Anarchy is a political structure where there’s basically no one in charge, right? But wouldn’t that just create a power vacuum that would filled by organized crime, corporations, etc.? Then, after that power vacuum is filled, we’re right back at square one, and someone is in charge.
Are there any political theorists that have come up with a solution to this problem?
Yes, but you’re thinking pragmatically. Like how it would work in the real world.
Anarchy is an ideal theory. It’s not a practical or pragmatic one. It is argued for in comparison to other ideal theories.
Pretty much every political theory breaks down when subjected to pragmatic real world problems.
This rings 100% true for me in regards to anarchism, communism, capitalism, socialism, feudalism… Pretty much any organisational structure that mankind has or will ever conceive.
People are difficult, irrational and unpredictable. Put a whole bunch of people together on a plot of land, multiply that 1 billion times over and you get the unfathomable clusterfuck that is modern civilization. Not even being defeatist about it, just pointing out the factual reality that the perfect society does not and will never exist, far from it. I am aware I’m rambling on and pointing out the obvious here.
well, at least until aliens invade.
people tend to be remarkable cooperative when faced with an external existential threat. most countries cohere quite well when they are in a state of war.
We got covid, and a lot of countries governments took advantage of it and spread misinformation and active vaccine denial. That’s about as close to an alien invasion as we’re gonna get, and we kinda failed disastrously at it.
I used to think we’d come together over an external threat too. Now I’m not so sure. In fact, we might even get people denying that it’s even happening.
Counterpoint in the US at least: Covid.
that wasn’t an external threat. it was an internal one
This about the external threat… the uniting against, was always against other humans from near around. Almost against neighbours. There is still a destruction of our planet where we are not united against. And there is even less unitedness for a fight against warmongering countries.
I think of anarchy like a guiding ideal: flatten hierarchies.
You can’t eliminate hierarchies. If you eliminate “official” hierarchies, you lack measures to prevent individuals from exerting their will over other individuals by force, which is just another hierarchy. As long as one person can swing a club at another, you have a naturally emergent hierarchy. Once you’ve created a group of people to stop people from swinging clubs at other people, you’ve invented a hierarchy.
The anarchic ideal would be a system of organization to minimize the club-swinging. The proverbial sweet spot between preventing oppression without being oppressive. But it all ultimately comes down to club-swinging, you can’t have a purely anarchic system without enabling private power. The best you can do is aim for the flattest possible hierarchy.