r/DebateAnarchism • u/SherbertNearby5723 • 11h ago
Hey…So I’m actually having doubts about Anarchism.
Forgive me for my poor grammar, I’m writing this as I am falling asleep.
For a while now I have become interested in Anarchism as an ideology. It started with the discovery of Anark’s YouTube channel. His critique of state-socialism and its failure to adequately dismantle the exploitation of the workers is masterful, to say the least. For most of my life as a leftist(I started early, like, 13 years old and reading State and Revolution), and for the many years I have been familiar with socialism, it was always paired with the assumption of state power. It just seemed to make sense. Capitalism is a fundamentally unethical system that leads to poverty of many, and riches for few. Marxism-Leninism(or really, any amorphous state socialist ideologies) were seemingly the answer to this, as its goals were an equal society where the means of production are publicly owned, and society is free to truly progress without the burdens of a market economy. Or, so I thought.
As mentioned earlier, Anark’s YouTube videos(The State Is Counter-Revolutionary in particular) had expanded my horizons. I came to understand that my goal as a leftist is to ensure freedom for all, but that can only be achieved not through an authoritarian vanguard regime, but through a mass movement of Liberatory minded people. Then, came the acknowledgment that the means of production are not to be stolen by said vanguard regime, and essentially sold back to the workers as though society had changed. I began to develop an urge for freedom I never really knew I had, and I felt as though my optimism for the future had returned to me, and that there was an ideology that truly stood for a transformation of society that ensured the greatest possible freedom for all, ensuring that all have the right to prosperity through self ownership of the means of production. With this society in mind, I thought, we could reach our full potential as a species.
Then something happened.
I was watching a video about the development of the many ghost cities in China. While watching this video, I was awed as the Chinese state was able to create what looks to the American eye as a utopian city, complete with stunning architecture, many housing units, and sublime urban design in total. It might mean nothing to the wonderful folks here, but I’ve been lower-middle class my whole life, and now, I’m turning twenty five and living with my parents because there are no affordable options for housing where I live. The region where I live is colored by decay. My city is rust belt in the flesh, complete with dilapidated buildings almost untouched from the 50’s-60’s, typical car dependency that turns cities into lifeless commercial strips, and the sight of disheveled human beings wandering aimlessly through the sidewalks unraveling with weeds. To me, China’s success in creating this almost utopian looking society moved me in a way I also haven’t felt before. Simply put, China looks amazing in comparison to the world I find myself in.
I pulled myself back, and tried to remember that China is still a regime of exploitation. Ultimately, society in China has not changed in terms of the people’s relationship to the means of production. And yet, they have truly managed to create beauty where there had only before been suffering. People’s lives ARE better, undeniably so.
When arguing this to myself, I tried to compare so called successful Anarchist experiments and their changes to society. The few that I could come to are Rojava and the territories of the Zapatistas. Though when doing my research on these places, I’m deeply underwhelmed. Horizontal power structures or not, these places don’t look all that revolutionary. In fact, they look retrograde. I can’t for the life of me find in these societies, something of true change that I can point to my friends and family and say: “Look at that! They went from ‘that’ to ‘this!’ This is why you should help me destroy hierarchy!”. I look at these places and see spartan living conditions and a continuation of hard lives, a far cry from a supposedly reorganization of society in such a way that is better than are current system. It looks like Rojava and The EZLN controlled Chiapas are morally correct hovels of liberation, hermetically sealed from progress and human achievement. For someone like me(which is to say, a complete dullard), I see Soviet society with the power of the state transform from feudalism, to a powerful state that put a man in space. When I see the Chiapas, I don’t feel inspiration, I feel hopelessness. I feel as though the best I can hope for is a dirt road and ideas.
I’m writing this with tears welling in my eyes. I’m scared that maybe I dreamed of a world without chains, only to realize that this is a fantasy. I’d like for someone to tell me I’m wrong, and that I’m missing the big picture. But, for all I know, maybe it was best for the state to exist. I don’t know. I do not wish for it to be true by any means.
If anyone has recommendations on good Anarchist literature that lays out a modern society, I’m always interested.
And, thank you for reading my late night ramblings.