This is What Anarchism is Truly About

Dispersing, able to live independently, with an option for interdependence, but not being forced to depend on anyone, let alone the State. Control freaks hate the idea, so they brand it as chaotic and destructive. Embrace the chaos, I say, because just like parents with more than two children, they can't come after all of us!

Anarchism is a difficult topic to discuss, largely because it is not well understood. However, I finally have a good way to explain it. I know I'm not the first, @jacobtothe has explained it before, but I've since found an explanation that is far clearer and more positive than any of his.

Please read this, you'll be glad you did: https://www.core77.com//posts/88438/Anarchism-n-Design

I follow Lost Art Press through my WordPress blog, which is how I got this link in the first place. I enjoy reading some of their articles, though I'm honestly sick of seeing nothing but Welsh stick chairs in my feed for weeks at a time. Anyway, I enjoyed reading this article, especially from the standpoint of a product designer, but what really caught my eye was how a moneyless society could work.

I came up with a moneyless society in my fictional world a long time ago, and every now and that I go back to it and try to figure out how to implement such a system. I now have an idea: trading labour directly for goods, as Josiah Warren practised in his Cincinnati Time Store. I have no idea how this worked back in the 19th century, but I can see exactly how this would be implemented in the 21st century. Think of how video games work with in-game money: you earn points by playing the game, and you can buy items in-game with those points. There is a far better-known example of "work for me, get a reward other than a paycheck:" Henry Ford streamlined the production of his Model T such that every employee could afford to buy one with a year's wages. A time store works the same way, but cuts the money out entirely. We can do that today! Well, only on a small scale, and only in an area not owned by a bank - which is nowhere. The point is that it can be done, and now I have a good idea how.

As far as the anarchist angle, I enjoy the small stuff. Keeping a business small means being more flexible, as I've already discussed in my post about battleships and speed-boats. Schwarz holds the exact same position, it seems. It is for this reason that I decided to break away from Shapeways and start my own online miniature shop. If you want, you can visit it here, just don't try to place any orders: I won't be ready to ship until August. The point is, Shapeways was great at first, back when it was still a small company itself, but now that it's gotten big, it's becoming a pain to deal with. Since my own shop has grown, I've seen fit to strike out on my own (yes, this post is more shameless self-promotion on my part). I don't have the means to offer all the materials that Shapeways does, but I have connections, and I will start selling custom jewellery as well, eventually. Oh, that reminds me, I have gotten another artist to join the Cooperative Artisan's Guild, so you should check that out as well: https://coopartguild.wordpress.com/2019/05/03/welcome-trisha/

Right, that's all for now. Hopefully you enjoyed the Core77 article, I certainly did.