Against Anarchism (In Principle and in Practice, esp. "Left Anarchism")

so I received a challenge or a request
from a longtime viewer and supporter of the channel Theo Theo comes up in conversation a fair bit because he knows the history of the videos have made in the past so well I sometimes can't remember where I said something and I asked Theo didn't that once make a video talking about this or that political issue do you remember where that happened and more often than not he does his memory of my back catalog of videos tends to better than mine and Theo has said to me that I never made a video really directly speaking to anarchism and in my case that will be inevitably speaking against anarchism as he knows I'm not an anarchist I don't identify with anarchism positively in any way so let's really briefly expand on that before get on the thing with the video anarchism is partly a critique of the status quo it's partly just a description of the status quo with analytical description of the status quo in certain circumstances and then it's partly an aspiration for a future system of political organization a type of future society I won't say utopia that might be a little bit insulting to their political tenancy you can certainly see videos right now on YouTube of air casts explaining to you exactly what type of social organizations that want to have in future etc etc whereas that third category that they're dreaming about I think that most people get drawn into anarchism through category one they see in the writings of anarchist authors a critique of the current political establishment and that critique may be fruitful for them or it may be insightful they may feel that they can they identify things that are wrong with the situation now the footnote here is identifying something that's wrong with our system of organization is very different from having a better system on offer to place it with I can tell you a whole list of things that are wrong with the stock market then you ask okay well do you actually have a better way to organize capital an investment that's going to accomplish this that in the other and it may not however on a more modest level of course it's very possible to just identify problems and then meliorate those specific problems you may just find a form of corruption in the stock market you can say well look I'm not trying to replace the stock market or abolish the stock market I just want to address these problems it's a different kind of analysis obviously we're talking about Enric ISM most of these things are not in that melee rate of category of calling for modest social reforms the sense in which anarchism is important as the description of the here-and-now category - there is also worth commenting on a little bit I remember once I was talking to another scholar of history of Asia I think his PhD was in the literature of Asia actually and I referred to a certain period in the history of Buddhism as being anarchic and this was talking about Buddhism exiting northern India and entering western China so you're talking about a part of the world that now has been completely transformed by Islam you're talking about like Afghanistan Pakistan whose Becca Stan and Western most parts of China know part part of the world where you know most of it today Buddhism has been wiped out by Islam is the Islamic empires centuries later exterminating indigenous religion and converting people with the sword and so on anyway so I use the word anarchic to describe the social political and religious situation into which Buddhist ideas first penetrated seeping out of northern India and again India has changed shape because Islam conquered northern India though India used to go a lot further north culturally and politically so radiating up northeast out of India and then eventually getting into these kind of really weird wastelands of West the western Greater China area areas that most the historical records for China and almost all periods refer to as being full of barbarians I'm reading a historical source that said for this period of five centuries the single most commonly used phrase in Chinese history is barbarians attacked the western frontier and he had the number like you period of five hundred years three thousand times or something that Francis um so you know I was using the word anarchic I was talking about anarchy in a very factually descriptive way I remember this guy with a PhD he just sneered at me and laughed at me so what do you mean like in this sense I'm not using in a pejorative sense you know I can be very important to talk descriptively about how human beings exist what happens to society in a real-world anarchic situations where there is no government where you know it really is about one man and his sword and his donkey or whoever his people are people are surviving and I think it is important to talk about the ways in which Buddhism transforms uniquely in that in that anarchic setting which took on transformations and new meanings and new iconography which it never would have taken on by contrast in the very settled hierarchical world of the Sri Lankan aristocracy the transmission of Buddhism going South out of India through Sri Lanka which also eventually reached China in Japan by the way so you get changes in the meanings of things too so these two categories the analytical critical aspects of why people talk about anarchism there's almost no contact between them and the more utopian project of looking to the future and proposing that anarchism has some some value in this way so a question might be posed having disclosed these different categories would it be possible that someone sees value in anarchism that someone thinks of anarchism positively in the short term as a process while rejecting the long term goal it's