#MondayAnarchy #Anarchism
– Remember, anyone can start a #MondayAnarchy – & some have already 👍
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#Question: In your own #activism, do the groups you are involved with, do they use 'consensus' or some version of that? or is there a hierarchy?
Is hierarchy a problem for you or others? is it a necessary evil? or is hierarchy evil if there are checks and balances?
How would prefer to work in a group vs how groups actually function?
Your deep thoughts please...
– @jd
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imho, hierarchy is natural to mammals like us – but we, socialists/anarchists – must reduce as much hierarchy as possible and make all structure and leadership accountable to the group. This is difficult because cliques and circles of friends and so on form even in the most egalitarian of organisations. Mostly because it is easier for people, it easier to let people who want to do something do it, thus forming a hierarchy.
Most orgs i have been in have what i call a 'dictatorship of the doers' while others cannot do as much or choose not to, or perhaps feel intimidated or personally lack confidence or don't have the skill to 'do'.
Thus, the 2nd issue: distribution of responsibilities, of skills and the need for group trainings (which often do not happen within groups)
– @jd
@jd I would bet you, actually, that the cliques and hierarchies of popular kids that seem to arise organically in every social setting are really a symptom of the hierarchical conditioning we are awash in from birth. I can't prove it, (yet ;) but I bet that in an populace suffused with egalitarian, anti-domination sentiment things would look very different.
@jd Are most mammals hierarchical? I'm skeptical of statements like that, considering the history of interpretation bias in explorers and researchers. Why do we call the big ant that lays all the eggs in the colony the "Queen", for instance? You could just as well call her the "brood slave". Did the people who first "scientifically" described ants have a bias towards naturalizing/glorifying monarchy? I'd put money on it.
But that doesn't really matter. If being mammals predisposes us to something, that means that it's a genetic trait. I don't think hierarchy is genetic. I think it's social programming, which can most certainly be overcome. ✊
@jd In this vein, there is an excellent short story by Octavia E. Butler called "A Necessary Being" that is, I think, an attempt to imagine a sapient species that is inherently, genetically hierarchical. The more blue color a person has in their skin the higher their rank is because the level of blue corresponds directly to how strong, fast, and intelligent you are.
It's a fascinating story and Butler is a stunningly good author. I highly recommend everything she's written. Brace yourself though shit tends to get real real quick.
@yams_gamgee @jd I was about to ask: "If the egg-laying ants are slaves, why don't they seize the means of reproduction?" but I think I can guess the answer 😉
In the case of ants rival reproductive repression methods vary by species but in many cases yes they are hierarchical. In case of "most mammals" it would be very time consuming to do a survey. Many are but some are not. Case-in-point would be wolverines: oddly neither hierarchal nor do they seem to engage in territorial competition (probably too dangerous)
Many territorial solitaries will form hierarchies in overcrowding situations...
IMO social programming is often in part due to neurological tendencies like "the tribe is all-important" and the mechanisms that identify 'within tribe' and 'outside tribe'
'genetic' isn't quite how I'd describe their impact on the shape of society, but 'neurological tendencies' have subtle impacts and they're hard to counter because they're so often present and so rarely questioned
ignoring neurological tendencies has led to many of my failures :\
@yams_gamgee @jd I like thinking about ant colonies as distributed/networked organisms. The queen ends up just a reproductive organ in most colony structures.
Its interesting to consider how not all colonies have sterile worker casts and the successful formulations seem to be related to environment (geography, resources). Also depends on the adjacent possible - as the successful structures are necessarily limited to the overall trajectory of the colony thru time.
@jd @yams_gamgee
But yeah, you're spot on with the history of philosophers not really "getting" insects and culture imprintings.
"The Greeks couldn't figure out the drones' sex, and part of the confusion was that they were aware of the stinging ability of bees but they found it difficult to believe that any animals that bore such a weapon could possibly be a female." https://www.ted.com/talks/marlene_zuk_what_we_learn_from_insects_kinky_sex_lives/transcript?language=en
@yams_gamgee @jd It can't actually... recent discoveries when it comes to our DNA show that there is plenty of it that we do not use, ever. Also.. We have dormant genes that will only become active with certain stimuli. So yes, it is certainly social programming at work.
@yams_gamgee
Well, we are mammals, and most mammals are hierarchical – the question is: can we overcome our programming?
I like to think we can.