Hello all,
Just posting a message to see if there are any Lib-Socialists up in here? To be honest, my purely ideological views line up most closely with anarcho-primitivism, but since I find it to be way out of step with the state of our current social arrangements, it is therefore rather unproductive in my opinion, though interesting to consider. Before August, I had lived in Keene for three years as a student at KSC and I will be returning either in the summer or the fall. I have been living in Philadelphia since August, staffing at an anarchist bookstore down here called the Wooden Shoe. The bookstore is not-for-profit, all-volunteer, and collectively run. The anarchist scene here is very into mutualism and very left-oriented, as am I. I will say that I am an anti-capitalist before I am an anti-statist, though I view the state as having the primary function of controlling property. In theory, I am against private property, but I realize its culturally ingrained importance, so I am interested in the establishment of collective property and local, voluntary economies. I am big into feminist, racial, queer, economic, environmental and social justice, equality, and freedom, all of which I see as being interlinked.
I must admit because of my very left-leaning beliefs I stayed away from you folks for the past few years, but I understand there are a variety of views involved and I'm even interested in having discussions with more capitalistic individuals, providing they are courteous and respectful.
Specifically, I am wondering if there is anyone interested in renting out a place with me (starting in June) in which we would live as collectively as possible, and focus on radical sustainability and building a garden. Vegetarians preferred, but if you stick with locally raised meat, that's cool too.
Also, if you yourself are not into "left" anarchism, but know people who are, please connect us!
all the best,
Thom
Welcome to the forum, Thom. I split off the debate and formed a new thread in the general discussion with the chopped replies. Just want to keep your intro thread on topic.
Hi Thom,
Those people have been around and may still be. I don't really pay much attention to people's beliefs regarding organization. I don't know who is a "capitalist" and who isn't. Most of the people I have encountered are only interested in ending aggression in human relationships. Beyond that is no concern of mine. I figure it will all work out.
I know there's a socialist anarchist who visits FK frequently, who's from a different part of NH. I've briefly met maybe two or three others in the Keene area, though I haven't seen them here. (Maybe you were one of them.)
Mutualists seem to be more common. There's at least one that's very involved in the activism here. (Possibly more-- I haven't made much effort to keep track of activists and their ideologies.)
Guess I'll direct them here for you.
In my experience, libertarian socialists–or mutualists, or whatever they call themselves to disguise what they are–invariably usurp the prerogative to freelance their beliefs. Which is to say, keep a close watch on your property whenever they're around, as they'll always demonstrate a "What's yours is mine" ethic as long as it's entirely to their own advantage. If you're the exception, fine, but you'll have a lot of bad behavior by your predecessors to answer for.
I'm very skeptical.
Voluntary socialism has only reached a very small level of success in self-selected religious convents - Catholic, Buddhist, Shaolin, etc. And there's some debate whether those can really be counted as "voluntary", because they often existed as parasitic entities, relying on donations from populations that did not have freedom of speech or religion. Aside from that, voluntary socialism has a very long history of failure after failure after failure…
You of course should be free to fail yet again, just as long as you can do it on legitimately acquired property and with all adults being there by choice.
This is the cool anarcho-socialist girl who posts here regularly:
What If Free Keene Were Socialist?
(She says she doesn't have a forum account-- just comments on the blog.)
Anarcho-Socialists create a power-vacuum which inevitably gets filled with a Kim Jong-il and millions of people get slaughtered.
Capitalists tightly fill the power-sphere with Individual Rights, including the obviously necessary Right to Property, and the only casualties are the freeloaders who find private charity more demanding that they make an effort toward getting a job…