this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2023
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It's better because it's a society based on mutual aid instead of exploitation. There are different theories about how exactly it will look like or how you get there. But overall most agree that it's a non-hierarchical society, based on self-management and federalism. Decisions are made through direct democracy. If you want to read more there is a good chapter about it here Final Objectives: Social Revolution and Libertarian Socialism.
How will you stop people from exploiting others?
Well, that's the whole point of anarchism, really... dismantling the power structures that is enabling all the exploitation in the first place.
But when police is abolished what is stopping a person or a group from simply taking whatever they like from others? Or force them to do whatever for them? Exploitation doesn't just happen between corporations and "the people".
By removing the legal means that enable exploiters, e.g. private proterty.
The legal means also protect property. Otherwise someone who is stronger can just take whatever they like from someone who is weaker.
I specified private property (absentee ownership), which is distinct from personal property (active usage ownership).
A house that I live in: personal property. A house I rent to someone else so they can live in it: private property.
That doesn't change anything, does it? What's stopping people from kicking me out of whatever place I am living in because they want it instead?
The self-defensive mechanisms established by the community I live in.
Anarchism doesn't mean that humans can't form societal structures. It just means that decisions are made bottom-up instead of top-down.
Hierarchical society doesn't stop anyone with "higher rank" from claiming my house e.g. to build a highway or coal mine.
How would an anarchist society stop someone from claiming your house to build a highway or a coal mine? "The self-defensive mechanisms" is just police again you just call it differently and it can do whatever it likes.
No, the self-defense mechanisms aren't the same thing as "police", since the former is structured bottom-up and the other one is top-down.
An anarchist society would be organized democratically so that the people affected by policies have a say in these decitions proportional to howeit affects them.
So when you have 150 people in a society and 80 vote for people with red hair should be burned as witches what happens then?
I guess then the people with red hair will be burned. I don't think that's a realistic scenario, though.
If a state claims that a minority group deserves less/no rights and can be harmed without repercussions, what happens then?