IMO that depends on what you mean by "religion". Its a real double-edged sword. Religion usually refers to churches as institutions. The first duty of any institution is to its own survival. That is inconsistent with a duty to God. On the other hand religions are how faith has survived to be passed on. Imperfect, like everything human.
I agree. Though my point was mainly with the idea of "i do it because god tells me to" as a basis for the structure of society.
I accept that, but total absence of rules leads inevitably to chaos where survival of the fittest in the absence of control mechanisms elevates the strongest to positions of advantage.
Well, i'd disagee. Humans, by nature, crave order. I don't think chaos could possibly exist, to be honest. Society will always order itself. By overthrowing the bourgeoisie and the workers seizing the means of production
as a part of the revolution, the People will have the power to organise society how they like, since ultimately, the workers will also be the local residents.
I don't disfavour the goal. I think that 8,000+ years of history tend to establish that peace requires controls, as much as they tend to be abused.
Good to know. But the question is, exactly how much peace do we have today? I feel that it is usually the State diving conflict, and if that is abolished, then that factor is removed. I am not arguing, however, that there will
necessarily be any less - certainly never no - conflict. I don't know that. But i doubt there would be more, however that is to be quantified.
Not on my side yet?
If you are a lefty, or better yet, a socialist of sorts, i have been on your side since the start of the conversation. This is merely a disagreement.
Communities yes, but modern societies? The problem communities make for your argument is that they are likely not self-sustaining but depend on the larger society around them.
Well, actually there have been communities that are entirely self-sustaining, but as far as i'm aware, they've been mostly agrarian.
In response to the point, however, i would see this as a good thing. If you consider that a lot of communities operate cooperative enterprises to help sustain and develop them, obviously, it doesn't provide all their needs. What it does, is it sells to people and uses the money to purchase the things it requires. This is selling to and buying from people outside the community. This is good, since it would mean interdependency, and would mean better relations with others in society.
It's really not good to isolate oneself.
However I still maintain that in any modern society as a whole anarchism is unworkable and anti-middle class, because people need rules and rules ultimately need enforcement.
Before anything else, i'd state that it's not anti-middle class, it'd be, i suppose, middle class agnostic, if you will. It's pretty much a working class movement against the rich owners of industry. The middle class are basically priveleged workers. They don't really lose or gain - if anythng it's a net gain. On the minus side, they don't have anyone to boss around, on the plus side, they aren't bossed around from above. On the plus side, they have a more direct influence on decision-making, on the minus side, they'd share it with the other workers. It really depends on the individual's personal feelings. It's often stated in socialist literature that some of the middle class will join the bosses and some of them will join us.
Now, i don't think that rules are necessarily the best basis for a society. Firstly, obviously, having a rule does not mean you remove what you perceive to be a problem. For example, it's illegal to smoke cannabis, but that doesn't mean people don't do it. Secondly, sticking to the example, it becomes "rebellious" to do it, because its illegal. Thirdly, enforcement and coercion can be used interchangeably, since laws are maintained by coercive institutions. Fourthly, laws prescribe punishment to remedy the situation, rather than rehabilitation and combatting the social ills that caused them. Fifthly, i'm concerned that a society of excessive laws (particularly with excessive force used to maintain them) will blindly and obediently follow. And also, laws can be used by people in power to satisfy their own agendas.
To quote Rocker:
Rudolf Rocker said:
I am an Anarchist not because I believe Anarchism is the final goal, but because there is no such thing as a final goal.
You're actually talking to a former communist here, so i know what it's like to be a utopian. But i'm not a utopian any more. I am an anarchist because i recognise that the state will always seek power, and it will get that power through money. And so the people with money - namely the bourgeoisie (the bosses) - will always be able to utilise the state to meet their designs. And so you get rid of the state. Society is not going to be perfect without the state. I doubt it would be any worse, though. It's simply going to be different - very different. And without the state in the way, it will facilitate the possibility of making things better. I don't believe anything can be perfect - for example, philosophically, i'm a sceptic - but we can make things better. And you do that by removing obstacles. For example, the state, homophobia, bosses, poverty, inequality, racism, war... most abstract concepts we can't be rid of in their entirety, but making progress makes the world a better (though never perfect) place.