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Covid-24 threatens Anarchist utopia!
Jonathan writes in response to my recent post about alienated labour and the state.
How would a future stateless Anarchist utopia deal effectively with a pandemic? Isn’t it akin to a war? And in such situations don’t you need executive authority, law enforcement and citizens who obediently follow the rules? Just not sure a ‘patchwork of voluntary groups’ would get their act together effectively!
OK just to make this perfectly clear at the outset. Given the fact that we have capitalism, the state and representative democracy, I think the lockdowns make a lot of sense at the present time. Have talked about this in previous Facebook posts.
So, this post is about what an anarchist society at some future time would do about a pandemic like the one we have now. Let’s call it Covid-24. This is a little bit sci fi, there is no getting away from that.
Anarchists distinguish between leadership and command. When people willingly take up the suggestions of a leading expert, that is quite compatible with an egalitarian stateless society. When a society generally works through command — you had better do what you are told or else, then we have a state. In current capitalism, command is not just enforcement by the police. The police back up a system in which economic compulsion forces almost everyone to work in a paid job — under the command of their employers.
My view is that some degree of command is inevitable in any society, including an anarchist utopia. The revolution itself is an exercise in command. The vast majority command the ruling class to give up their ownership of the means of production. After that, an anarchist utopia would exercise command only in exceptional situations — where the vast majority are extremely concerned by the actions of a very small minority. Most decisions would be negotiated. The aim would be for all parties to retain autonomy in controlling their lives.
So here we are in Australia and it is 2074 and the anarchist utopia is well established. For the sake of the environment and given the limitations of renewable energy, most people are living close to where they grow their food. So, there are small towns and villages strung out through a largely rural landscape with a lot of native forests in between. These are linked by rail — running on solar power when the sun is shining and wind power when the wind is up. Each township produces a lot of stuff for local consumption or sharing via the net — food, housing, furniture, clothes, entertainment, the arts. In addition, there is high tech specialisation. Towns and villages make things that must be exchanged physically with other villages — industrial goods or parts of industrial goods. Or maybe they have a specialist facility, such as a high-tech medical faculty and hospital. Despite their physical separation, these rural towns and villages are not socially isolated. There is a lot of communication through the internet.
It becomes clear from the news on the internet that Covid 24 is spreading within other countries. Liaison between medical clubs informs local specialists of the nature and extent of the problem and of any relevant research as it comes out. Towns and villages in Victoria send medical representatives to a gathering at Bathurst which has a high-tech medical facility. These experts work out the options and decide on a plan that they think will work. When these experts get back to their towns and villages, there are town meetings. The vast majority of these meetings endorse the plans of the medical experts. The decision is that all towns and villages will be quarantined until such time as a vaccine is worked out. Trains will still run but only essential travel will take place. The only industrial goods that will be moved by train are those required for medical use to deal with the pandemic. Other than that, villages will be self-sufficient. They will use the stocks they already have in storage for industrial supplies that they normally receive from other towns and villages. Because all food and most other necessities are being produced locally this is not a huge drama. The local train club in each settlement communicates on the net with the train clubs in other villages and they organize the following protocols. Workers on the trains will get out onto the platform at a town with full PPE, leaving the goods on the platform and returning to their train. Locals in full PPE will disinfect the packages after they leave and distribute them. After six months, if all this is working well, these rules will be relaxed to permit more exchange of industrial goods, and to allow some travel for those with a strong necessity to go to another village. This would depend on quarantine hostels being constructed and staffed. Similar protocols would apply to international exchanges via sailing ships and airships. This is just a sketch. Other Covid-24 issues would be dealt with in the same way — so far as decision making and authority is concerned.
After two years, medical staff at Townsville, working via the net with other international experts, develop a vaccine and the problem is sorted.
There are few motives for individual resistance to these plans. No one is in any danger of losing security in their house or access to anything they need for a good life. The virus is easy to contain as towns and villages are physically separated by forests and largely self-sufficient in material goods.
Nevertheless, there are always a few people who have a strong desire to travel whatever the rules. John always intended to visit his new grandchild in Margaret River. He manages to sneak past the railway staff at his home in Ballarat and board the train. When he arrives at Margaret River the railway staff there call up the local martial arts club and the local counselling service. They arrive in full PPE and persuade John to accompany them to a fully secure hostel for two weeks to quarantine. He has to agree to counselling sessions to help him with underlying emotional problems. Either that, or he just gets back on the train. An exercise of command.
What about the whole villages which do not want to go along with these plans? A few villages vote against these proposals and refuse to go along with the protocols implemented at large. Since the vast majority of settlements have endorsed these plans, these few holdout villages do not have many options. No train workers will take people from their village to other villages or carry their non-essential industrial goods on the trains. If they arrive on foot through the forest in a majority village they will be detained by the local martial arts club and quarantined. For the majority villages, the decision of a few holdout villages to ‘refuse’ the lockdown protocols is not a huge problem.
Let us imagine an unlikely event in which one of these holdout villages decided to block the trains in protest. This could be a real problem if essential goods were routed through their village station. There could be a number of options. At the extreme and unlikely end, the majority of towns and villages might raise a small army to force the issue — and at least ensure that the trains can continue to run. An exercise of command. More likely, a solution of some kind would be negotiated. Perhaps that part of the track would be temporarily abandoned for through traffic. Buses and trucks (run on biodiesel) would carry goods and services around that blockage for the time being, just like what happens now with track work.
Is this kind of utopian fantasy helpful? Perhaps for some. Others may be perfectly happy to live in the now. Others may find my fantasy repellent, impossible or whatever. For me it is a bit like a guided meditation. What would things be like if everything went as well as we could hope for in the next fifty years?