so, which option do you choose?

[Digit]

"[h]aving to join with others humans . . . [the individual has three options] he [or she] must submit to the will of others (be enslaved) or subject others to his will (be in authority) or live with others in fraternal agreement in the interests of the greatest good of all (be an associate). Nobody can escape from this necessity." [Errico Malatesta, The Anarchist Revolution, p. 85]

[sensimil]

I choose slave. Being a subordinate is what I know how to do good, at this time in my life.
an associate, would be ideal, but your greatest good would be different from my greatest good. as a slave, me and my fellow slaves would know as a whole what is going to be good for us..

[KraziHare]

I believe that life (my definition of which includes most everything in existence) has a process inherent in it's design that allows it to group up and disperse as necesary. It just so happened that our ancestors lived in an environment where they couldn't survive without working together, therefore our societies are based on this notion. Other animals live in even more tightly knit collectives (ants, bees, bacteria) which don't allow them individuality of any sort. Being that humans have free will (at least in comparison to all other animals) we can converge or disperse as we please, particularly in today's world where you can potentially work and sustain yourself with minimal human contact. Because of this I feel we are more free than the quote suggests, yes it touches on the necessities of societal living but as our ability grows so does our ability to sustain ourselves free of civilization. Eventually it could come to be that a human could live a whole, productive life without ever coming into contact with another human, even from birth. I'm not going to be so presumptuous as to say this is a good thing but it will be possible assuming society continues working together

[Sad Panda]

Anarchist philosophy is fascinating stuff. From what I can tell, the way you become an anarchist is if the most important thing to you is your autonomy/free will. Naturally, if "the freedom, as a rational human being, to do what I want" is the most important value to you, being in any kind of society where others have authority over you is terrible. And, the logical solution is to form a society of like-minded rational stable people where nobody has any authority over anyone else.

Buuuut, that assumes that everyone in this society would make good decisions and would be rational. What do you do in an anarchist society when someone wants to kill people? Anarchy would work fine in a situation where there is no conflict, but the second there's conflict, there's no built-in system to stop it once it starts.

But if anyone's interested on a nice short "manifesto" of sorts about anarchy that explains where these people are coming from in more detail than I've given, borrow from the library or buy: <A HREF='http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0520215737/qid=1089431556/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/104-9200375-5052740?v=glance&s=books'> In Defense of Anarchism </A> by Robert Paul Wolff.

Wow, can you tell I'm a philosophy major? I'm soundin' like Digit over here!

.......not that that's a bad thing, of course!

[thccrystals]

Absolut power corupts absolutely, and I can't wait to be corrupted. Think of how great it would be if you made all the major decisions. I'm ready to push my will onto others, because I know it's what is right!

[Mr Skinner]

Welll...I see several options. Do as I do, find out how your society works, then Use it for yer own good. This way you are not a slave, nor do you suppress anyone. Maybe I'm closest to option 3?

[dr_krapp]

posistion of authority.

Its that way i am im afraid.
Listen to everyone but always make the final discision

[Gri77oN]

we are not on earth in the sole objective to ease our sole passage upon this realm.
We are on earth to experiment individually. That does not mean we should forget about anything that is not ourself.
I go for associate.
I will gladly share your pain and joy.

[Mr Skinner]

Originally posted by dr_krapp
posistion of authority.

Its that way i am im afraid.
Listen to everyone but always make the final discision

This way you'll always have alot of shit thrown at you. It's not as desirable as it sounds

[dr_krapp]

i know. But if people work without leadership they will fight amunst themselves and form factions. even if they're fighting for the same goal.

if you offer your opinaion to a comittie you get the same thing. but if you cant rise above and decide the best after hearing everything you'll never be as happy, i'd prefere to be lower down the ranking and know what i can or cant do(not as much tho) and be happy with what i can do. or lead the way.