XPost: alt.anarchism, alt.society.liberalism, talk.politics.libertarian   
   XPost: alt.politics.radical-left, alt.society.anarchy   
   From: acc725@etaoin.com   
      
         Visions   
      
       [48]Smirking Chimp / By [49]Katherine Acosta   
      
   Is Anarchism an Idea Whose Time Has Come?   
      
       Anarchist thinking appears to be gaining relevance and acceptance among   
       a larger audience.   
      
       October 13, 2012  |   
      
       It seems that everywhere, these days, people are talking about   
       anarchism. Now [51]Dmitry Orlov joins the discussion with a 3-part   
       series, “In Praise of Anarchy.” Utilizing primarily the work of the   
       19th century Russian anarchist, Peter Kropotkin, Orlov argues that   
       anarchy, rather than hierarchy, is the dominant pattern in nature, that   
       hierarchical organizations ultimately end in collapse, and that the   
       impending collapse of the capitalist industrial system presents an   
       opportunity for the emergence of anarchism.   
      
       Orlov,(aka kollapsnik at [52]Club Orlov), is probably best-known for   
       his book, [53]Reinventing Collapse, in which he compares the collapse   
       of the Soviet Union with the imminent collapse of the United States.   
       Russian-born Orlov is in a unique position to make such comparisons. He   
       immigrated to the USA when he was twelve years old, and, as an adult,   
       made numerous trips back to the former USSR in the years immediately   
       following the collapse of its political and economic system.   
      
       With a wry Russian wit I find immensely attractive, Orlov describes   
       in Reinventing Collapse how people in the USSR were better positioned   
       than are Americans for economic collapse. For example, most Soviet   
       citizens did not own their homes; instead they lived in state-owned   
       dwellings. When the USSR collapsed, they simply remained where they   
       were and nobody evicted them. Compare that with the United States,   
       where people were seduced into signing questionable mortgage agreements   
       for outrageously priced homes, and where, since the economic crisis of   
       2008, 3 million have been foreclosed upon.   
      
       Similarly, few Soviet citizens owned cars, but they could take   
       advantage of a highly developed public transportation system. Most   
       Americans, on the other hand, are car dependent, burdened with the   
       expense car ownership and operation entails. In the USSR, citizens used   
       to inefficient, centrally-planned agricultural policies were already in   
       the habit of growing some of their own food. In recent years, some   
       Americans have wised up to this necessity, but not nearly enough. I’m   
       constantly amazed by the number of people I meet who can’t identify   
       common garden vegetables by their leaves.   
      
       When, exactly, the economic and political collapse of the United States   
       that Orlov has been predicting for five years, (convincingly, in my   
       view), will occur, Orlov cannot say. But he believes it is not far in   
       the future. (His specific arguments for collapse are collected in his   
       most recent book of essays, [54]Absolutely Positive.) Orlov uses   
       the [55]analogy of a deteriorating bridge to explain how   
       predictingwhen, something will happen is separate from predicting that   
       it will happen:   
      
         Suppose you have an old bridge: the concrete is cracked, chunks of   
         it are missing with rusty rebar showing through. An inspector   
         declares it “structurally deficient.” This bridge is definitely   
         going to collapse at some point, but on what date? That is something   
         that nobody can tell you.   
      
       I’ve been reading Orlov for years and never really understood where he   
       was coming from politically. Sometimes I thought I detected a note of   
       libertarianism, but mostly I perceived him as apolitical, or sometimes   
       even fatalistic. Certainly, he is one of the most original thinkers   
       among the “peak oil” intelligentsia, and definitely the most   
       entertaining. Unlike some prominent writers on the [56]Oil Drum, he   
       seems to have no interest in either [57]defending oil companies and   
       their rapacious profits or influencing government officials to take   
       some action or other to mitigate the effects of oil depletion. Probably   
       that should have clued me in, but my anarchist antennae were not   
       well-developed until recently.   
      
       In any case, it’s exciting to see Orlov become more overtly political.   
       In [58]Part I of his series, Orlov introduces the Russian anarchist   
       theorist Peter Kropotkin. Born a prince in 1842, Kropotkin renounced   
       that status and devoted his life to improving the lot of the common man   
       through his writings and activism. Perhaps his most outstanding   
       contribution to anarchist thought is his 1902 book Mutual Aid: A Factor   
       of Evolution. (The entire book, written in very accessible prose, is   
       available free online [59]here.) Kropotkin, a scientist, zoologist, and   
       geographer, argued that mutual aid, rather than competition, is the   
       most common feature of animal behavior and is essential for the   
       survival and evolution of a species:   
      
         [E]ven in those few spots [in Eastern Siberia and Northern   
         Manchuria] where animal life teemed in abundance, I failed to find —   
         although I was eagerly looking for it — that bitter struggle for the   
         means of existence, among animals belonging to the same species,   
         which was considered by most Darwinists (though not always by Darwin   
         himself) as the dominant characteristic of struggle for life, and   
         the main factor of evolution…   
      
         [W]herever I saw animal life in abundance, as, for instance, on the   
         lakes where scores of species and millions of individuals came   
         together to rear their progeny; in the colonies of rodents; in the   
         migrations of birds which took place at that time on a truly   
         American scale along the Usuri; and especially in a migration of   
         fallow-deer which I witnessed on the Amur, and during which scores   
         of thousands of these intelligent animals came together from an   
         immense territory, flying before the coming deep snow, in order to   
         cross the Amur where it is narrowest — in all these scenes of animal   
         life which passed before my eyes, I saw Mutual Aid and Mutual   
         Support carried on to an extent which made me suspect in it a   
         feature of the greatest importance for the maintenance of life, the   
         preservation of each species, and its further evolution.   
      
       In [60]Part II of his series, Orlov notes that Kropotkin   
      
         pointed out that the term “survival of the fittest” has been   
         misinterpreted to mean that animals compete against other animals of   
      
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