it's tending towards so a given example of what I mean here charity in the short term as a process to accomplish something within our lifetimes charity is something in that sense I can endorse however when you look at charity in principle when you look at charity over the long term over centuries it's actually something I'm opposed to I know it sounds absurd stick with me form and you'll see why I'm morally opposed to living in a society where the the generation that's alive today the present generation at any given point of time is beholden to the will of deceased millionaires from the past so as centuries go by if you have a general situation of legislative stability you don't have a revolution that destroys everything then you have a person like Bill Gates Bill Gates is a multi-millionaire incredibly wealthy Bill Gates creates a foundation creates a charity with this huge amount of money and then that charity pursues his ideals of Education it funds education in pursuit of his ideals and before Bill Gates it's a long series of millionaires who left similar funds similar requests created similar foundations with sit with their own philosophy of education now obviously until recently most of those were very conservative Christian ideas of Education so in terms of the philosophy of Education what's happening now in the world of education education policy in fact most of the money and most of the influence is tied to the will of deceased persons in the past and in some cases people like Bill Gates who are still alive today but nevertheless their ideas have been set in stone in well-funded institutions than that that influence goes on forever and there's no transparency and no public accountability and nobody gets elected nobody gets to question it and what does Bill what does Bill Gates know about education anyway to give another example more traditional Christian example there's a very influential educational foundation in linguistics and language study called si el the Summer Institute of linguistics it was founded by what I would call insane Christian missionaries if you call them normal Christian missionaries okay maybe where you draw the dotted line between normal and insane it's up to you but these are conservative Christian ideas they're they're a major influential educational language Research Institute but obviously when you look at that both in to pull it over the passage of centuries if say okay there's something wrong with it so someone could challenge me I'm still Manning Theo's position here and say well look even if you don't subscribe to this long term more utopian idea of where this is going to and even if you don't agree with this in principle in this sense can't you see some short-term benefit in anarchism here and now in the same way that I can see a benefit in charity here and now like hey right now we can form a charity to accomplish some things for veganism or to help the homeless or help the poor cope with the earthquake whatever that the purpose might be or there's some clear benefit here and now that makes me overlook both what's wrong with this ideology in principle and in terms of its long-term implications for me it's very easy to answer no for anarchism within that framework I see more value short-term in basically any other mainstream political ideology you could name there's more that could be accomplished by joining the Conservative Party in 2019 you know within our lifetimes pragmatically then could possibly be accomplished by joining any of the anarchist factions that now exist so this is a so stepping away from matters of principle and into pragmatics I think it's really important to note and the single most famous and celebrated left anarchist or left-wing anarchist during my lifetime was Noam Chomsky is there anyone in anarchist politics today who is more significant than Noam Chomsky is there anyone whose opinion matters as much as boy hard to think of a good example here I was gonna say something like Bernie Sanders but that's probably setting the bar far too high yeah okay put it in perspective this way if you've been watching this channel for a long time you've heard me criticize the ideologies of libertarianism pointing out that libertarians on the internet really feel that there are major influence political ideology in the world that they are a philosophy that they're an approach to politics that needs to be taken seriously in any given political debate and if cinemas argued back pointing out the relative historical triviality of libertarianism look this isn't really a major influential political philosophy but if are on a scale of one to ten if we rate libertarianism like a three out of ten then left-wing anarchism is a zero it has no significance of all why do I say this well libertarianism they've had millions of dollars in support or sorry at least hundreds of thousand dollars they've had a lot of money given to them by the Koch brothers the Koch brothers are multimillionaires who are so wealthy and influential that they've managed to convince the mainstream press in America to pronounce their name the Koch brothers whereas everyone else was the same last name including Mayor Ed Koch quite a few famous people about that name pronounced at Koch but not in this case they prefer the pronunciation Koch and they pay a lot of money to make sure you pronounce things what did they want - well the the Koch brothers they took libertarianism and kind of weaponized it into a political ideology and they've pushed it forward as in various contexts and I think for example to come back to philosophy of Education if you're analyzing what's wrong with the American high school system and the American university system so leaving aside early childhood education there actually is a point in that debate or discussion