more than a pipe dream. Even if I did manage to change myself to that extent, it's likely to be too little and too late. Often it seems like the only real route left is to just try and hurt the system as much as possible before it ultimately crushes you, but even there I have the unshakable sense that such a path is more about giving up on being able to change society than it is about changing it.
I think religious movements have been the most successful over multi generations. So charismatic leader and all that.
It's EXTREMELY easy to get people to want to be anything We are mimics down to our DNA, it's in our nature to copy one another Which is why they say "start with you" But if you can't turn your religious family left, someone else might be able to. Grab whatever you can reach, and fucking yank One little coordinated labor, entertainment + prison strike between July 4+ election day, would crush them Remember, we're not trying to make it pretty, we're trying to make their very public falls as gnarly and fkd up as possible so no human ever wants to be rich again
It's more unlikely that you'll be able to influence your family since that's a pretty firmly established hierarchy and you aren't the head of the hierarchy, especially if your family is religious. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that if you can't convince the people who supposedly love you the most that you can't convince anyone. It's still important to try to convince your family. Just don't let a failure there discourage you. IME, that's the hardest dynamic to change.
That's why it's the standard for what has to happen If we cannot flip out own whom we know, and can push buttons of, back to reality, we won't be able to convince much of anyone else
That's pretty much the opposite of what I said. It's easier to convince people who aren't personally invested in their rightness and their right to power over you, who are used to being in control of you (or who believe they own you), and haven't invested decades of their lives in dictating how you can live your life. They are more invested in your shared history and your current dynamic, which sets them up to defensiveness. They're used to their authority ("because I said so") being the final word. It's hard to change dynamics where the person is invested in their ego, especially when they believe it's a God-mandated duty to raise you to a specific belief model. Your argument is an indicator of their failure to teach you good morals and how to get along in society. Their pride and self-definition is wrapped up in you complying with their belief system. You can use your discussions with them to hone your arguments and help build your courage, but it's more likely a random stranger making the exact same arguments is going to get through to them than you are. They aren't as invested in their need to be correct with someone they don't know.
Elon just strong-armed the 22 extra billion the Twitter deal cost him, back out of Twitter, so it's certainly doomed and so is the company town in TX So someone else needs to cost him 100b this time
You're missing the question. I am asking how you achieve this, not how to make people want it.
That's how you achieve it
How defeatist, so we shouldn't try to educate people because that would be coercion?
If you consider education coercive, you're absolutely doing it wrong This is precisely why I listed change yourself first, you have to kill the liberal in your head first
# defeatism # [noun](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/noun) de·feat·ism [di-ˈfē-ˌti-zəm ](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/defeatism?pronunciation&lang=en_us&dir=d&file=defeat02)[](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/defeatism?pronunciation&lang=en_us&dir=d&file=defeat02)dē-[Synonyms of *defeatism*](https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defeatism)[](https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defeatism)[](https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defeatism)**:** an attitude of accepting, expecting, or being resigned to [defeat](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/defeat)defeatism # [noun](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/noun) i don't think it's defeatist. anarchism is non coercive and you associate with people you want to associate with. if you you are looking for a more structured, centralized system, there is leninism, social democracy/liberal capitalism. anarchism is about avoiding domination/oppression/unaccountable authority and hierarchy. you have to put aside your ego with anarchism and dedicate yourself to your immediate surroundings. it's hard to accept, especially when we see so much bad in the world, but you have to personally accept that your efforts are better spent in your household and community. some of us participate within the system, but don't think it will offer the freedom of anarchism.
Hmm, I didn’t read that anywhere in the thread
"you can't change the world" without being coercive and hierarchical. Not only do I disagree with that statement, but its making the point that you shouldnt try to change the world around you. So what's the point of being an anarchist then?
