NationStates Jolt Archive

Before I start, I want to make something clear:

THIS IS NOT A DEBATE!!




If, for some odd reason, our country (USA. I presume many of us live there? Heheh...) became a somehow organized Anarchist place, would I still recieve electricty, the internet, the phone, and other such commodties...?

Yes

Please do elaborate how I would get such things normally funded by the government though.

Please do elaborate how I would get such things normally funded by the government though.

I think that for anarchism to come about, the current governments of the world would have to become unnecessary. This is possible, but difficult. Naturally, if this was the cause of the anarchy, your answer is already there.

Cause a group of people would realise phones are required for a good country (certainly as vast as the USA), and therefor would build and maintain the phone network

Before I start, I want to make something clear:

THIS IS NOT A DEBATE!!




If, for some odd reason, our country (USA. I presume many of us live there? Heheh...) became a somehow organized Anarchist place, would I still recieve electricty, the internet, the phone, and other such commodties...?
no seeing as how those require some form of hiearachy and without it you arnt getting shit

While it looks as though Chess Sqaures typed the latest reply with his ass, I must admit, he has a point.

Whoever decides to get off their lazy butts and start a network of electricty, phone lines and the internet will have some sort of power - they control all modern communications then.

While it looks as though Chess Sqaures typed the latest reply with his ass, I must admit, he has a point.

Whoever decides to get off their lazy butts and start a network of electricty, phone lines and the internet will have some sort of power - they control all modern communications then.

Of course if it were anarchy, no one person or group would be allowed to take control of things, it would have to be free and available to all. Basically, for anarchy to be feasible, political apathy would have to be almost eliminated.

But the people who took charge of such things would be the only people to have the equipment to install it or make it work.

im thinking that if you were in a small town, you and your neighbors would get together and provide whatever local services you could work up. so you might have a local phone network if it seemed to everyone that it was necessary. if there were a way to tap into an outside power supply you would do what it took to get that power to your town and homes and to pay for it in whatever way these things would happen in an anarchy.

the big power plant and ntworks and fuel distribution systemsn are all run on profit and i find it unrealistic to suppose that anyone would drive a gas truck around the country out of the goodness of his heart. (or do any of the other million things necessary to get gasoline from the ground and into your car's gas tank)

im thinking that things like the internet that are run on big computers owned by universities and governements might still exist but they would be rather chaotic as they would be run on the whim of the people involved rather than because it is their "job" to keep it running.

with no "coercion" from a government, then people would attend to their own families, neighborhoods, towns first then think of fun "extras" later and do them as they have free time and inclination to do so.

life would be very different from what it is now. it would not just be "same old same old but without the feds"

Anarchy does not prevent capitalism. If the US was an anarchy, I expect that many companies would enjoy the utter lack of government regulations and provide all sorts of services, although having all those anarchy-loving people would not make for pleasant HR work.

no seeing as how those require some form of hiearachy and without it you arnt getting shit

Where's the hierarchy on the internet at the moment?

I think power generation would have to be made available on the small-scale with the aid of alternative power sources. Putting solar panels on the top of one's house is a simple example.

As for fuel, hydrogen fuel can be made using water and the energy of sunlight. And of course, burning the hydrogen would simply turn it back into water, so you could recharge your hydrogen-fuel-cells for re-use.

Where's the hierarchy on the internet at the moment?
All over. There is a series of super networks for the backbone, and domain name resolution is a perfectly heirarchical system. It starts with I think 12 root servers, then providers and ISPs pull from there in a tiered system.

I think power generation would have to be made available on the small-scale with the aid of alternative power sources. Putting solar panels on the top of one's house is a simple example.

As for fuel, hydrogen fuel can be made using water and the energy of sunlight. And of course, burning the hydrogen would simply turn it back into water, so you could recharge your hydrogen-fuel-cells for re-use.

Why would it have to be small scale? Heck, under anarchy the power company would own everything! Consider:

There is a radio company. Ooops! power company accidentially cuts power. Let the people fend for themselves for two weeks. Power company then buys radio stations which are broke.

What do ya know the power cuts out and the water can't be pumped out of the ground. Two weeks later the water utilities are owned by the power company as well. Too bad there isn't a government to stop them.

Anarchy would lead to utter corporate domination, because corporations would be the only source of organization.

I think this conversation is rather irrelevant, because the supreme court and the congress as they are now, anyway, would never allow us to go that way. If anything, going by the current trend and the natural desire of government to obtain more and more power, we would be much more likely to end up in a totalitarian society. Pure anarchy would be difficult, if not impossibe, to achieve, since leaders naturally arise and rule over the weak. Let's say you're working on a group project. Usually, one person emerges as the leader. This being the natural tendency of human beings, there would always be some form of government, even if totally informal and uncentralized.