Karu 🐲

I’m replying to this comment because it seems as good a place as any to join the conversation.

I’ll concede I’m not very well read on theory, but as someone who has been curious with anarchist works, it seems to me that this problem is at least partly semantics. It makes sense to me that epistemic authority/hierarchy is an entirely different concept from power structures, and it’s unfortunate that we use the words authority or hierarchy for both. I don’t think any anarchist rejects the notion that some delegation needs to be done in some circumstances where it isn’t reasonable to take every decision by committee, such as with the classical bus driver example.

From what I gather, the oppresive aspect that anarchists refer to when talking about hierarchy is when people are forced to delegate to someone else against their will, the important part here being that consent is required in order for said delegation to be appropiate. In the bus driver example, you are not arguing every tiny traffic decision with the driver because it’s unfeasible, but you are allowing the bus driver to take you somewhere you want to go. The anarchism I understand would only have a problem with that if the bus driver were to unilaterally decide where it is best for you to go and you had no way to get off the bus.

It is interesting that organic hierarchies have been brought up in another comment, because I am not entirely sold on the idea that they are unavoidable or even desirable. Sure, a child needs to submit to a parent so the parent can take care of the child, but also our current model of family allows a parent a lot of unchecked leeway to act against their child’s assumed best interests, and it’s not uncommon to come across people who have suffered parental abuse because of this. Surely there must be a better way? It’s not reasonable to expect a child to be able to make autonomous decisions and their bests interests can only be assumed, but it is a situation that is ripe for an exploitative power structure that is certainly a reality now, and should be understood as such. To an extent, same with the teacher-student relationship.

A doctor “forcing” vaccines on patients also comes to mind. I don’t really have a solution for this, but I’d argue that it should be required anyway that the patient consents to it. If a patient doesn’t want to take the COVID vaccine, it is a problem, but my understanding is that it should be solved at the “convincing the patients they need it” level, not the “strapping the patient and administer the vaccine anyway” level. Now vaccines already work like the first option, but it turns out that especially as the system deems you insane, other medical operations quickly devolve into the second option, and the fact that it is possible for a power structure like this to form means there is something to be examined at the very least.

I am just sharing my thoughts without intending to reach any conclussion. I’m not an anarchist myself but I’m sympathetic towards anarchism.

What the fuck? I already knew that Piefed defederates Hexbear and Lemmygrad by default, but other than that bruh moment I assumed it was a respectable Lemmy alternative. That’s some incredibly cringe behavior right there.