where someone could say fruitfully and pointedly well what about the libertarian approach to educational form to education positive philosophy of Education libertarianism for better and for worse actually has been influential during the last 50 years in philosophy of education institutional education form so if you don't know one of the most influential ideas that libertarians have pushed for is the idea of a voucher system and giving parents freedom of choice where parents are given a voucher by the government say okay the government will pay for you to put your kids into a school but now you get to choose which school you put your kids into and then part of this is it's normally linked to what's called a magnet school strategy so you have one school that specializes in science and one that specializes in music and they focus on different areas of excellence and then there's actually some kind of meaningful selection made by the parents this philosophy also emerged out of the unique problems of racial segregation in the United States and from what I've read it is an area of interest for me but on a major area of interest there are some successful case studies where this approach vouchers more freedom of choice or parents and having schools specialize not just to say we're the school for this neighborhood but where they really pick different areas of excellence that they try to pursue that it has had positive outcomes so and libertarianism it can be taken seriously in that way again on a scale of one to ten libertarianism is not a zero it's maybe a three they've been a voice in some of the major political debates in our time education is not even the most obvious or outstanding obviously it's in economics they could discuss the most libertarianism actually did get debated at least around 2012 not so much in 2016 in reference to America's military policy militarism they've had a few different unique voices and so on where does anarchism rank and any of this and and Theo is specifically speaking to left-wing anarchism what he calls left in Turkish this is a movement that's so marginal I mean I know Theo I know for you you regard this as a major voice in 21st century politics okay but it's not you're talking about a few dozen people on forums on the internet and here on YouTube fair enough this is a very small very minor very powerless movement [Music] well you know of course if you want to argue that anarchists should have more to say okay that's that's kind of a separate argument but I think you'd have to start by recognizing this is an incredibly marginal political movement and it may matter to you emotionally you may feel there are great authors that there are people who've meant a lot to you in terms of the books you've read and so on you may feel those have a lot to offer under those three categories either as an analysis of what's wrong here and now is a factual description of banana analysis of the real world he right now or you know that third category the more utopian the idea of what society could be in the future if you feel that way that's fine nobody's gonna take that feeling away from you but I think you have to recognize that even compared to some popular works of science fiction this has been very very little influential in the 21st century and there's no indication that it will be more influential I don't think that the ideas of left left-wing anarchism have played any role in the elections that just happened in Israel I don't think they're having any role in the elections that are now unfolding in Canada I don't think they will have any role in the upcoming elections in the United Kingdom in England it's presumed that quite soon England is going to have another set of elections I won't get into the details here and by contrast something like libertarianism you can actually talk about the libertarian ideas that came up in all those other prescription ism is is a factor even if it's not a major or influential factor so again on a scale of one to ten you talk about since very close to its zero so to come back to this idea of the the third category thinking about the future think about the Utopia thinking about the objective you're working toward utopian or not may be pragmatic Theo said something quite interesting to me in this very short discussion the short interchange we had back and forth and that is that he said he really basically feels the endpoint the goal he wants to work towards or the goal for him politically is a society such as Sweden what Sweden already has today so Sweden is a very interesting example if you look up Sweden in the freedom house listings I believe so I'll mention what freedom of system is going I believe free Sweden has a perfect score of 100 out of 100 so the freedom house rankings rate civil liberties democracy freedom in that practical sense in different countries around the world and they give a very high rating to Canada on the United States there they're above 90 out of 100 you can compare Sweden to Switzerland and so on the freedom house rankings they're really calibrated to notice the small differences in oppression between North Korea and Cambodia and Cambodia and Thailand that that's normally where where the attention is focused is on countries that are either struggling to be democratic or maybe they've been democratic and then they've had a coup d'etat that have gone through history the way it's not really calibrated to evaluate the contrast between Sweden and Denmark but nevertheless as I recall Sweden actually gets a perfect 100 out of 100 score so there is a sense in which Sweden as it exists today is is recognized even quantitatively not just qualitatively as an incredibly successful society and there were a lot of very interesting questions to ask for is that attainable for England could