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[ded_maxim]

"So you talk about mobs and the working classes as if they were the question. You've got that eternal idiotic idea that if anarchy came it would come from the poor. Why should it? the poor have been rebels, but they have never been anarchists; they have more interest than anyone else in there being some decent government. The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all. Aristocrats were always anarchists, as you can see from the barons' wars."

-- G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday

Comments

[ded-maxim.livejournal.com]

say what? I guess Nesto Mahno was a Ukrainian oil baron.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Territory_(Ukraine)#Development_and_characteristics
The Makhnovists said they supported "free worker-peasant soviets" and opposed the central government, which was elected by the soviets. Makhno called the Bolsheviks dictators and opposed the "Cheka [secret police]... and similar compulsory authoritative and disciplinary institutions" and called for "[f]reedom of speech, press, assembly, unions and the like". In practice, the Makhnovist government was similar to a republic over the area they controlled. According to anarchist historian Paul Avrich, the Makhnovists "'voluntary mobilization'... in reality meant outright conscription, as all able-bodied men were required to serve when called up" and summary execution was used in military discipline.

And why the fuck would anybody want to go to New Guinea?

Don't be so literal, man. It's not the exact place that matters, it's the mindset. Ever heard of the Six Flags Theory (http://www.byebyebigbrother.com/pt_six_flags_theory.php)? Also look up when the book was written.

[wsobchak.livejournal.com]

Mahno was as anarchist as it gets in reality, and he was poor as poor gets. This pretty much disproves Chesterton's thesis. The fact that in order to preserve his state he had to resort to some coercion has nothing to do with anything-any anarchist will find the same, unless of course his anarchy remains purely academic.

I'm aware that New Guinea is being used as a representation of any far-away place and that Chesterton is saying that wealth makes people cosmopolitan. Maybe so, maybe no-most countries' elites stay at home for the most part, no matter how shitty those countries are. Bottom line is, when given the chance, the poor of Europe got as far away from government and as close to anarchy as possible. Look at Daniel Boone and his time.