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0 votes
Excluding your bedroom, and "failed states". Or is Hakim Bey correct that all we have are Temproary Autonomous Zones (TAZ's)?
by (120 points)
I think the question was aimed at asking if there were any functioning societies in the world that were anarchic, rather than self-identified anarchist groups rebelling against societies.

2 Answers

+1 vote
Right this second? hmmm- street kids lying to the cops to protect a friend who just did something illegal. Food Not Bombs dumpstering and/or cooking and/or sharing food with each other and others. Someone smashing the facade of capitalism as it is manifested by JP Morgan/Chase or Bank of America, or whatever because that corporation represents the things we ("Anarchists") oppose. Those are some things likely happening somewhere now, soon, or in the recent past. Anarchy, as opposed to anarchism, is about how we interact in the moment, in our civilization it is ever present, but fleeting.

Bey is both right and wrong. I've never like his shit. In part because I hate poetry, and in part because he tends towards a sort of mystical and fantastic way of writing that works great if you are writing lyrics for your post-industrial percussive band/event, but is actually just kind of boring otherwise.

Still, there is something to be said for his focus on the immediate, on creating anarchic moments now. He seems to like creating festive moments of ecstatic joy, whereas I tend to be on the more angry and hopeless side of things. It may be that that is all that is here now, though I think it depends what you are looking for - there are still a few people living like they have since before civilization who are pretty anarchic, though not anarchists, jut how long does a group have to exist for it to transcend "temporary?" A year? Decade? Century? Milennia?

At least where I live, it is most realistic to expect moments of spectacular anarchy and  a lot more anarchy on a day-to-day how we interact with each other basis.

That doesn't mean that is all we should aim for though.
by (22.1k points)
edited by
edited for the usual typos
0 votes
The global squat and social centre movement which has its apex most likely in the squatted neighborhood of christania in copenhaguen denmark.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Centre_movement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christania
by (3.3k points)
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