England catch up with Sweden is that attainable for Canada could Canada catch me and then really address the questions what about Taiwan what about Singapore what about China you know who really can achieve what Sweden has achieved and maybe the answer is everybody maybe we can all live in a country at the same level of democracy and freedom freedom and a practical sense the sweetness in at the same high quality of education that Sweden has achieved the same liberty of the press to criticize the government and so on and so forth the same kind of highly regulated economy but it's nevertheless a free market for profit free enterprise if you like listen economy the the hybrid society the sweetness created so if that's if that's the destination because that's what Theo has proposed and it's strange to say but most people most people then even a little bit of research on Sweden I know it's gonna sound like a weird claim I think actually most people around the world would agree that that's a desirable goal to move towards like if you asked people in Japan okay do you want to move towards a Swedish model Government of Japan would be an interesting one to examine because they're also a very successful country if you asked people in Canada if you asked people in many different societies be interesting to know how people in England regard Sweden that way I don't think they're gonna look down on Sweden and say no that's a terrible model for a society I think a very large percentage of people would actually recognize that what Sweden is accomplished in education and policing even even in the quality of their prisons it's under so many different headings that are related to democracy some of the more integral to democracy some of the more peripheral they would say Wow Sweden really is a model of excellence for us exposure okay but if if we accept Sweden is the import point you're working towards use debatable but for the signals are you considered what then is the significance of anarchism short term as a vehicle for getting you from your current situation to a future that more closely resembles Sweden that to me doesn't make sense you know in a sense it's easier for me to to to appreciate the anarcho primitive vests there are Antico an Urkel primitive s say they want to destroy the current society and return to a kind of Bronze Age rugged survivalist low technology an architect society okay so they're the endpoint is completely different so the significance of anarchism now destructively noise okay I got it but if your idea of the future or your ideal is to catch up with Sweden there are many different struggles there are many political causes we can describe between here and there but it is not clear to me that that anarchism would be in any way useful within our lifetimes I don't think would be useful as an analysis as a description nor as utopian ideal not as a movement in any sense so for me I have to kind of reject it all another Lane I won't digress to say much more with this I don't think Sweden is the ideal of a society I'd want to move towards for me there were many things that are strikingly wrong with Swedish society but I think most people wouldn't agree with me I just give a really short run a Sweden to me is a nation of alcoholics I'm really big on sobriety I don't want to live in a society of heavy alcohol drinkers and that's one aspect of Swedish sure it's really don't underestimate number of liters of alcohol per year consumed by sweets it's also of course a country built on meat and dairy that kind of diet it's also a country built on a very Christian culture I know Swedes don't think that's true they think they're very secular but whatever so for me there are many aspects of Swedish society that leap out right now as as being less than ideal so it's not it's not the goal I'd work towards however I do want to make a separate youtube video talking about the Swedish education system and how it is that a small country it's not particularly wealthy ended up with one of the best university systems in the world what were the decisions that were made well you know what were what was the kind of bureaucratic and democratic process that led to them having excellence in university education when so many other countries including the United States and Canada have a higher education system that is frankly terrible okay so look this video was made in response to requests from one person for me to speak directly on anarchism the most positive thing I can say view vote anarchy and anarchism is that I understand that as that as a literary trope many people find it fascinating and inspirational many people even read only debbie de Toro I don't know the correct way to pronounce it mind everyone used to say henry david thoreau but hey people read books like that and they respond to the rugged individualism and the anti-authoritarian attitudes and these things um I once read a book by an American American journalist and it really talked about anarchism and in terms of refusing to comply with state authority and state power even in situations like the Town Hall is on fire you're in a small city or something in the City Hall is on fire and the government rounds people up and forces them to join a fire brigade to move buckets of water to throw the City Hall I remember reading this book and it was written in a very inspirational way and it really argued know if you don't have the right to refuse if you can't refuse that and say no I'm not your soldier I don't work for you I don't have to pick up a bucket of water and put out the fire that's up to me he was really arguing if you don't believe in that then you believe in authoritarianism in principle and not anarchism and his point was I mean again this is kind of interesting to meditate on and reflect on his point