Memes of Production

Oh no, man, I am absolutely not saying that it's not possible. It absolutely is possible. I'm just saying that the parallel institutions have to be set up before you knock down all the pins if you want things to go... somewhat reliably in the favor of anarchy and not nostalgia for authority.

I mean, fuck, getting five people together for a D&D group is hard enough on short notice. When the state falls, you'll be dealing with literal millions of people, all of whom have different needs, schedules, desires, reliability, and locations. Hell, as for our own little slice of the Fediverse, we've had plenty of growing pains, and unreliability was a nonzero factor in the loss of many of the initial exiles in 2023. Self-governance is possible, absolutely. But no governance is possible at scale without preparation and experience.

It's like... a collective food pantry is absolutely an alternative to a capitalist grocery store. But neither are able to serve thousands just by flinging open the doors with some volunteers and gumption. You have to know who can do what, where the goods are coming from, how reliable the goods are, how to redistribute them, how to sort them, how to deal with wastage and accidents, record-keeping, etc etc etc. Parallel institutions learn that as they operate - which is why it's so important to form them now, before shit goes down. They/You/We need the experience if there's any hope of successfully providing, even just in part, the needs of the people after a collapse of the state.

Like I said about Rojava - they had parallel institutions, even though they hadn't replaced state institutions, ready to go because of a long history of pre-existing activity in those sectors. And also because some of it has been tied in with traditional Kurdish cultural institutions, which is conditionally helpful, but not always desirable depending on the... traditions of one's region. I wouldn't trust the pre-existing social structures of my hometown in deeply conservative America, for example, as a auxiliary to developing an anarchist society. In fact, I would posit the opposite. So that option isn't always there. But the lack of 'friendly' cultural institutions just makes things take a little more time and effort, that's all.

Be Rojava. Be CNT-FAI. Be ready for the opportunity. Otherwise, you'll have a hard time competing with other, more established parallel institutions that are NOT anarchist (churches, ideological orgs, clans or social groupings, etc), and likely be unable to draw majority support away from them. A better tomorrow means very little to most people if they lose a loved one today. If Trusty John's Church-And-Gas-Station is giving medicine to True Believers when the state falls, and anarchist parallel institutions aren't ready to do the same, most people with sick loved ones are not going to take the better future. They're going to take their loved one's short-term survival.

When the traditional state failed in Somalia, warlords and traditional patriarchal clan structures took its place. If you don't have parallel institutions ready, that's exactly what will happen anywhere else - warlords and local traditions of conflict resolution, which are often not in-line with anarchist ideals.

Thank you, by the way, hearing that my posting amuses always brightens my day!