My main goal is to get you and people to a nuanced take on anarchy, notably that it does not fail inevitably on its own, but is very likely to fail because of capitalism, and is likely to fail on its own if you want (but not inevitably, that’s the absolute i’m trying to fight here).
As I've said multiple times in different words, Anarchism would work beautifully in ideal, perfect conditions.
People want borders for exactly the same reasons you want a yard to do stuff in. You can direct that question right at yourself. Why do you want to have your own space? If someone comes along and tries to force you to give up your space, would you try to "get along" and just relinquish your space, or would you defend it? Why do you think you have more rights to that space than the other person? We don't tend to like it but there is no ultimate law in the universe that says that people can't acquire a space with violence.
You're asking questions about human nature that you yourself are equally subject to.
I do get the frustration. Best solution I can offer is just working on the level of the self. Like I said, non-attachment. Read some philosophy. Look into https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nondualism (also https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKUeOXz8J87Q9qi-YfBfkT1KlKyhdKhrj). That was the only way I was able to finally come to increasing amount of acceptance of reality without losing my will to try to have at least small positive impacts on the world while I'm here. Actually I'm more effective at it because it helped me significantly reduce endlessly chasing after pointless dopamine fixes and trying to get "more" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill).
It's a treacherous intoxicant. People love recreational outrage but for many people it turns into active, seething hate that colors every interaction they have. It's the lens through which many view the world and it becomes self-perpetuating. People will have angry and hateful interactions with others, begetting more hate, begetting more hate, begetting more hate.
The fury feels good in a moment. Makes you feel strong. Find some like-minded people angry at the same things and you get to feed off each other's rage. You'll not only get more reasons to hate, but you'll feel justified in the hate. You are in the right. The others are wrong. How dare the others be wrong. You must hate them because they are evil. See how they respond to your hate with more hate, further proving how justified you are in your own hate. It warms your chest, it rushes through your veins like the best alcohol you can imagine and you're not feeling so helpless. It makes you feel like you're accomplishing something. It masks the feeling that you are just one, small person faced with an impossibly complicated world, that is often filled with incredible injustice. It keeps you from realizing that you're a tiny little cog in the same machine that causes both all the suffering and all the joy in the world. It tricks you into thinking that you are both apart from the world, yet powerful enough to impact it.
Every hateful comment you leave adds more hate into the machine. Every act of kindness adds more kindness. But hate is easier. Kindness feels weak. It's vulnerable. It's fragile. Even if you're kind, the hate that others keep adding may reach you and bite you. Most people can handle having their teeth kicked in only for so many times. It's easier to shut down and hate. But that doesn't mean that commitment to kindness is impossible. It's just harder.
And so it goes, and so it goes.
Tell me you had a certain experience without telling me you had a certain experience.
Were you taught to not talk in certain terms about how your world "shattered"? Because I was.
Not really all that interesting. It's just the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_paradox wearing the cape of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism
Without the fancy jargon, the argument is "All people must be free to do whatever they want (the paradox part they don't say out loud is: except form a consensus)"
If you resolve the paradox, what you're left with is exactly the same world we have now: everyone is free to do exactly what they want, including forming a consensus (that may restrict the freedom of the individual)
It's a philosophical sleight of hand that's easy to hide in grandiose and virtuous rhetoric. I've seen it often from the Libertarian Right, and I suspect so have others on Lemmy.
I recommend you check out analytic idealism instead:
Noted, you have successfully got me to edit my first post. I await the results of this revolution.
You are absolutely correct on all points. Now what do you propose we do about it?
You’re arguing with a straw man. The point isn’t that billionaires are the sole reason these things exist in some abstract sense - it’s that, in the world we actually live in right now, they control the levers that determine whether you have access to them at all. Nothing that we have right now could be possible if not for everything that came before it. So unless you invent a time machine, you're arguing beside the point.
Sure it will. We aren't the first creatures or even people to witness what we take to be the end of the world. You can grieve it and do your best to resist it if you so feel called. If you can do so out of love for whatever it is that you value. My gratitude and respect if so.
Just stop believing that it is "bad". Which is NOT the same as saying it's "good". It's just the natural consequence of everything that has happened so far. Or do you shake your fist at the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs? Have you given a good talking to at the volcanoes in Siberia for wiping out nearly all life in the Great Dying? Or any number of other events that led to mass extinctions. Human nature is also just a natural consequence and we're a microscopic blip in Earth's history. Cherish what is here now and do what you're called to do out of love for what you want to protect but you'll spare yourself a lot of meta-suffering if you can give up the idea that there's some right or wrong way for history to go. There's just what is advantageous for humanity and what isn't. I'm aligned with the former but I don't believe that humanity should or shouldn't exist.
Yeeees and unfortunately it can get very meta: "I need to think critically" is another "what" to think. Most people would agree that critical thinking is a good thing. Yet, they still fail to actually do it. When pressed, many people can't even define is means to think critically and even get really pissed when this gets highlighted.
Also to @BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
Unironically, you are 100% correct.
People don't know how good they have it. It's ironic that being on Lemmy is likely to speak volumes about one's level of luxury yet people here really, really don't like to be reminded that they are probably doing way better than most people in the world. Definitely unimaginably better than most people in the world in all history.
Yeah the top 1% sucks and capitalism has to be reigned in but there's a lot of people here who are only interested in wallowing in their self-pity with the occasional whimper about how Communism/Socialism/Anarchism etc. would be a totally better system if not for capitalism and if everyone just agreed to do it (and somehow they actually don't see the problem with the argument). They make these posts and then pat themselves on the back about what good activists they are and then return to bitching about things happening half-way across the world but never give a single thought to doing something in their local community (because that would require actually dealing with real humans).
It's kinda like the flip side of people who bitch about taxes not doing anything, while using infrastructure, probably in some level of safety, benefitting from public healthcare (if applicable) and schools etc. but because they're just used to it, they don't realize how big of a difference it makes. Most people on Lemmy have 0 concept of what it's actually like living in an oppressive and corrupt regime. They are addicted to misery because it gives them the reason to be inactive and permanentley outraged. They buy into all the doomscrolling (on their luxury devices, during their luxurious amount of free time) about how much things suck and of course, this just aids the capitalistic system because passive people seething at home about the injustices in the world are always better than active people on the streets trying to actually make a change happen.
What people would need to do: consciously practice gratitude (this gives you energy) over what they have and especially who they have in their life, find LOCAL opportunities to engage in activism and connect with people (opportunities to practice what you preach too).
What's easier to do: sit on your device, get angry about another injustice in the world, feel exhausted with "all the bad stuff in the world", don't do anything but post another meme that perpetuates the cycle.
Also, inb4 Mr. Gotcha meme. Yeah, go ahead, compare yourself to a serf who couldn't even imagine the level of comfort you're living in.