Catch this bomb!

Look a little further where it says 'this page is a part of the Anarchism series'

Anarchism


-Ghoti

I understand what you're saying.

Yet, I submit that your reasoning away of the overarching Linden federal oligarchy is a product of cognitive dissonance. For example, you draw black-and-white distinctions between player-run government and Linden-run government; ignore that there are many players who also are Lindens; and redefine governance itself as a "natural law".

Could one not say that we all live in a state of anarchy in the real world too, because we choose to interpret federal, state, and local laws as "natural law". At that point isn't it more metaphysical than real? Are you not living in a democratic republic in RL (assuming you're from the U.S.) and living in an oligarchy in SL, while holding on to a tenuous fantasy that you are unchained?

~Ulrika~

Sorry, Ulrika, but you're wrong. Cognitive dissonance is not the problem. The problem is disinformation and misunderstanding. Yours, and others. Anarchy has nothing to do with chaos, disorder, the abolition of all authority, or the abolition of government. If Wikipedia says that, then Wickipedia is wrong. Very simple.

Real anarchists, real situations, and real words can help.

Read August Spies, the American anarchist who wrote: "Anarchism does not mean bloodshed; it does not mean robbery, arson, or chaos. These monstrosities are, on the contrary, the characteristics features of capitalism and other ideologies that pervert the necessary ideas of authority and sovereignty. Anarchism means peace and tranquility under the authority of mutual respect between individuals, formalized in a benign government."

Read about the Paris Commune, where anarchists established a political order and a ruling organization based on the idea of collectivizing individual sovereignty under principles (more order) first outlined by Proudhon and Bakunin.

Read Emma Goldman, who stated: "Of all social theories Anarchism alone steadfastly proclaims that society exists for man, not man for society. The sole, legitimate purpose of society is to serve the needs and advance the aspirations of the individual. To do so may require rule and order, but only by doing so can society justify its existence and be an aid to progress and culture."

Heh, read the works of anarchists Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Mikhail Bakunin, and Peter Kropotkin. You could even read Thomas Jefferson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman, to whom Proudhon, Bakunin, and Kropotkin acknowledged various ideological debts....

The ideology states, clearly and simply, that anarchism is that form of political order in which authority, sovereignty, and government exists to serve the good of the individual, to the extent that the good of individual does not conflict with the good of other individuals. The confusion arises from the fact that there are many different proposals for achieving Goldman's "legitimate society" - from libertarianism on one end, to Gramscian communism on the other.

Those posts by Ghoti were the first sensible things I've read about anarchism in the SL forums. The problem for Second Life lies in taking paradigms and stretching them to fit the relatively new circumstances of a virtual world. In short, Ghoti's stretch is better than this "oligarchy" thing.

No, Seth, you're living under the burden of some terrible weight of mind memes generated by all those violent fucks like Bakunin and Kropotkin, the forefathers of modern-day terrorism. Shame on you!

And they didn't "acknowledge certain ideological debts" -- they referenced! And who didn't reference, in the days before hypertexting! Sheesh.



No, this is not Dostoyevsy's "Without God, anything goes." [often mistranslated as: "anything is possible".

Because you cannot swear in PG. Ever try to swear in PG. Because you cannot name names on the forums. Because you cannot repeatedly "verbally harass" somebody in the world. Because you can't put anti-gay signs on their lawn. And a host of other rules that are generated by this "federal government" or "executive".

Behind all the "fun" is the core of that Executive's being: at any time, they can expel you, "for any reason or no reason". It's their private club, and they do make the rules. There's no state of nature here. There's no Garden of Eden. It's a club, a make-believe place, a dress-up place, a doll-house place, with a set of rules.

At least, that's what it is now. They say they're making a world. But they own the servers, we only rent them.

Honestly, I"m here to not let you get away with all this phony name-dropping and Existentialism 101 Lite and all this other college crap being dished out here. There's nothing respectable about latter-day anarchism breaking windows and pouring paint and destroying property and tying the judicial system in knots for days dealing with "civil disobedience" arrests. Whatever the political grandfathers and grandmothers who are a pretty dubious lot when you get down to it.

Ghoti was sensible about the actual virtual world of SL and its multiplicity and diversity that mitigates making it fit into this or that ready-made worn ideological trope such as the shopworn trops you're trotting out. You took her normal, common-sense statement and then tried to turn it into some political tract from 1917.

No one cant say that Ulrika as noted previously, its subjective reasoning to understand the differences...RL Mother Natures Law is that of elements such as mentioned previously. However, federal governments are more so man made laws regulations and controls that are enacted against our RL lively hood.

Now in the Virtual aspect LL Is Mother Nature as they are the ones that Created Second Life. Thus the TOS and thier sub laws can be construed as a simli of Mother Nature's Laws.
However a Player Run Government would equate to a federal government.

I know your next statment will be well Linden Labs gives us money. Well The element Gold that humans treasure so invaluably is found in Nature can that subjectively not be construed as the same equation.

To think in Virtual you have to think Abstract and not be so engaged in the RL fundamentals of understanding.

then again..my meds may have just kicked in and Im full of abstract thought but one never knows....hehe

Shadow

Prokofy, let me just say this once, and then I'll go back to my normal try-to-be-tolerant mode.

You don't know what the fuck you're talking about. You're a semi-psychopathic blowhard who climaxes at the end of every lengthy diatribe you post.

And if telling the world the truth about you gets me banned from SL, then it was worth it. Have a nice day!

btw, Ulrika - if my post sounded a bit harsh to you, my apologies. Consider it an invitation to debate anarchy, oligarchy, and other ideological forms on the grounds defined by those who have written about the ideas, or even given their lives to the ideas.

btw, Ulrika - if my post sounded a bit harsh to you, my apologies. Consider it an invitation to debate anarchy, oligarchy, and other ideological forms on the grounds defined by those who have written about the ideas, or even given their lives to the ideas.

That is, if I'm still around after giving Prokofy what he/she so richly deserves.

No need to "go back" Seth. You exposed yourself as what you are back in Stump. I sure do know what the fuck I'm talking about, and I know it rankles when you can find someone who can pick up even one-fifth of all that college name-dropping you do and take on your semi-educated rantings and ravings.

I didn't build a gigantic weapon/blimp dominating an entire sim and the view for miles...and I'm a psychopath? And I'm a blowhard? And I climax at every post?

What about the violence, intimidation, effrontery, and condescending arrogance you get to climax on every time some hapless fuck presses on the name of this thread: "Catch This Bomb!"

I have edited the personal attacks in this thread. Please refrain from personally attacking someone you don't agree with in the forums. These forums are for discussion and education about Second Life, and there is no need to attack those you don't agree with. This thread is now closed.