Anarchy in Action: Spontaneous Order
This week James explores the idea of “spontaneous order” and why complex processes don’t always need a central planner. Also this week, enjoy “Just For Fun” with Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants.
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The thing for me is this, and I think it’s such a subtle point that it would be hard to understand by most: The current power structure has cloaked itself by conditioning people to think it, the current power structure, is the *natural* product of spontaneous order.
That is to say, I think most humans see the world working under the guide of spontaneous order. I don’t think it’s a very radical idea to most people, EXCEPT…let me put it this way.
The problem I always had with self-described anarchists was this, “The only problem I have with anarchy is that it is how we started out, and it led to the current system. So OK, let’s have anarchy again. What’s to stop it from turning into this again?”
I’m not saying that’s what I think now, but it was what I thought, and it made perfect sense to me. Which is why I think it makes perfect sense to most people.
What most people don’t know, or care to take the time to figure out, is that it wasn’t anarchy that led to this, but rather the consolidation of power by a few, who then used it to manipulate “the masses” into what we have today. Oh, and then they are also very good at obfuscating the history behind them doing it.
It’s the knowledge of that obfuscation that fascinates me. For then we have two basic groups of people. People who are aware of that hidden (occult) knowledge, and those who aren’t. Them and us. Well, not all of us…
I clearly remember having a conversation with a girl who I knew was of the ilk such that she “had thanksgiving with John Kerry every year”. When I told her about my “conspiracy” views, instead of vehemently denying them, she said, “Well I think it’s obvious, isn’t it?”
Damn…so that’s how they view it. No wonder they look down on us. It’s obvious to them, and if it isn’t to us, how is that their fault (their own version of cognitive dissonance).
So to my original point. I don’t think explaining spontaneous order to the average person is the challenge, I think getting them to understand that it didn’t ever get a chance to happen is the trick.
I think that for anarchism to work, people have to be informed. They have to understand how they were manipulated in the current system to avoid ending up in a similar situation again. People would have to believe in the non aggression principle and understand there’s no exceptions nor can there ever be. And mainstream media would have to tell the truth. We have a long journey ahead of us it seems. Or maybe the global awakening will continue to grow exponentially for a while in which case it might only take that long who knows….
Just like to quickly say:
(a) couldn’t agree more
(b) you might be interested to read this: https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/04/no_author/order-without-law-2/
Memories from people who lived before the state took the law and governance away from people
(c) am in the process (slow, it must be admitted) writing a book showing how the science of the association of every complex entity, from the smallest molecule up to societies, has to follow a few basic, built in, truly universal behaviours in order to survive and flourish. Try and cut across these, as our top down control societies are doing, and you are, in effect, trying to melt iron using a furnace fired by ice. and if you try and do it with people, – they mostly go mad. Each and every one of them.
Western Anglo-Zionist WASP cultures are in the process of, and are going to be destroyed because over 90% of the inmates are going mad.
Spontaneous Order in Ho Chi Minh… impressive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4phFYiMGCIY
Yea it’s pretty amazing they don’t seem to crash that much. I was there a couple of years ago. It also works when you cross the street, the only way to do it is to just walk end let them drive around you. Pretty scary but seem to work.
“… restorative justice processes have been shown to leave victims with less post-traumatic stress and less longing for revenge against their offenders, and leaves violent offenders less likely to re-offend than traditional court trials.”
The remarkable Iranian film “A Separation” illustrates this beautifully! Wow, do I wish we had THAT kind of justice system in our communities! Resolve the problems of the community fairly and equitably within the community. One wise and learned judge in a small office (not a formal courtroom) who’s task is to bring resolution to whatever situation, with lots of leeway to present and support your case in person, one on one with the judge, who’s decision is accepted by the parties and the larger community.
The funny part is humanity has known all of this for thousands of years. “Just read the 57th Chapter of famed Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching:
…….
The more guns and knives there are,”
What? The Chinese had guns thousands of years ago?
https://en.wiki2.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching
The Tao Te Ching, Daodejing, or Dao De Jing (simplified Chinese: é“å¾·ç»; traditional Chinese: é“德經; pinyin: Dà odéjÄ«ng), also simply referred to as the Laozi (Chinese: è€å; pinyin: LÇŽozÇ), is a Chinese classic text. According to tradition, it was written around 6th century BC by the sage Laozi (or Lao Tzu, Chinese: è€å; pinyin: LÇŽozÇ, literally meaning “Old Master”), a record-keeper at the Zhou dynasty court, by whose name the text is known in China. The text’s true authorship and date of composition or compilation are still debated, although the oldest excavated text dates back to the late 4th century BC.
Yes, clearly Lao Tzu did not write “guns and knives” in English; it’s a translation from the original Chinese. In this translation the translator takes some license to write a phrase that is more evocative to the modern imagination than a literal translation of the original text. If your Chinese is up to the task you can read the original here: http://www.chinapage.com/lz57.gif. Otherwise, you can read other translations of this passage here: http://www.geekfarm.org/cgi-bin/tao.pl?chapter=57&translation=all
It reminds me of the Iroquois League whom the settlers found in America. They had an organization of 6 native nations, several million population, the entire East coast of the now US, but they had no police force or prisons, and they had lived in harmony for 300 years before the settlers arrived. Benjamin Franklin was greatly inspired by their social organization and used it to organize the new government form for the colonies. A good introduction is here: http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/FFintro.html
There are other, better ways to live, but we’ll need to break the mental chains that we’ve acquired through our cultural indoctrination. We can do this by popularizing these other social forms. Make them known, specially to the younger people who see only a dystopian future as the inevitable outcome to our present situation. Music? Videos? Stories? Our creativity should be used for this, just like you are doing here James. Thanks.
Apropos of the theme, Michael Dayah has written an interesting post called:
“Rule Out Rules – – How doing away with rules can help your community thrive”
https://lucent.vision/rule-out-rules-33abd12a46e4
which discusses his experience running an online community.