The Story of Your Enslavement

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The analogy drawn between the animal farming and the State is quite apt, IMHO.

 

Only because you're so hellbent on convincing us that all governments are out to get us, unless we act first and mow down the government before they can get to us.

You've got a computer, a house, power, heating, lighting, and food. Your life is clearly pretty good. Sounds to me like your government is doing a pretty good job at creating a comfortable environment for you. What more do you want? If you want a life of freedom, go live in the Gobi Desert or something.

 

Mordea, you must come to accept that everyone has some master. In a civilized society, that master may be either a government (in which you can participate and be a very small part) or, in some sense, a corporation (in which you can buy stock and be a very small part). In uncivilized society, it may be a government in which you cannot take part, or it may simply be the strongest and/or most influential person near you. In no society, it will be anyone you come across who is stronger, faster, or in any way physically better off than you are at the moment of encounter, or it could simply be the cruel, harsh realities of the world.

Demonize the first ones all you want, but they're better than any of the other options.

 

Moooooo!!!!

I watched that entire video and feel like someone owes me 13:10 of my life back. Although I must admit I did like how it mixed in various truths to come to the conclusion that anarchy is the way to be. The video mentions that one of the ways government controls people is by educating (indoctrinating) the young. Something tells me that this video was trying to do the same thing and that this is far more effective on teenagers and people in their early twenties then people in their thirties and forties.

 

Um, guys, all of your comments/criticisms were addressed by the video in the OP. Did you bother watching it all before posting?

Just like the farmer provides his cattle with shelter, heat, and food?

Ergo: Already addressed in the video. NEXT!

Why should I do that? Shouldn't I be able to cooperate with other human beings, without having my human rights and civil liberties impinged upon?

Ah, the cattle has become dependent on the farmer, and has been brainwashed into believing that any attempt to regain its freedoms would be harming both itself and the collective. The video also addressed this.

 

I'm sure the author of the video would be more than happy to co-operate in the vastness of the Gobi desert with you. Everybody wins!

 

Oh yes, that's why animals try to evade the predator...

Seems like this guy missed psychology 101. Skinner became famous for his research on how to train animals to fear specific signals. The whole reason why you can't beat cows to produce more milk is because a cow lacks the cognitive ability to understand what you want him to do and the physical ability to actually produce more milk. Also, if animals can't be forced with torture, then why do farmers have whips? I guess those exist to keep the flies away as a "farmer->cow" service.

No

Edit:
Saw the entire movie. Apparently, when you achieve enlightenment and see the 'bonds' that keep humans as cows, you forgo the ability to make coherent sentences and solid arguments. Oh wait, arguments? Did he even have them? What the hell does he think I am? A cow who is easily influenced by a cult-leader voice accompanied by violent video footage?

 

I iirc watched some 6 seconds out of the middle part. That was enough for me to determine I had something better to do. For the same reason I so far didn't reply.

 

No, you can't. As long as you want the civil liberty to spit wherever you want, you can't allow your neighbor the civil liberty to not be spit upon. Therefore, you must either give up some of your liberties, give up some of your neighbor's liberties (and good luck getting them to cooperate with that), or give up your neighbor.

No, I've just seen wild cows. They're filthy, diseased, starving animals that are constantly being threatened by predators and the forces of nature, and many become predators themselves. I'll stick to following the 'farmer' (who looks quite a bit like a cow himself, even living in the stables with us).

And I return to my original logic. We all have our masters. I choose one that is (comparatively) benevolent and kind. You appear to want to choose whichever stronger entity is closest to you at the time, be it a gang, a thug with a gun, or a pack of wolves.

 

Umm...

Nobody gets my eggs.

'Nuff said.

 

If you want an analogy between animal farming and government why don't you just read ... 'Animal Farm.'

 

I was just about to write that this sort rhetoric is not exactly new and it's pretty much what anarchists and syndicalists have been spouting for well over a century. Their problem has always been the inability to work within the system since they don't believe in the "state" and thus they pretty much require a upheaval of the state, and when that happens their lack of authority typically gets their butts handed to them by reactionaries or communists who don't have similar problems and are ten times more ruthless in reaching their goals.

Anyhoo, big government conspiracies aren't really my thing since they pretty much require the people in government actually coming up with something complex and intelligent, which is hard to believe when taking into account their uncanny ability to screw up even the simplest of matters.

 

The first thing I thought when I read mordea's comment that the 'analogy drawn between the animal farming and the State' is apt, was the apparent implication that, in your first act of resistance against 'the system' that treats you like cattle, you ought to become a vegetarian.

Disclosure: I just bought a bunch of beef sausages

 

No, I didn't, so I won't post anything. I didn't believe it applied to me since I'm not "enslaved."

 

..... I remember anrachy being "cool", when I was FIFTEEN! Then I grew up.

 

If you want to see anarchy at work, look at Somalia. And even there it's diminishing as organized groups establish their power. They're just not governmental groups.

 

I mostly agree that Somalia is what you'd end up with in a anarchist system but to be fair that's not exactly the ideal most anarchists or syndicalists strive for. The anarchist ideology is based on a free market system where individual production syndicates (factories, farms) are collectively controlled by the workers and workers are free to resign or join any syndicate they wish and the people within the syndicates decide their individual rules and laws. The local governance allows different people to find a syndicate which best suits their needs and values. It's a bit like communism on the local level without the centralized party machinery and with a free market system. In my view the problems start when the guys controlling the weapon factory decide that the market prices for food are a bit too high and conquering the poorly armed neighboring farms would greatly reduce the prices for them. In short when the poop hits the fan there is no centralized authority to hold it together and true anarchy ensues Somalia style.

There are not that many examples of actual anarchist experiments (that I know of) around but in the Spanish civil war there were factories and towns controlled by the anarchists and in terms of production they worked fairly well for the short period of time they were around. They did not contribute much to the war effort though since their refusal to accept the state made them very reluctant to defend the republic.

This is at least the classical anarcho-syndicalism in a nutshell, there are probably a lot of variations and some modernizations of the theories but this is what I remember reading and the modern stuff is of limited historical and political significance anyhow.

 

Mordea, I actually pity you for believing in this nonsense.

 

Who says mordea isn't?

 

Um, yeah. Seems like quite a few people on this thread are making a bunch of ******** assumptions.