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Who watches the watchmen? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

23 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, no, I'm not talking about the movie/show The Watchmen. I'm referring to the ancient philosophical question "quis custodiet ipsos custodes" or "who watches the watchmen". Go read up on that elsewhere.

For those of you who don't know and need a summary here, it's a question often posed in reference to the fact that the person or people in charge of making sure the rules are honored have nothing preventing them from disobeying the rules. There's never anything preventing the person guarding your treasure from stealing some of the treasure, for example.

What's the best remedy to this that you can think of?

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[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Such a system has worked fine in plenty of places, you're just conditioned to ignore them.

We're not making shit up, there have been anarchic societies for as long as humans have existed.

[–] Num10ck 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

it has worked until a centralized invader comes along.

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds 1 points 2 weeks ago

No, usually it was the Soviets turning back on deals they made. If it wasn't for an important ally suddenly stabbing them in the back, the anarchists in Ukraine and Spain likely would've had much more success.

Regardless, the ability to defend the commune is top priority for us, obviously. I'd point to the Kurds in Syria currently as a decent approximation of an anarchic society that's been defending itself every step of the way.

I'd also point to the tribes of Madagascar as described by David Graeber (RIP) in Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, certain Taoist cultures, and numerous indigenous societies that worked just fine, thank you.