MaxChaplin t1_j10svvt wrote
In the list of the seven dominants, the author has neglected the eighth - society. Nepotism, tribalism, old boy network, cliques, cults, and coolness all figure into it. This force exists in institutions (usually regarded as an undesirable aberration), but it's exposed in its raw form when the other forces are absent, at times when, according to the author, anarchism really shines through - in gathering of friends, in the workplace when the boss is absent, in a high-school recess. This force allows some people to undeservedly have more influence and garner more sympathy than others, for reasons that can't be squarely pinned down like wealth, race or gender.
The author clamors for a natural organization, but "natural" in this case means only what people consider natural; a natural leader is basically just the most charismatic person around. He condemns civilization's aspiration to make everything under the sun legible, but illegibility is the best friend of social power, which runs unopposed when the legible forces of domination are dismantled.
I suspect anarchists don't see raw social power as a problem because they're the kind of people who navigate smoothly through it and use it as their primary mean of understanding and interacting with the world, kinda like how right-libertarians don't see raw economic power as oppressive.
GuiltyandCharged t1_j139fge wrote
It is very insightful to equate charisma with a form of wealth and domination. To live free from the tangles of politics and government, it takes a creative resourcefulness to manifest opportunities that often hinge on those with authority, ironically. In my travels, living as a permanent immigrant (i would say expat but that word has a strange connotation these days) from the US, I am saved over and over again by my ability to persuade and adapt to all situations. Some form of generational wealth likely aided that process, which is not negligible, and it is a high bar to expect others to live the way I do; I am paid well to do online freelance work that took significant education to acquire, because I had connections in the company who I also bargained with for better pay.
So you're absolutely right and I'm guilty of using that system which the world silently condones, as a means to grease the wheels of its behemoth machinations.
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