this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023
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Anarchism and Social Ecology

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Anarchism is a social and political theory and practice that works for a free society without domination and hierarchy.

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Social Ecology, developed from green anarchism, is the idea that our ecological problems have their ultimate roots in our social problems. This is because the domination of nature and our ecology by humanity has its ultimate roots in the domination humanity by humans. Therefore, the solutions to our ecological problems are found by addressing our social and ecological problems simultaneously.

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Original title (which I find a bit too click-baity):

Socialism: Let’s Not Resuscitate the Worst Mistake of the 20th Century

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (25 children)

Every single state created after a revolution by a socialist or communist Party has resulted in a continuation of capitalism.

This is absolutely correct.

And every single stateless society created after a revolution has been crushed by state violence.

So what options are there?

Work within a capitalist state to mitigate its worst excesses (the European democratic socialist model)?

Work towards a socialist state that practices state capitalism as a transition stage to full communism, and hope your socialist state won't become a self-perpetuating dictatorship clinging to state power for its own sake?

Build a stateless society within a "friendly" state and hope that state's leaders will treat it kindly?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (15 children)

The European democratic socialist model really has made people's lives immeasurably better (and still does). It's far from perfect but I think that's because it's happening in the real world, where there will always be messy compromise. For me, I choose the mess that helps people!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The thing is, and I say this living a very comfortable life in Germany: this model makes life good for (many, not all) people HERE, but it still depends on people being exploited elsewhere. Call it imperialism, dependency theory or world system theory, they all say similar things. World-wide social democracy is impossible.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

This is a common sentiment, but I don't agree. I have family in Brazil, and I know that the democratic socialists there have done a lot to improve life for the Brazilian people, too, in very different material circumstances (i.e., in a largely agrarian 'developing' economy). The structures and principles of democratic socialism can be applied successfully outside the developed world.

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