was look in the real world from the perspective of the government something is always on fire something's always burning you know it may seem to the government like the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s is the biggest crisis in the world and all kinds of terrible news a famine you know what you look back later and or you think about you maybe even if you were alive at a time you have a little bit more of a detached inform perspective like come on guys these negotiations over missiles in Cuba it's not that big a deal even the whole the whole event of the Great Depression when you go back and look at the statistics for the Great Depression United States yeah people made this out to be such a big crisis in the history of economic crises kind of average-sized there's just a lot of political propaganda about it what were people so he says but his point was it's always possible for the government to manufacture a crisis or to perceive something as a crisis and if you don't get to use your own trigger I remember reading that I remember reading different different texts that were inspired by anarchism various ways and you know what you know what the most extreme the most extreme and the most sympathetic work I have also read the Japanese anarchists and the Japanese anarchists are more inspiring because their work is derivative of Max Turner - max Turner's an egoist rather than an anarchist there is this whole school of thought of Japanese anarchism and there it's even more emotionally appealing because they're these anarchists who are standing up against the Emperor they're standing up against the unfolding tragedy of the Japanese Empire that's kind of gradually transitioning from democracy to dictatorship you know the the timeline for that it's not like Germany it's not a simple situation where the Nazis take over and burn down the Reichstag or something it's really not there's this gradual transition and the anarchists in Japan at that time are screaming no no no don't you see this is authoritarianism they're trying to stand up against this seemingly irresistible authoritarian juggernaut that that takes Buddhist values and Taoist values and all these traditional values and makes this very appealing package it's appealing also because of course it's offering modern technology westernization you know modernization of Japan at that point was a big transition forcing everyone to wear european-style clothes rather than wearing traditional Japanese clothes and people are seeing airplanes for the first time and stuff coming into their lives is hugely forward and Technology wrapped up with traditionalist rhetoric and values and the anarchists of the people in Japan at that time saying no no no and some of them some of them were put on trial for for plotting to assassinate the Emperor and you I've read the history of those trials it's very moving you can read their poetry some of those anarchists they wrote poetry in Japanese I read it in English of course and you know you have this very appealing narrative in which ultimately the anarchists are victims and they're the canary in the coalmine crying out against the authoritarianism you know in these kinds of contexts sure you know the history of mannerism has produced a body of literature that people find beguiling entertaining and and ideologically seductive however I have to tell you I don't believe in it it's all of those down to and whether I'm talking about sewage treatment or solar power or taxation or philosophy of Education whenever I'm talking with any real-world application I see no seat at the table for the anarchists there's no sense in which the anarchists could have or should have a seat at the table to discuss what this policy should be I don't think they have anything to contribute to the discussion a part of the fact there and in court we're talking about left-wing anarchists they're an incredibly weak movement but even if they were invited to the table I really just do not believe that they have they have anything to offer what's the future of Afghanistan I'm recording this video right now this is September 19th of 2019 so the future of Afghanistan is incredibly unpredictable right now Donald Trump had one plan and threw it in the garbage and tried another plan it's totally a clear what the Americans are gonna do it's totally unclear what the Afghans themselves are gonna do still unclear what the even what the taps behind are gonna do this is a moment when Afghanistan could go one way or another what's the anarchists position Afghanistan we're gonna have that debate let let's just say you know even in an academic level you're gonna invite 20 different speakers through 20 different perspectives you know maybe there is one seat at the table for libertarianism you know I don't sympathize the Liberty but maybe the libertarians get to see that maybe they really have something to say there's a libertarian critique the war in Afghanistan and they have some positive suggestions future I doubt it but if you think about all the different political ideologies that are contending to have a see that are contained to have a voice I see absolutely no legitimate voice at that table for anarchism I don't see a legitimate voice at the table for talking about ecological policy right now which is very top-down it's all about you know government policy and government coercion it is ultimately I see no suit the table for you know the inner kist perspective on reducing carbon emissions especially the left-wing anarchist perspective I don't see any seat at the table for them on health care policy on the future of universities and so and again very fundamentally if for Theo for this one person if for him the destination is catching up with Sweden then how do we get there my answer is not anarchism