Disempowerment

[flexibeast]

The Centre for a Stateless Society yesterday published an article of mine: "Statism as Disempowerment".
 

Comments

[winterkoninkje]

Interesting stuff.

I'm all for direct community action, though I worry about the long-term feasibility of relying on it to establish something significantly different from the state. That is, in my experience, community engagement is always greatest when situated against the state (or the prevailing society more generally). More to the point, the greatness arising from community engagement is all too often embedded within the very statism you're rallying against. E.g., the action of Free Geek is only possible within a throwaway society. The communal praxis of Jews establishing insurance/loan support through the synagogue is of primary importance when members of that synagogue must regularly interact with outsiders. Etc. Communities that engage in direct action do so in large part because of personal bonds. Governance is boring and unrewarding work; few communities of direct action can survive growing the the point where they must govern themselves, because by then the personal bonds are too diffuse to maintain cohesion of the group. Let alone growing large enough to displace the state.