I have been thinking about anarchism lately and a very interesting realization came to my mind. You know how trolls say that Anarchism is not possible because it never existed in the history of mankind. Well we don't know that, but I think I have found the perfect rolemodel for Anarchy, and that is Plants.
Yeah think about it, it right in front of us, just look out your window. Plants live in anarchy. Just take a look at how Plants work and how they relate to eachother, it's literally Anarchy is action, a perfect example of it. Interestingly they call it the “Kingdom of Plants” in Biology, but that is funny, there are no masters amongst plants, that’s for sure! There is only freedom!
I am no biologist so I may be wrong on some of these details, but from my understanding of Biology and the voluntary philosophy I think we can conclude that the way Plants work is that philosophy working in action.
The thing is that we shape the philosophy of non-aggression based on our limited human thinking capacity but some truths may be beyond that or not yet known to us. While you literally have one of the oldest living beings with billions of years of evolution in them as the best example.
If the Theory of Evolution is correct, that means that a creature evolves to be in perfect harmony with the environment, so that means Anarchy in my book, the Non-Aggression Principle and only using force for self defense. Well Plants had billions of years to adapt to that, more than humans did with their limited capacities.
The thing is that we praise human intelligence too much, and we also overcomplicate things by too much overthinking, there may be simpler solutions and nature already carved out a way towards that, we just have to copy that.
Besides the Theory of Evolution is about improvement, I don't think Darwin said or even if he said his theory doesn't imply violence. I think the sheep vs wolf analogy is incorrect, there doesn't have to be predators, the wolf can just adapt itself to be herbivore. It's the survival of the fittest not the strongest, and the fit means that which adapts itself well.
And that in my opinion is Plants. Let's take every aspect of an Anarchist utopia and compare it to their behavior:
1) No Government
Well there is no government in any plant field. Go into the forest, there is no "central tree". Look at the grass, all grass pieces are aligned next to eachother, distributed, and not centrally entangled. The way the grass grows, it’s equal in size, so there is no communism (literally nature disproves it), but it’s distributed enough to not bother eachother. There is no central grass blade, they are just there minding their own business, not hurting eachother: Anarchy.
2) No Wars
If you have 2 trees next to eachother, they don’t fight eachother for resources. They can’t even move. They just stay in their own place, and their roots gather as much resources as they can. So they do compete for resources, and they gather as much resources as they can. But they don’t steal resources from eachother, or get upset if the other tree takes more resources, they all gather as much as they can, and then just accept that. So there is no war, or violence in nature, at least not in the plant world.
3) Size doesn’t matter, but it’s rather a species thing
So for example there is heavy violence between bacteria and viruses, that eat eachother. And you see of course violence between animals and violence between humans. But you don’t see violence between Plants. A giant tree or a forest is usually quiet and peaceful, despite heavy fighting going on in the micro and macro level. So the Plants are a special kind of living creatures that have evolved this way, it’s their species that are like this.
I think it’s because they are one of the oldest living creatures on earth, like 2 billion years old. They had enough time to evolve like this, while humanity is at most 1 million years old, perhaps only just 100,000 years old. So humans have a long road ahead in evolution.
4) Cooperation & Competition without Violence
So it looks like Plants do both compete and cooperate, but they never use violence against eachother. The trees in a big forest all compete for resources, if they can’t grow big, they don’t get enough sunlight and they die. But they don’t fight eachother.
Similarly there is some symbiosis between some Plants, where they help eachother with resources.
There is however parasitism, like mold, but that is a fungus, not necessarily a plant, so not exactly in this category, it’s a parasitic organism. However Plants are mostly defensive, so they don’t initiate force, they just defend themselves against parasites.
So there you have it. Nature has already figured it out. And it’s either a species thing or it’s a time thing. Nature does prove that a voluntary species is possible, they just have to give up violence, that’s it.
So competition and cooperation can, and should exist without violence. Like competition in a sports game, it’s not like 2 chess players will kill eachother over a game, neither should people do that in business.
This mafia concept of doing business through violence, extorting people through taxes is wrong.
It’s literally proof in front of you, just go and watch a tree how it behaves, nothing that it does is violent. It just lives there, and doesn’t bother anybody.
So humans have to give up coercion and violence if they want to live in a voluntary society.
Now perhaps our species is still too your to do that, I mean we are just figuring things out now. It seems like Plants, despite being “dumb”, are actually much smarter than we are. They literally have a survival plan, they have been here for 2 billion years, survived all kinds of ice ages and harsh climates.
Yet we are morons of being on the brink of a nuclear war, that can totally wipe us off the face of the Earth. They will survive a nuclear war, and laugh at us while we go extinct, because we are so stupid that we can’t give up violence.
So it’s wisdom, they are older, they have had more time to adapt to this environment, and we are arrogant because we think that we are intelligent, but our intelligence fails to achieve peace on Earth, and that is sad.
So if humanity is to survive, it has to give up violence at some point, people have to realize that coercion is not only morally wrong, but almost suicidal, and it only escalates violence up to nuclear armageddon.
If we are wise enough then we will eventually live in a voluntary world, it may take time, but nature proves us that it’s possible, perhaps even inevitable.
Sources:
https://pixabay.com
I really enjoyed this, quite creative and so true! We can learn much from our photosynthetic brethren.
What an intriguing analogy. This makes perfect sense to me.
I've believed myself to be an anarchist for many years, after seeing my favorite author talking about the subject in a video from the seventies many years ago. But I've never taken the time to read up on it. You present this material in a very digestible way, which I'm happy for.
Oh, and about that part about mold and bacteria: Some types of fungi are actually beneficial or even crucial for the plants survival. Mycelium for instance.
Hi @profitgenerator interesting analogy however there is plenty of competition still in the plant world, the rainforest is the prime example, there is a constant fight to reach the canopy which means becoming stronger and taller than those around you and dying if you don't.
It’s literally proof in front of you, just go and watch a tree how it behaves, nothing that it does is violent. It just lives there, and doesn’t bother anybody.
Agree, however it's not to start with. It does once its fully grown but has a competition with all the other seeds to have the right to become the central tree and to stand alone.
So it’s wisdom, they are older, they have had more time to adapt to this environment, and we are arrogant because we think that we are intelligent, but our intelligence fails to achieve peace on Earth, and that is sad.
Love this very moving point