This blog is based on the vision of a society without hierarchies (a hierarchy is defined as a system where control is systemic and directed). This is closely related to the Prime Directive (do not impose harm): everywhere we see imposed harm, we see hierarchies directing that harm, from poverty to crime to war and starvation.
The apparatus of society should not serve the interests of the elite, but rather the interests of every individual. Equality and freedom should be our guiding principles. Based on this, the institutions in such a society should follow the values and principles of consent, cooperation, liberty, human rights, justice, well-being, and respect of human nature.
Here are some examples of how this vision is instantiated:
Instead of government, local self-determination.
Instead of the country, small nested geo-political units.
Instead of the city, socialized land use.
Instead of capitalism, libertarian socialism.
Instead of law enforcement, enforcement of rules that protect everyone.
Instead of revenge, restitution and the elimination of the causes of crime.
Instead of organized religion, non-doctrinal religions.
Instead of schooling, cooperative egalitarian learning (see anarchist free schools).
Instead of the patriarchy, the elimination of gender.
Instead of parenting, communal child-raising that respects the human rights of children.
Instead of natalism, the recognition that children are entitled to the highest possible standard of health and love.
A vision inflames the imagination not just by rhetoric but by examples, either real or fictional. Real examples of egalitarian societies include the Zapatista and Freetown Christiania (both in present time), as well as the Spanish Revolution, the French Revolution of 1968, the Free Territory, and the Aymara people, amongst the most prominent examples. Fictional egalitarian utopias that are worth reading include The Dispossessed, by Ursula LeGuin, Woman on the Edge of Time, by Marge Piercy, and The Fifth Sacred Thing, by Starhawk.
For an explanation of the blog title, see this entry.
NOTE: The comments are moderated. If I ask you to provide an argument or address the contents of my entry many times and you continue to refuse to do so, don’t act all surprised when I ban you. I’m all for free expression, but I am not here to waste my time.
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u dum lil fukr. u talk al dis sht bout my religon and my politcal vews. wel 1st off ur wrong, it been scientifcly provn dat god is reel and are cuntry is fkin amazin! ima proud christian, an a proud republikin, and basicily all dis is bulsht and u r a dum retard fagot.
I spy a sock puppet, Goody Proctor.
I really like your sight and while and am also quite intrigued about VHEMT. I want to pursue that idea further as I definitely have leanings in that direction.
As to the moronic asshole who commented above, either he is joking around or else he is a walking, writing billboard for VHEMT. When humanity is gone his freaking god will die with us. Good riddance. Unlike the first time we killed god, maybe this time he’ll stay dead!
Steve, did you read this entry I wrote recently:
http://francoistremblay.wordpress.com/2009/02/17/mankind-must-perpetuate/
I feel that it is very likely that “The Christian Conservative” is really someone posing as so to make these two classifications look ignorant. I do think that it’s odd that you “heavily censor” your comments, yet leave this one. Are you trying to prove a point to your readers in hopes of stereotyping this idiot’s response?
CC’s message is too incoherent for me to take offense to it.
Hey, wondering if you could link http://www.c4ss.org on here! Thanks!
I don’t support the C4SS. Sorry.
Are you a music fan? I’m looking for bloggers who might be interested in reviewing a new album (Anarchitecture) by Beltaine’s Fire, an anarchist folk-rap collective out of the San Francisco bay area. If you’re interested I can provide more info, if not I’m sorry to have wasted your time. Thanks for reading.
Nah, I don’t really have the readership to justify the expenditure. You’d be better off appealing to the bigger Anarchist blogs.
fair ’nuff. Thanks for the reply.
Hey, I nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award! You can nominate others by just following the rules on this page. I’m sorry if this sounds like spam… :D
http://anarchicmind.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/i-just-won-an-award/
Hi — I love your ‘sheeple’ cartoon header!
Isn’t libertarian and socialist a contradiction in terms? (Apologies, I’m not well up on American linguistics).
