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Books or papers I should read on Anarchism that would challenge my bias towards Marxism/Leninism? (hexbear.net)
submitted 2 years ago* by to c/anarchism@hexbear.net
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On the internet I don't see too many Anarchists give arguments past "communism doesn't work because communists are doomed to repeat the same exploitative power structures of the capitalist state" and "we dont know what an anarchist society will look like we gotta wait til we get there!" Which like...is not convincing to me at all. I've engaged in what was supposed to be consensus based decision making systems and there were a ton of flaws, though that's purely anecdotal.

So, I'd really like to have some suggestions on what to read that you think might really challenge where I stand/take anarchism more seriously. It might take me 5 years to get to them bc executive dysfunction but I really want to see if my mind can be changed on if it would be a better system from the get go than communism.

I think it would be super interesting to hear from anyone who shifted into anarchism from Marxism on why it made more sense to you

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[–] 7 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

That's a whole lot of assumptions that need to be true for something like this to happen. The biggest assumption is that after the anarchist revolution the overwhelming majority of the populace will become ideologically anarchist and will refuse counter revolutionary propaganda and agitation. This has never happened after any revolution in history, in a lot of cases only a few percent of the populace were committed revolutionaries that actually execute the revolution with only the conditional backing of a huge chunk of the populace.

If anarchism can only work if most of the people are anarchists it's not a viable revolutionary ideology IMO.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    That's a whole lot of assumption

    The whole thread we started here is a whole lot of assumptions. Of course globally humanity will take generations to be ideologically realign. As it is with EVERY ideology.

    If anarchism can only work if most of the people are anarchists it's not a viable revolutionary ideology IMO.

    Good thing i didn't say that.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    You still haven't responded to my concerns at all tho. How exactly do you deal with counter revolutionary activity in an anarchist territory? It's pretty clear how you do it with a state.

    If anarchism can only work if most of the people are anarchists it's not a viable revolutionary ideology IMO.

    I can't see it being viable any other way tbh. What keeps the anarchist territory cohesive in protecting the revolution if not that?

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