RE: Is long-term solitary confinement torture?
January 2, 2012 at 10:28 am
(This post was last modified: January 2, 2012 at 10:38 am by Epimethean.)
So, if someone has a violent history, he gets to go to the asylum? Huh? Will it be called Arkham? Really, all you create with that is a softer prison. Is that what you are after, a holding tank with a different label? Who is paying for this, and how are the "patients" housed? Communally? How are they kept safe? By orderlies (erstwhily known as guards)? Is there no physical separation inside just as outside? Which leads me to the next question, regarding anarchism: How can such exist as a context for a community without government but in a capacity by means of which it might impose law? I mean, if you have government, you have authority, but if anarchy means, as you continue to point out, without authority, how does that work? You believe that people will just find their place in this society, and that everyone will do what is best for ... the community? How is that in keeping with what anarchists value? Just checking, all Platonic ideals aside.
Have you bothered to stop to think about why Christiania is only 900 people? If it were massively successful and attractive, wouldn't it draw more "truly brave souls?" Where are all the anarchists, then? Living within the fabric of a more reliable society, governed, even if grudgingly, by laws, perhaps? Safely espousing this grand ideal without committing themselves to the cause?
Remember, this is REAL life here, not just the "I'd rather be a hammer than a nail" songbook.
If anarchy is so attractive, why doesn't it take deeper roots, or evince a wider spread? I think it is a fun dream for the disaffected, but its practicality lasts as long as there is need for a shift from one paradigm to another, and inasmuch as that seems to be the case, we are all anarchists in some way, some time, but only the silly want to stay that way.
Here's a bit of humor with regard to a recent potentially (because only anarchists get to say when they are really existing as such, right?) anarchist movement:
http://volokh.com/2011/10/21/occupier-pr...anarchism/
As an anarchist, do you find that Ayn Rand's thoughts speak strongly to you? I think anarchism and communism are both high minded and unrealistic for one major reason: Humans don't work well when relied upon to be better than they are for no other reason than a general societal expectation. Rand was reacting against communism by essentially creating communes of one, and I think she was every bit as unrealistic as her former oppressors in the Soviet Union.
I liked this essay on the potential incompatibility between anarchy and discordianism:
http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/11621
By the by, you can quote from the book you found-sure. But for every singular wonderful remark, more of these sorts of reports come to light, each expressing a mingled fascination and concern with what Christiania is really about, because the town does not seem to really know any more. You'll note that this article in no way bashes Christiania, and often compliments it on what it wants to accomplish:
http://www.humanityinaction.org/knowledg...-free-town
Have you bothered to stop to think about why Christiania is only 900 people? If it were massively successful and attractive, wouldn't it draw more "truly brave souls?" Where are all the anarchists, then? Living within the fabric of a more reliable society, governed, even if grudgingly, by laws, perhaps? Safely espousing this grand ideal without committing themselves to the cause?
Remember, this is REAL life here, not just the "I'd rather be a hammer than a nail" songbook.
If anarchy is so attractive, why doesn't it take deeper roots, or evince a wider spread? I think it is a fun dream for the disaffected, but its practicality lasts as long as there is need for a shift from one paradigm to another, and inasmuch as that seems to be the case, we are all anarchists in some way, some time, but only the silly want to stay that way.
Here's a bit of humor with regard to a recent potentially (because only anarchists get to say when they are really existing as such, right?) anarchist movement:
http://volokh.com/2011/10/21/occupier-pr...anarchism/
As an anarchist, do you find that Ayn Rand's thoughts speak strongly to you? I think anarchism and communism are both high minded and unrealistic for one major reason: Humans don't work well when relied upon to be better than they are for no other reason than a general societal expectation. Rand was reacting against communism by essentially creating communes of one, and I think she was every bit as unrealistic as her former oppressors in the Soviet Union.
I liked this essay on the potential incompatibility between anarchy and discordianism:
http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/11621
By the by, you can quote from the book you found-sure. But for every singular wonderful remark, more of these sorts of reports come to light, each expressing a mingled fascination and concern with what Christiania is really about, because the town does not seem to really know any more. You'll note that this article in no way bashes Christiania, and often compliments it on what it wants to accomplish:
http://www.humanityinaction.org/knowledg...-free-town
Trying to update my sig ...
