While I agree this is probably just a made up funny joke, if you you’ve ever actually lived in a gift/barter community, it’s pretty much this. Hung out pretty much exclusively with anarchist and various left-communists for years, and this was my life. You do things for folks, they do things for you, and along the way you end up with stuff like a shit ton of honey, and you end up giving that honey out in exchange for something else, and you end up meeting someone with a weird skill, and it all just spirals into this weird and glorious community.
The difference is that in real life, you’re not saying “I’ll give you this honey for a bird corpse” you say “hey, man, can I have your bird corpse, I know a girl who loves macabre art, and it would be a really cool way to honor your beloved pet,” and then you either give them honey as a thank you, or just later on when it comes up that they want some honey, you give them some because you happen to have some.
I once had a friend who straight up gave this guy his Prius, that same dude ended up giving a mutual friend a place to stay for over a year. Original Prius owner never got anything directly for the Prius, but he was within the little gift economy, and ended up receiving lots of things and services from various members over the years. I doubt he feels like he was not repaid for it.
It’s a pretty great way to live. It’s a shame we all could never work out a way to get land and built the cohousing community we dreamt of.
Also I’m guessing your friend didn’t originally acquire the Prius by bringing honey to the Toyota dealership. That’s where this kind of thing breaks down.
Left-communism refers to philosophies such an anarchism, council communism, platformism, and other left wing thoughts that do not advocate for an all encompassing and powerful worker’s state, and instead believe in achieving a communist system (stateless, classless, moneyless) through means of democracy, consensus, councils, or other means that put the actual people impacted by a decision in charge, or at least in the conversation, of making the decision.
And of course not. Because we do not live in a society where that happens. The topic is not “does gift economy work” or “do we live in a gift economy.” The topic was explaining a micro-economy that existed around mutual aid and gift economics.
It’s not lol. The issue isn’t that barter centric systems fall apart with complex products/services. The blame as always rest with mega corps, investors, and the most insatiably greedy cunts that we always hand power and leniency to.
Anarchist systems fall apart at scale. Because they rely on social reputation to keep people well behaved. And social reputation doesn’t work if you want factories and electronics and other things that require the collaboration of tens of thousands of workers around the globe.
Yeah those things didn’t happen
While I agree this is probably just a made up funny joke, if you you’ve ever actually lived in a gift/barter community, it’s pretty much this. Hung out pretty much exclusively with anarchist and various left-communists for years, and this was my life. You do things for folks, they do things for you, and along the way you end up with stuff like a shit ton of honey, and you end up giving that honey out in exchange for something else, and you end up meeting someone with a weird skill, and it all just spirals into this weird and glorious community.
The difference is that in real life, you’re not saying “I’ll give you this honey for a bird corpse” you say “hey, man, can I have your bird corpse, I know a girl who loves macabre art, and it would be a really cool way to honor your beloved pet,” and then you either give them honey as a thank you, or just later on when it comes up that they want some honey, you give them some because you happen to have some.
I once had a friend who straight up gave this guy his Prius, that same dude ended up giving a mutual friend a place to stay for over a year. Original Prius owner never got anything directly for the Prius, but he was within the little gift economy, and ended up receiving lots of things and services from various members over the years. I doubt he feels like he was not repaid for it.
It’s a pretty great way to live. It’s a shame we all could never work out a way to get land and built the cohousing community we dreamt of.
Is there such a thing as right-communists?
Also I’m guessing your friend didn’t originally acquire the Prius by bringing honey to the Toyota dealership. That’s where this kind of thing breaks down.
Left-communism refers to philosophies such an anarchism, council communism, platformism, and other left wing thoughts that do not advocate for an all encompassing and powerful worker’s state, and instead believe in achieving a communist system (stateless, classless, moneyless) through means of democracy, consensus, councils, or other means that put the actual people impacted by a decision in charge, or at least in the conversation, of making the decision.
And of course not. Because we do not live in a society where that happens. The topic is not “does gift economy work” or “do we live in a gift economy.” The topic was explaining a micro-economy that existed around mutual aid and gift economics.
Strasserists?
But yeah I think it was Lenin who wrote “Left Communism, an Infantile Disorder”
It’s not lol. The issue isn’t that barter centric systems fall apart with complex products/services. The blame as always rest with mega corps, investors, and the most insatiably greedy cunts that we always hand power and leniency to.
Anarchist systems fall apart at scale. Because they rely on social reputation to keep people well behaved. And social reputation doesn’t work if you want factories and electronics and other things that require the collaboration of tens of thousands of workers around the globe.
Tankies?
I once heard of something called anarcho-monarchism, so nothing would surprise me at this point.
They would just overcharge for the oil change anyway and claim the $8 cabin air filter needs changing for $120.