14 Responses to Give and Take

  1. Gene Callahan August 10, 2012 at 11:33 pm #

    Wow, that poster is excellent evidence of what nonsense anarchism is! Even private businesses recognize the need for authority.

    Good post, Roderick.

    • Roderick August 11, 2012 at 5:59 pm #

      So, Gene, do you fancy yourself an order-giver or an order-taker?

      • Gene Callahan August 13, 2012 at 10:45 pm #

        We each do each when appropriate.

        • Roderick August 14, 2012 at 1:41 am #

          Who decides which one is appropriate and when?

    • Anon73 August 11, 2012 at 6:57 pm #

      That part about the pay envelope reminded me of Long’s post “Without the gaolers we shall soon want for gruel”. Was that original or was it from a book or writing?

      • Roderick August 11, 2012 at 7:16 pm #

        That sounds familiar, but which post was it?

      • Anon73 August 12, 2012 at 12:17 am #

        This seems to be it:

        http://aaeblog.com/2009/04/16/without-the-gaoler-we-should-soon-want-for-gruel/

        Also even if someone has to give orders and someone has to take them it doesn’t logically follow that those roles have to be fixed. Even in syndicalism leaders are elected monthly right?

        • Roderick August 12, 2012 at 4:22 am #

          But all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting — by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a two-thirds majority in the case of ….

        • Anon73 August 12, 2012 at 1:34 pm #

          The Python show had some good satire!

        • Roderick August 12, 2012 at 4:51 pm #

          And by the way, yeah, I made up the gruel quote. I think.

        • Brandon August 12, 2012 at 7:58 pm #

          The Python show had some good satire!

          Not to nitpick too much, but that is from Holy Grail, not the show. Part of the theme of authority not being able to get through to peasantry. In that movie at least, poor peasants don’t give a damn about the problems of the king.

  2. Scott Lazarowitz August 11, 2012 at 5:30 am #

    Gene: anarchism really has to do with an absence of a ruler, not absence of a boss in employment.

    In a society of statist, government-monopolized rule, the individual must “obey” the illegitimate monopolist authority or go to jail. That is not related to whether or not the individual is free to work for a boss or choose to work elsewhere.

    But in an anarchist society, there is no artificial authority to rule over others, no artificial government monopoly that most of the people did not agree to live under.

    But the poster does show yet another reason why it is a good idea to be self-employed.

  3. P O'Callahan August 11, 2012 at 1:59 pm #

    Interesting anecdote of the decline of hierarchical production models: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/08/experience-going-indie

  4. Daniel G. August 11, 2012 at 5:10 pm #

    A great counter example to the sentiment in the postcard (?) is the video game developer, Valve. Valve has been quite successful recently for games like Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life. The company basically doesn’t have a management structure.

    The survival guide for employees

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