Paleolithic society, which needn't depend on hierarchy, was very stable during the dawn of human history and afforded its members a vast amount of liesure time (depending on locale).
The idea that there was "no coercion" in paleolithic society is laughable. There is always coercion, even if it is the weather determining where you go to find food or water. Thus the hierarchy was that nature was above man. I would bet that in these paleolithic tribes, there was a man who was in command of where they went, and what they did when trouble erupted. This is natural human behavior. Please stop bringing up the pre-modern man as this wonderful "evidence" that we can live without any sort of hierarchy.
No...that is not what a police department is. The police department is an armed, externalized body that exerts rules over the populace.
How is it an externalized body? We both know someone from our high school class that became a cop. My cousin's boyfriend is a cop. A police department forms itself to protect those who play by the rules from those who don't. Any anarchist society would form a similar body.
It is the nature of the state, or rather it is the nature of hierarchical institutions in general, to extend rule OVER their constituency rather than to truly serve this constituency. I think this is a basic fact of social institutions that are in this way "cut off" from the populace at large.
You think it is a "basic fact" when actually it is an assertion that only makes sense when I buy your premises, which I, and most of us, don't. I think our hierarchical society serves society as a whole. If my house catches on fire, people come to put the fire out. If someone steals my shit, I get it back. How is that not serving constituents. If the police were actually in the business of stealing my shit, then I'd have to agree with you. But they aren't.
With more widespread appeal, factory OCCUPATIONS will become more worthwhile.
A factory occupation is a futile attempt to control something that cannot be controlled: the flow of capital. The only factories that get "occupied" are old out-of-date facilities that need to be scrapped anyway.
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Here is the problem with anarchists: they seem to have an irrational aversion to hierarchy. While most people would agree that too much hierarchy is bad, most normal people would also agree that to achieve a stable society, you have to follow a certain minimum set of rules that are adhered to by everyone. It's for our own good that we aren't allowed to steal someone else's car, because some people given the chance would do exactly that. Without a specific value structure in place to teach people how to live in a large society, people would revert to animal/tribal behavior and nothing would ever get done. Or they'd kill each other (which does happen even today between primitive tribes, or just look at any premodern tribal system - it is war all the time). Without hierarchy there would be no modern society. That's what modern society IS - Hierarchy. Without it, we'd have no computers, cars, or internet. All these things get built by regular people playing by the rules, not by disparate small groups of anarchists opposed to any sort of "hierarchy."
What anarchists seem to not realize is that in the real world, like in business and research, most everything is done in a team (not a hierarchical command line). Business has already figured out that strict hierarchies are NOT efficient. What works is to group people together into teams and then let them solve problems with their innate creativity.
An anarchist looks at only the most "official" institutions of society (police) and quickly determines that there is "too much" hierarchy today and that things would be much better off if nobody was ever told what to do ever. Well, sorry, but that is just not true. And it won't become more true just by "wishing" it was. The real world is out there, they just don't want to see it. They stop their analysis at the security guard at the back door, not realizing that just inside there is a team of people working on something in a completely non-hierarchical way. And further, they don't see that it's because of the security guard that those people can continue to work away on that cure for cancer or that new green building.
I also think the anarchist builds up a perfectionistic view of man. They have an ideal of man that says we are altruistic, non-violent, and non-competetive. In reality, people are very competetive. And we are altruistic to a certain degree, but not before we get the resources we need. And also, individual people are DIFFERENT. Some people are great at coming up with ideas about how to make things. But sometimes these same people suck at gathering together all the right people to make it into reality. That's why at a building site you have a bunch of workers who know the mechanical stuff, and then project managers who know all the contractors and have the big picture stuff all figured out.
There is a REAL distinction between people, that sets apart managers, scientists, mechanics, executives, etc. People have different personality types. This necessitates hierarchy because not everybody can do everything. Big, complex jobs require an interplay of people and a degree of organization. Often this role is assumed by the "organizers" and I'm glad we have them (I'm not one of them, that's for sure).
I don't mind being told what to do by someone if they share the same goal as I do. And in a modern hierarchical society, everyone does share the same goals (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness).
And I'm sure the anarchists are thinking right now, "He just doesn't get it." But let me tell you, I get it. I've read through the entire Anarchist FAQ and at one time considered myself an anarchist.
But then I discovered people, and the many ways in which they differ from one and other. My message to anyone that is an anarchist is that life is messy. People aren't all alike. We need structure and order to be able to accomplish great things.
Don't ASSUME that the people giving the orders have different values than those taking the orders.
Don't ASSUME that it's always the same people giving the orders. We are all in command in some part of our lives.
Don't ASSUME that hierarchy is something to be avoided. It is natural, and it works when all actors have shared values.
. Vote not only with your ballot, but with your wallet too. Find out which companies and vendors have good human rights records and support social justice and the environment, and patronize them, rather than their more bloodthirsty competitors. When your friends and coworkers asked you why you didn't shop at MegaloMart instead, tell them (politely!) why they shouldn't either.
