Anarchist Discussion Forums

Hi there, I'm new to the forum but not new to anarchism. I consider myself a Social Democrat with distinct anachist sympathies, so I'm not coming at you all with any dislike or derision. I simply wanted to post the issue which shook my own faith in anarchism, and wanted to see if any of you would be better able to answer it than I was and maybe reconvert me.

There is a scientific theory called, 'Dunbar's Number' which refers to the biological capacity for humans to have genuine empathetic compassion and therefore 'human' morality towards another person. This builds off the fact that humans have two moral reasoning centres, one being passionate and emotional (I don't want my mother raped because I love my mother.) and the mathmatical, detached and logical moral reasoning (A million lives hold more value than ten lives, so I'll murder ten so that the million may live.)

Dunbar's number proposes that there is a literal maximum capacity for true concern built into the human brain, where we are physiologically incapable for truly caring about people outside of this particular sphere. It's fairly self evident, as although we consider the starvation in certain countries horrifying, it is only through a far-removed and temporary concern-- abstract morality (It's the reason why good humans still are able to ignore it). Conversely, if it were a friend or neighbour, we would do everything in our power to ensure they were protected and cared for-- emotional or natural morality.

It is exactly because of this limitation that large scale societies are consistently opressive, exploitative, and violent. The instant a population reaches around 50 000, a state forms and with all the ugliness associated with it. A man can not govern in the best interest if someone he is biologically incapable of genuinelly giving a shit about. It is the cause for the appeal of anarchism-- states and large scale societies are beyond human capacity for caring and therefore psychopathic.

The concern I have is that we have a population of seven billion which will continue to increase until it levels off around ten and ahalf billion.In all cultures in all points of history, a society of over 50 000 formed statehood as a protection against the excesses which cultivate one we reach a certain population.

I can appreciate anarchism on the small-scale. I find the idea of 5 000 living in self-determination and cooperation to be about as beautiful a goal as there is. However, what is the anarchist solution to ten billion humans? Surely we will need cities to house and provide for this many humans, and anywhere there is a city direct democracy and self governance will spiral out of control with too many conflicting interests and disregards. So how do we solve this problem?

Thank you for any answers you provide.

I see that this was written back in June 2012, but oh well.

I have thought about this too. My way of solving it, in my mind, is kind of by using the detachment to people at a distance thing, like you said. There will always be people somewhere who are living in some kind of oppression, and there's nothing you can do about it. You might have some ability to help the people close to you, but not the people on the other side of the planet.

There will always be differences between how tyrannical particular local governments are, and it's possible to find out which ones have the most 'benevolent dictatorships' and go live there. Back when I was reading about libertarianism, I used to look at the 'index of financial freedom' website to see which countries they thought had the most financial freedom. Anyway, government will never be uniformly the same. It's just physically impossible to govern everyone on the entire planet exactly the same way.

So, you can seek out the best for yourself, and you have to just let go of all the other people who can't seek it along with you, which is sad.

I myself am very interested in the Arctic and Antarctica. Antarctica will inevitably be colonized, beyound just the scientific research station that's down there now.

I'm not sure how exactly this shakes your faith in anarchism. It doesn't mean that you changed your mind so that you like and approve of the existing government. Do you imagine that anarchism will eventually disappear?

I think it's impossible for anarchism to disappear. People cannot forget that they have this desire for freedom. No matter what happens, no matter what the world is like, there are people who were born with an awareness of the issues of freedom, born with a desire to be free, born with a tendency to pay attention to and learn about issues having to do with freedom. The government would have to completely silence all speech having to do with the topic of freedom in order to prevent these people from learning about it.