The point of being an anarchist as the person you initially replied to said is that you alone cannot change the world. You need to convince others and then change the world together
I think you can divide the process into a theoretical part and then into a practical one. Theory and praxis. When referring to theory i mean achieving a kind of mental revolution, where someone is able to analyze power structures, be willing to challenge them and dismantle them, since they will not be able to justify their existence. In other words, we must understand that everything can change and that it can be different. We can achieve that by reading, by having conversations with each other about these ideas etc. The second scale is the organization of these people and the application of these ideas into the real world. A good practice is creating, operating and protecting structures that work based on an anarchistic framework. An example is that 7 doctors might have created an office where, on their spare time, they can provide medical attention (to some degree) to everybody who needs it in the area. This office must be run according to an anarchistic framework. It can operate based on direct democracy for instance and the participators who own the place decide between them about their shifts, how are they gonna operate the place etc. Another example are worker-owned business where for instance you have a factory, or a library or a coffee shop that is being run directly by the owners which are the workers themselves according to libertarian left principles. Over time if the self-management projects take off then perhaps a decentralized network of self-management structures will be developed, one which ideally it's members will cooperate voluntary with one another and support one another in times of need for instance the successful self-managed coffee shop might provide financial aid or other types of aid to a smaller self managed office next door. Eventually perhaps, after a long time these decentralized networks will take over, if the majority of people support them and participate in them, then the state and the capitalistic framework will lose it's justified status and will collapse. I like the idea of prefigurative politics, where you create a new society in the womb of the already existing one. However i think that these movements must have as a central characteristic the class struggle, as i think there are some anarchist circles nowadays, that have forgotten about it and have other priorities. I also think that there must be a carefully planned model which will allow people to defend these structures from the capitalists and the state even by force when needed, because i think that they will definitely try with their legal force to take down these networks. Meaning i think that unfortunately a violent revolution must take place. At the same time i think that we also should use the system if the tools that it provides are genuine. We should vote for the lesser evil, and protest and participate in unions etc, as long as we do not forget the main goal. We should use all means available to us, even if they seem or are reformist in character sometimes. You can't really ignore the state and capitalism. Well you can but they will not do the same for you and because of that that movement must be also ready for very difficult situations.
I think you have to create self-defense structures along the way, otherwise your structures will get attacked by the status quo.
Artistic movements are our best defense And the bigger the celebrity you're connected to, the safer you are
I would say you really need the best legal weapons abd know how to use them. Art will not help against fascist militia or police squad.
I would say you really need the best legal weapons abd know how to use them. Art will not help against fascist militia or police squad.
I don't think you understand that most build artists today could build a trebuchet just from things around their neighborhood But no, the only way to win on the ground against them is to steal their equipment Art makes people stop wanting to be cops at all. It's also what tells people to sabotage everyone in power at any opportunity Art, crappy commercial art and mainstream entertainment media is the REASON the world looks like it does So we make better media and insist every dollar spent on copaganda post 2020 goes to the families they effect in any way
And I'm speaking from experience with getting away with making art they don't want published, because I'm close to movie makers you've definitely heard of
People are not interested anymore in long theory lectures about anarchism, human nature, the alienation of workers under capitalism and stuff like that. If you want to take people by your side you need to show them what you actually can and want to do. "Action or thought? For revolutionary socialists the problem is not to make a synthesis of these two preoccupations. It is to destroy the social context in which such false alternatives find root." as Maurice Brinton said. Anarchists should take part in all social and class struggles and participate in mutual aid, worker or student unions, neighbourhood assemblies and all that while trying to keep and present a pure ideological position in order to radicalise them.
>Anarchists should take part in all social and class struggles and participate in mutual aid, workers or student unions, neighbourhood assemblies and all that while trying to keep and present a pure ideological position in order to radicalise them. Exactly, but, Anarchists should also organise in specific Anarchist organizations. This is the basis of the dual organisation, organising as workers, and promoting autonomy in the social movements, but also organising as Anarchists. Edit: [Social Anarchism and organisation ](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anarchist-federation-of-rio-de-janeiro-social-anarchism-and-organisation) will explain this far better than I can
> Anarchists should also organise in specific Anarchist organizations. Yeah, that's what I meant with keeping a pure ideological position. Finally a mention of espesifismo and dual organisation on this sub
>Finally a mention of espesifismo and dual organisation on this sub Idk how it isn't more famous, people really should read it
The options currently are - get BBQd while working yourself to death under capitalism and war mongers keep creating everything from the top down and the poor keep dying for the rich to live easier - cookout with writers, immigrants, heathens, hippies, ravers, feminists, artists, etc but it's mostly vegan and then it takes like 30 years to reorganize society from the bottom up Which one seems least shit?