Greetings my friend. I use various headers, but I tend to keep this one up the most.
It is correct that Libertarian (capital L) and socialist is a contradiction in the American sense, yes. I am using libertarian in the traditional sense (as in anti-authoritarian), not in the American sense. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialism
I’m not too pushed on the antenatalism stuff. As naive of me as it is, and I do know there’s no hope of success, I prefer to try keep going and inculcate whatever microscopic improvements in the human condition I can muster, rather than give up on the species completely. However, your discussion about the possibility of innate evil in humans is, in my view, spot on and filled with good thinking. I commend you on your efforts here.
There is no contradiction between improvement and the realization that procreation is wrong. We can do both at the same time.
You have the most ridiculous view of men. We’re apparently all evil perverts in your myopic eyes. You’re an idiot.
Thank you!
By the way, you do realize I am a man, right? Just checking.
Why do you think so lowly of yourself? Why do you insist that you (along with every other man) are evil?
I don’t think lowly of myself. I have fairly high self-esteem, actually. I’m also pretty sure I’m not evil. Not sure exactly how you got to such a strange conclusion…
You think all men are misogynists.
What? No… I’m not a misogynist. Projecting much?
i have no idea whether you are a misogynist or not – but you certainly come across as an idiot.
You mean a “misandrist”? Silly bigots can’t even get their terms right.
“I have fairly high self-esteem, actually.”
Why? You are not a theoretical physicist or highly important mathematician. You need higher expectations.
What? That makes no sense.
After I open up your Feed it seems to be a ton of garbage, is the problem on my part?
No idea… it’s a WordPress widget.
Imaginative, and I sympathize with the underlying spirit of the piece. But if there are no laws how can you enforce the nondoctrinal religion, the communal childrearing, the anti-natalism, the end of capitalism, and the limits on geopolitical unit size? Do you honestly think that your non-hierarchical free schools will be able to train competent medical doctors and engineers in a timely fashion? Do you realize that cities are run strictly because they contain extremely complex and expensive systems that need constant and expert monitoring? That ceremonially eliminating gender (and I am all for LGBTQ rights) will mean little to human biological processes?
“But if there are no laws how can you enforce the nondoctrinal religion, the communal childrearing, the anti-natalism, the end of capitalism, and the limits on geopolitical unit size?”
If you need to “enforce” them, then they are not necessary principles. The point is for people to agree on these values and construct a society based on them. If I can’t convince you of their validity, then trying to enforce them would only compound the problem, because now you’d hate me and would be even less likely to consider these ideas valid.
“Do you honestly think that your non-hierarchical free schools will be able to train competent medical doctors and engineers in a timely fashion?”
Yes, I honestly think that. There is no reason why a free school can’t teach anything that a hierarchical school can.
“Do you realize that cities are run strictly because they contain extremely complex and expensive systems that need constant and expert monitoring?”
Yes, I do realize that.
“That ceremonially eliminating gender (and I am all for LGBTQ rights) will mean little to human biological processes?”
Well, hopefully said elimination should be far, far more than “ceremonial.” Otherwise we haven’t really accomplished anything! Today’s supposed equality of genders is equally “ceremonial.”
Are you the same individual that authored “But Who Will Build the Roads?”
Yes, that’s right.
By the way, I tried commenting on your blog, but it asked me to register and I didn’t see any register link. You might want to think allowing people to post without registering.
I followed you here from YSaC, and I see some pretty highbrow stuff. Of course, I’m merely a simple, Christian, conservative Texas woman, so what do I know? Anyway, loved your extrapolation on today’s post @ YSaC, and hope you come back to comment more often. :-)
Yea… sorry. I didn’t mean to associate my activities on YSaC with this blog. I won’t post my URL in the future. Thanks for pointing that out!
No problem. You may find some compadres @ YSaC. At the very least, you will find some brilliant minds there.