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don't be afraid of impossible dreams. a tree will never reach the sun but it grows towards it anyway (slrpnk.net)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net to c/anarchism@slrpnk.net
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[-] cerement@slrpnk.net 17 points 6 days ago

“But”, interjected van Paasen, “You will be sitting on a pile of ruins.”

“We have always lived in slums and holes in the wall. We will know how to accommodate ourselves for a time. For, you must not forget, we can also build. It is we the workers who built these palaces and cities here in Spain and in America and everywhere. We, the workers, can build others to take their place. And better ones! We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie may blast and burn its own world before it finally leaves the stage of history. We are not afraid of ruins. We who ploughed the prairies and built the cities can build again, only better next time. We carry a new world, here in our hearts. The world is growing this minute.”

—Buenaventura Durruti, interview with Pierre van Paassen (1936-07-24)

[-] vegafjord@slrpnk.net 10 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

anarchism is easier to achieve than you think

we just need to withdraw ourselves from top down structures anf embrace bottom up structures

only a corrupted language stands in our way from realizing that

[-] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 2 points 6 days ago

The top down structures have the food and the housing and the medicine. They also have the cops and the drones and the nukes.

It's the right path, but it really won't be easy.

[-] vegafjord@slrpnk.net 1 points 6 days ago

Language plants the seeds for independence. Maybe the change doesnt come now, but if it takes roots the change will come slowly but decisively.

[-] sem@lemmy.ml 9 points 6 days ago

Why anarchism is always only utopia? The question itself is strange imo. Why I cannot share the anarchist view and just ask for more federalization instead of centralization, ask for more workers cooperative ownership instead of private ownership, ask for support the community militia instead of militarization of police, ask to replace professional politicians by delegates with binding mandate, and ao fourth and so on? Why is it always dichotomy "complete anarchy or nothing"?

[-] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

what have you gentlemen accomplished?

I mean the highest standard of living in human history and arguably a system whose current problems are mostly fixable, but moreover, "your shit's not working right so clearly [thing] is better" isn't an argument. Humans have this bizarre cognitive bias of "this thing isn't working, so clearly my idea is the future". See: the far-right.

[-] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 8 points 6 days ago

> highest standards of living in human history

> checks inside

> highest suicide rates in human history, extreme loneliness, people aren't having children because they feel there is no point bringing them into this world

[-] punksnotdead@slrpnk.net 8 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Definitely nothing to do with massive advances in science, medicine, and socialist thinking in the 19th and 20th centuries... No, it must be the hierarchies!

Forget that science is fundamentally based upon peer review and rational authority, which is a rejection of traditional hierarchy. That definitely has nothing to do with it.

[-] punkisundead@slrpnk.net 6 points 6 days ago

Standard of living is just a made up metric that only increases because it exludes so many things from it. When I read about it on Wikipedia it becomes clear to me that its a capitalist inventiom or atleast serves really well as capitalist propaganda.

Things that somehow dont get included but definitely reduce my "standard of living":

  • extinxtion of plant and animal species that I will never be able to wittness, also knowing others will also never be able to wittness
  • steady increase of armed conflict and yearly rrlated deaths in recent years
  • fucking cars everywhere
  • increased control of the state and billionaires of every part of my life
  • continued colonial exploitation
  • absolute inaction of " those gentleman" when it comes to stopping the current genocides happening world wide
  • ...
  • feels free to add to the list
[-] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Okay, if you want to be exceedingly pedantic and call me on using "standard of living" in place of its hypernym "quality of life", then by all means. I'm glad your 15-second glance at Wikipedia has enlightened you that one of the main concepts in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (which measures things like access to social services, food, clothing, etc.) is filthy capitalist propaganda; I meant quality of life.

Edit: If I had to add to the list, it'd be animal agriculture destroying the environment and torturing and murdering billions of sentient, emotional creatures across the world (let alone commercial fishing) for superfluous human enjoyment. Something you statistically take part in for no good reason, although I'm proud of you if you don't.

[-] volore@scribe.disroot.org 5 points 6 days ago

the highest standard of living in human history

for how many? and at whose expense?

[-] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

and at whose expense?

If you think anarchy is some kind of substantial deterrent to an underclass when we're talking about the same people with functionally the same underlying morality that create and enforce them in democratic systems, I have a bridge you can barter for. More equal e.g. economic systems can thrive under democracy; democracy is not the problem.

for how many?

Difficult to quantify given it's difficult if not impossible to decouple life-changing advances in quality of living from the nations and systems that facilitated them. For how many, though, compared to before? For near-basically everyone. Life is still unbelievably shit in major swaths of the world, and yet human life overall is still improving in most areas, still has obvious room for betterment, and is still markedly better than before. There's still plenty of Return to Eros shit we need to fix and C-suites to jail, but we obviously can fix it under democracy. We of course have minimal data for actual anarchy, which leaves a convenient argument from ignorance for anarchists to cling onto.

I guess what I was getting at earlier, come to think of it, is a subtype of the argument from ignorance. "Well we've just never tried it, which is why it's way better than this thing that's tested and has problems."

[-] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 2 points 6 days ago

Noooo don't make me an anarchist 😭

this post was submitted on 11 May 2026
130 points (100.0% liked)

Anarchism and Social Ecology

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Anarchism

Anarchism is a social and political theory and practice that works for a free society without domination and hierarchy.

Social Ecology

Social Ecology, developed from green anarchism, is the idea that our ecological problems have their ultimate roots in our social problems. This is because the domination of nature and our ecology by humanity has its ultimate roots in the domination humanity by humans. Therefore, the solutions to our ecological problems are found by addressing our social and ecological problems simultaneously.

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Poetry and imagination must be integrated with science and technology, for we have evolved beyond an innocence that can be nourished exclusively by myths and dreams.

~ Murray Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom

People want to treat ‘we’ll figure it out by working to get there’ as some sort of rhetorical evasion instead of being a fundamental expression of trust in the power of conscious collective effort.

~Anonymous, but quoted by Mariame Kaba, We Do This 'Til We Free Us

The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.

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The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking.

~Murray Bookchin, "A Politics for the Twenty-First Century"

There can be no separation of the revolutionary process from the revolutionary goal. A society based on self-administration must be achieved by means of self-administration.

~Murray Bookchin, Post Scarcity Anarchism

In modern times humans have become a wolf not only to humans, but to all nature.

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The ecological question is fundamentally solved as the system is repressed and a socialist social system develops. That does not mean you cannot do something for the environment right away. On the contrary, it is necessary to combine the fight for the environment with the struggle for a general social revolution...

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