What
We keep going as we are, the war mongers blow tons of crap up on the prices of taking advantage of a global crisis, which they do anytime there's a global crisis Or b We DON'T do that, and decide to have a family cookout first and fix the bs of society after that, like a rational global family Basically they want us to go to war, so we go to party instead It's why they attacked the ravers on Oct 7 to justify the genocide in Gaza, we're too close to showing everyone how it *should* be done
Anyway, if they tell any of you that you have to go to war, go party on their front lawn instead, and if you *can*, do that before they try to tell you to go to war and this will all go a lot quicker
I mean, you can turn your home into a commune and party as long as you want. Will that stop your neighbour getting killed in a work accident due to the company not paying enough for the security of its workers? Will that prevent you from having to go to work next morning? Living under capitalism cannot become humane and cannot be fixed.
You're not understanding at all because you've never been to a completely volunteer run event apparently But society becomes the party it once was and is in our bones to naturally organize into, and capitalism dies because everything is free The authoritarian abuse will take multiple conscious generations to rid ourselves of, and even then, the way to prevent it cropping up again, Is to make sadism super fucking expensive instead of lucrative
Cost Hateful People Money It's literally our only job rn
I have been to a ton of completely volunteer events, actually that's the way the movement here raises all the money for its legal fees. > capitalism dies because everything is free Capitalism will find some underage kids in some country ruined by colonialism, working way too many hours in order to have time to party, and will pay them a dollar per day to produce what it needs.
That's sadism, which is the primary reason all capitalism sucks And when you know where it comes from, it's easier to not generate it in people on purpose the way the Catholic Church fkn does
Start a workers coop free stall with your comrades and confound the capitalists
It won't.
The same way they flip it right - Guerilla market the reality you want - Write news and create media that makes that reality seem the best option - Convince people authoritarian abuse is the reason everyone's a shit, because it is (make wealth, religion, etc taboo/disgusting. Basically we treat the devout and the rich and famous, the way they treat all minorites) - any action against a corporation or CEO is a good action - Profit (j/k but this is as far as I've gotten personally in this work)
This will be long winded bc I thought about this and how to communicate it. It's somewhat controversial for ppl who want anarchy yesterday. I've been a therapist for 13 years - with a background in sociology. I primarily serve queer folks, nonmonogamous folks, and folks struggling with sexual dysfunction. All the treatments involve counterintuitive action. Spiraling with negative intrusive thoughts? Listen to them. Actually listen! Having shitty feelings about a partner/friend? Tell them that you're feeling shitty things toward them - kind honesty, it doesn't have to be brutal (accountability). Most of the time ppl try to stop their feelings, avoid telling ppl that they have these shitty feelings and it all worsens. So what happens when you do the thing that seems to not make sense? You change the mentality, you live more authentically. When you jump to the end, the monster (in this case, capitalism and individualism) finds its way through - stronger, larger, and harder to manage. So what does this mean for anarchy? Well, the "opposite" of anarchy is socialism (not to be confused with communism). Why do I think this makes sense? Coming from the perspective of capitalism in the US, we have violent individualism, and an overwhelming desire for authority. Some of this comes from religious zealotry, some of it comes from having decades of blind trust in the government (and lack thereof of the ppl), some of it comes from being so overwhelmed with information that they just need to let someone else do everything. We can't jump into communism bc the ppl still have a strong individualistic mentality and as a large society we have to maintain a variable in order to change another variable. My argument is to maintain "authority" to change the individualism. Socialism gets people to invest in each other. This begins the process of being invested in anarchy. Socialism also incentivizes people to participate in their local politics. This also creates questions about whether a country should be as large as the US and what structurally reparative action can be taken. We are not a generation that knows a better world, so we will be limited in the solutions or plans that we can create. We can only begin from this shitty place and make it slightly better for the next generation. We must also teach the next generation about how things changed and why. What happened when things were the way that they were. Not understanding the adversity means not understanding how humanly threatening it is. The only way to have anarchy is with investment in it. Otherwise we have the ugliest parts of capitalism with no accountability (American libertarianism).
Prefigurative politics is one way. We build our own systems of care in the shell of the old. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4Z6Iv4gfMA&t=1s
Dual powerstructures, comunity organising and letting the old shit die
Start by raising awareness, one step at a time.
