I feel like anarchism could be a good idea. A system of society without government. Anarchism is the heir of the libertarian/socialist left-wing/libertarian strand of European thought. Rather than a nihilistic philosophy anarchism provides a blue-print for an entire society where power is held at the most appropriate level.
In the 20th century the key events of anarchist history played out in the battlefields of Spain during the civil war as the forces of enlightenment fought against the forces of reaction. A noble society was crushed by the fascist general Franco. It also provided the first arena of the wider second world war where outright fascism tried to take over the continent of Europe and the world at large.
In America there were warnings about the combined power of the military industrial complex. American foreign policy undermined democratic experiments across the world.
As the twentieth century turned into the twenty first Globalisation gathered speed with the centralisation of power and wealth in corporate hands. Foreign wars and a growing surveillance state plus the importation of precarious conditions into the previously wealthy world. This was also combined with an ever growing climate catastrophe.
In 2016 as Trump took power America was slipping into outright fascism. Only small enclaves like Rojava in Syria had a libertarian socialist government. Europe was increasingly riven with far right nationalistic, anti-migrant politics as years of austerity took hold.
Today in 2022 the mass media is beyond Orwellian. Hyper-capitalism has taken root as ecosystems collapse like dominoes. Famine and unrest blights the world with potential waves of mass migration and disorder headed for Europe. Meanwhile demagogues sharpen their words.
For me as someone inclined to anarchism the distinct lack of community is the hall-mark of this time. The fragility of friendship, the tendency to anxiety and paranoia. Post Covid we lurk in our homes or take an uber ride to the supermarket. Commerce is centralised in big corporate businesses with huge reserves of funding. Small start of businesses have disappeared. Cash is disappearing, we increasingly live in a Panopticon society.
Geo-politically the world has fragmented into power blocs. The threat of nuclear was is real. The threat of a mega destructive conventional war is real.
But still the dandelion seed pokes its head through the cracks in the pavement. Hope is an ever renewing commodity. In this age of disasters maybe the big boss men will stagger and fall. Maybe the corporate juggernaut will be fatally wounded and different rhizomes can emerge from the wreckage?
This is why it is important to nurture ideas of how an anarchist society could exist in a post revolutionary framework. Society could be re-oriented away from the drive to profit to providing for human needs. Hoping that conventional politics will provide a liveable world is laughable. Only when the whole machine begins to disintegrate can the possibility emerge of some other ways of doing things.