this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2025
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MeanwhileOnGrad
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Not how it works.
Consider a factory with a machine shop. There's this one machinist, Kat, who everyone looks up to. Management doesn't give Kat a title higher than anyone else; in fact, a few of the bosses are jealous of the de facto power that Kat seems to have. They might even undermine Kat, but they have to do it quietly or they'll stir up trouble among the rest of the workers. Everyone knows that Kat is the most competent machinist in the shop. You can ignore Kat's advice if you want, but everyone will laugh when it goes wrong.
Kat is a leader because the consensus of their peers respects them as a leader. This sort of thing will happen in any community. Competent people will come to be seen as leaders without anyone directly saying so. That consensus can be rescinded at any time if they start breaking community taboos.
For more, see Andrewism's video on leaders in anarchy:
https://youtu.be/AYVWbj8naBM
Sure, leadership will always happen at a local level. My point is that if you have a strong leader in an anarchist movement, you run the very real risk of that leader establishing "temporary" powers that end up being persistent. The allure of power is too strong that most people who rise through the ranks as leaders are going to abuse that position and take power for themselves.
If an anarchist system is to be created, it needs to be fought for by several different groups, so that no single group can get into a position of power. Sustaining the system would likewise require enough powerful groups that no group can effectively form a coalition to take power for themselves.
People are tribalist, so they're going to rally behind powerful leaders, and that's one of the reasons I oppose anarchism (I believe it will devolve into autocracy of one form or another), while believing in the ideals of anarchism.