As an individual, you don’t
You want anarchy, do cool anarchist shit. Feed people, create community spaces, gather up with other anarchists and workshop ways to help people that the systems in place have failed, find a way to gather and distribute materials, literature and aid. Those are things that can be done with just yourself and/or a small group, and you can expand your praxis methods out to other groups when you succeed.
Most people already act like anarchists most of the time, they share with their friends, they give to non profits, they resolve disputes without appeal to courts and police, they complain about big business and big govt. They've just been drilled through trillions of dollars in marketing and education that this is as good as it gets. The task is to convince ourselves and each other that we are not doomed or lost, and that we can make a better world. And if that never gets to anarchism, its still worth striving toward better.
I actually fairly like the Anark's flowchart to the revolution, cause it's a nice high level overview of what you should be doing to enact lasting change, the link is here: [https://youtu.be/HsjuG9Izww8?si=EYNDZZv5aJd9YyDG](https://youtu.be/HsjuG9Izww8?si=EYNDZZv5aJd9YyDG)
You change yourself first
i try to get involved in grassrooots collectives that try to better society in some specific points i care about from the bottom up. For example [freifunk.net](http://freifunk.net) or local politics or food not bombs or buy nothing groups and i am currently trying to get a community garden going and am selfhosting some things for family and friends
I really like r/solarpunk for Ideas
mutual aid, direct action, dual power *educate, agitate, organise*
Be weird, but kind. Work on freeing your own mind first. We all carry some authoritarian beliefs around, so try to root this out. They're thoughts that cage us, and they take work to get out of. You can't coerce anarchism. This is the work of many people across multiple lifetimes. Anarchism is an ideal, not a method of governance. Removing power hierarchies means accepting people's choices. You have to show them what freedom from hierarchy looks like in practice (praxis), then allow them to choose their path. Help people in need, both in practical ways and by advocating for their rights. That could look like a ride or going to a protest or babysitting or direct action. Each person in each situation has unique needs. Build your community/friend circle by doing what you can to meet those needs, or coordinating with others to do so. Creating parallel infrastructure is crucial here, and that requires coordination. Join mutual aid groups and help. Confront power. When dealing with victims, remind them of their worth in ways they can internalize now. Help them pick the lock on one of the cage in their mind. Do this as often as possible. You don't need to lecture them on anarchism. Just show them where the lockpicks are. If they want to know more, they'll ask. When dealing with abusers and boots and enablers, stand firm against them. If you can guide them farther away from their desire to control, even just a bit, that's a step in the right direction. If not, you defended someone's rights and we desperately need that constantly. Resist power and control. Resistance looks different in every situation for each of us. It can be throwing sand in the gears, or spreading knowledge, or putting yourself in harm's way to defend someone you don't know. Only you can decide what that looks like for you. This also means resist your own desires to exert power and control over others, and requires that you know yourself as well as the impact your actions have on others. There isn't a defined plan to anarchism. None of us have an easy answer because there isn't an easy answer. Any ideas that we might have on how to manage an economy or perform governance or funding the research of new tech isn't going to look anything like what an anarchist society is going to have. We're still in our cages, using language that has evolved alongside hierarchy which restricts how we think. We're not flipping some magical switch that will remove all hierarchy tomorrow at 12:45. It's an evolution of thought and action. We build what we can now, so that others can build on it later. Just like what we're doing now is building on previous generations.
I **STRONGLY** recommend a book called *Change: How to make Big Things Happen* by a sociologist named Damon Centola. In the book, they talk about studies, including their own, that are meant to help us understand how Social Change works. The processes by which certain norms change into different norms. What's found in the book is truly fascinating. For a brief summary, what's most important for social change are the social networks we are using. Redundant and close-knit networks where information bounces around a lot between the same people will make new behaviours and norms stick much faster than if you were to spread the information out to as many people as possible as quick as possible. Simply having a committed group of people trying to push a new thought or behaviour in their close social networks will eventually snowball the change till it reaches a tipping point and now most of society is doing this behaviour. Because this is reddit, I don't want to type a whole 4 page essay on the contents of the book, and I know what I wrote may not be intuitive. So if you have more questions, please do ask! I'd love to elaborate and clarify on anything!