Gunwalloe - Church Cove
View across Church Cove in Gunwalloe at the base of the Lizard Peninsula.
The church is St Winwalloe with it's distinctively seperate bell tower and surrounding Tamarisk hedge....
newlyn house
Wonderfully painted frontage....
rogers tower
A folly built 18th C, for Mr Rogers, a local landowner....
You are hereby appointed acting deputy assistant anarchist-in-chief. (In a strictly non-hierachical sense, naturally. Believe me it really is like that -- I've been there, I know )
More seriously, the sad truth is that most people most of the time are willing to let others tell them what to do and how to live their lives. This is partly because of lazyness, but also because trying to make everyone responsible for everything means that you end up spending most of your life in meetings. That's OK for some, but they'll probably become politicians anyway.
The other point is that everyone wants to be well off, or at least will hang on like grim death to what little they have. Only those on or very near the breadline (or at least benefit levels) will share freely. This is why people like an unequal society, they kid themselves that it's a ladder they can climb. It's like the lottery, everyone thinks they can have a big win, but if you do the statistics you see how pointless it is (rightly called "a tax on the stupid" ).
In reality people are not equal. If you pool your resources then the pool will be drained by the pushy, the confident, the selfish. If you pool decision making, then decisions will be made by the eloquent, the devious, i.e. the natural 'politicians'. And as always the weak go to the wall and are exploited.
All you end up doing is recreating a microcosm of wider society, but with less resources because the rich aren't gonna join whereas the needy with nothing to lose will.
No, I don't know the answer either. "Answers on a postcard ..." as they used to say.
I tend to agree with you Morvan and your philosophy of power but I am open to debate and I certainly do think that syndicalism has its place even if only limited.
I have often posted about industrial democracy, a Cornish workers union, local currency and alternative government structures which, in my opinion, are all ideas that Cornish activists should keep as options.
Secondly if there are individuals in Cornwall who would like to marry their love of Cornishness and an interest in anarcho-syndicalism then they might be interested also.
The problem is getting from where we are to where you want to go. That basically involves massive cultural change. You would have to start small and grow. But that means you generally attract 'marginal' people, because most people in the West right now don't do all that badly, and/or are so bound up with the system that they can't contemplate trying anything else. So you'll get mostly young, radical, anti-this-and-that types. There are several problems:
1. Your people will mostly be inexperienced, they'll learn but it will take time.
2. Many will be genuine outsiders and suffer from the 'brave loser' syndrome. So if your venture starts to take off and actually grow and begin to make a difference, they'll panic, because to them "big is bad".
3. Any vaguely utopian scheme has to protect itself from being 'looted' by the outside world. This means you have to put up barriers of various sorts to membership, and the more radical your ideals, the higher the barriers have to be. So then you end up with a sort of exclusive club, and before long someone will come up with the 'brilliant' idea of charging people to visit. Within ten years you'll be part of the tourist industry -- really this happens over and over.
4. Many of your recruits will just be going through a stage of their lives where quite naturally they want to try everything and experiment. But this doesn't last forever. And most ventures take years to really become established and take-off. You might for example have to spend years paying off loans before you can seriously expand, or improve your living standards enough to attract the average person. By the time you reach that happy state your young radicals will be middle-aged folk with kids to think about, who will have quietly reverted to the values of mainstream society.
Anyway please go and read The Dispossed by Ursula leGuin, because it's a really good book by an excellent writer and to me really gets to the bottom of Anarchism. I'd give you some choice quotes but someone seems to have liberated my last copy
I think everyone who plays the lotto understands that they are extremely unlikely to win, but every week, some one, some where, wins. Everyone goes in with equally poor odds. I'd rather pay for my chance than not pay and have no chance.
I am awake at 4am to the terrifying undeniable truth that there is nothing I can do to stop the monster
Much like conspiracy theories the lotto replaces religion for many. It fills your week with a bit of hope and therefore you avoid taking any responsibility for yourself. Conspiracy theories do the same but in a reverse manner in that they reassure people by providing a 'plan', even if it is a malignant one it still helps people ignore the senseless void, the reality they cannot face.
easy..
don't give the lottery your pound every week save it up...stick it into a savings account and leave it there and then you will have your own hand made windfall becuase the chance of winning the lottery are in there billions ...its a false hope fed to people who believe that money will solve all there problems. Thats why on Saturday evenings its turned into a cabaret act
It may, in reality, be a false hope but I don't mind gambling one pound a week for a chance to win a few million pounds. I think it's foolish not to play.
I am awake at 4am to the terrifying undeniable truth that there is nothing I can do to stop the monster
Well after plenty of insults and accusations of me being some kind of far right national anarchist (yes apparently they are a bastard mix of far right nationalism and anarchism) I have obtained the following remarks from the world of anarcho-communism.
Review urged over toll rise plans
Councillors in Cornwall want plans for a 50% increase in toll charges to cross the River Tamar to be reviewed.
Safety DVD helps migrant workers
A safety DVD aimed at helping migrant workers in Cornwall settle into life in the county is released.
Sex case teacher 'compassionate'
A former outdoor pursuits instructor accused of abusing children tells a court he dealt with pupils compassionately.
Crews in tumble dryer fire rescue
One person is rescued from a four-storey building in Cornwall after a fire broke out because of a tumble dryer.
MK CALL ON SW RDA TO SUPPORT SOUTH CROFTY PLAN
Members of the Camborne and Redruth constituency party of Mebyon Kernow have called on both the South West Regional Development Agency (RDA) and the Urban Regeneration Company (URC) for the area to drop any opposition to the current re-opening of South Crofty Mine. The MK members want statements issued in support of the mine.
REJECTION OF PRISON TRANSFER REQUEST MEAN-SPIRITED
Following a specious and mean-spirited decision an Irish prisoner in England has had his request for a transfer to a prison in Ireland been rejected once again, for the fifth time.
BREIZH: LEAGUE GS MEETS UN CLIMSAT DIRECTOR
The Director of the new United Nations CLIMSAT centre in Brest, Breizh (Brittany) said on the weekend that the future of the Breton environment lay in the autonomy of Brittany.
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