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Zoulapia

Quote of the Day: Societal Stew

Quoth Edward Abbey (h/t reddit)

“Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top.”

Although I would clarify this by saying "class society" as I consider it quite possible that we can design a society where scum rising to the top can be avoided by removing all "top" and "bottom"

Quote of the Day: Surgery Metaphor

Joeldavis from reddit provided this excellent quote while demolishing a tired Marxist-Leninist anti-anarchist post.

Because workers do not exploit any class below them, as these barriers are gradually overcome workers’ states will tend to “wither away”

And yet it didn't. Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that Lenin was alright. Now let's take this scenario as an illustration of the concept: "A surgeon is attempting to perform a heart transplant. In keeping with his beliefs, he shuns the use of antibiotics. The operation more-or-less succeeds, but the patient eventually becomes septic and dies."

Using the logic of the Bolshevik argument, the doctor would be right to argue that his rejection of antibiotics didn't kill the patient, since it was clearly a bacterial infection that killed him, not a lack of antibiotics. Anarchists would say "But if you had given the patient the medicine, they would have at least probably survived the operation." to which the Bolshevik replies is "No, you're just antidemocratic."