Here.
Please don't read comments until you've read this. It is very short and fast to read. It is radicalizing. It is a good short story to send to your friend who needs to understand what capitalism is. LeGuin wrote this in 1973, cementing her status as Chad Supreme of Fuck Mountain. Bow before her might.
Let's discuss in the comments below.
A classic. Her stories are not only well written, but an awesome radicalizing tool.
I used the Dispossessed to turn my brother in law from a Musk loving techbro into a 'holy fuck, anarchism is more than a fun word. Maybe there is something to this.'
He isn't all the way there yet, but I'll bring him over.
The Dispossessed got me where I am today. Its description of Anarres was strangely similar to my home country before the 90s. The lack of comodities, the peace and harmony in life, pursuit of knowledge, strong moral intelligence, organisational beurocracy, communal living and isolation. I'd heard only bad things about it on the news and boomers, I've lived a few years of it and was present during the transition, so Ive seen societal and human values change in real time. But after reading this book i realised why my grandfathers generation, looked upon that time with longing and nostalgia, even tough it was one of the harshest socialist regimes in the world. Some things worked, some didn't and an ambiguous utopia sounds about right, or the way there at least.
Yes, this! So good to have someone articulate it so well. UKG didn't just idiolise Anarres, but it was clearly her preference in the story.
I think this groundingakes things more real for readers, gives us a clear, not a fantastical choice and that's why it's so persuasive.
Fingers crossed you'll one day not only experience the country of your grandfather's generation, but something even stronger and more inspiring.
You'll definitely bring him over. I love it.
Oh yeah, you can build on the tech brinidea as well. We talked about how the internet basically functions off of anarchic systems - not just individual websites, but the technology itself.
This old wired article is a really good intro for tech bros. When talk about how humans 'need heirarchys', just point them in the direction of the IETF of in some ways the W3C.
Not the perfect examples of Anarchist systems, but an interesting first step for people, and holding together everything we do on the internet.