Forgive me if this has been asked elsewhere. I'm trying to understand what an anarchic society would look like... Let's say we're living in anarchist utopia. What forces prevent or discourage me from stealing, raping, killing my fellow man?
The fact that if you tried to do any of that to me or mine, I’d be digging a hole for your body instead of waiting for a court to let you go, just so you could do it all over again… also common fuckin sense comes into play.
But what if I'm bigger than you and have 10 well-armed friends? I mean, as long as Me > You, I can pretty much get away with anything, no?
It's a complex question, and there is no one answer. Every community would have their own solutions and problem-solving methods, depending on what works best for them and their environment. Also, before we look at the issue, I think it's important to ask the question: why does rape occur? What kind of environment creates rapists? Again, you'll probably get different answers depending on who you consult, but the answer that always made the most sense to me is that rape occurs when women begin to be perceived as objects to exploit rather than actual human beings. A man who looks at a woman and sees a creature with whom he can enter into a mutual loving relationship with is going to treat women a lot more differently than a man who looks at a woman and sees an orifice that makes him feel really good whenever he puts his penis into it. Of course, I am making some pretty big generalizations here. Not all rapists are men, not all victims are women, and not all rape is caused by objectification of the victim. Rape can be and very often is used as a display of power, or as a way of terrorizing a person or a group of people. For the purposes of this example though, I'm going to keep the discussion brief. But so hopfully what I've written so far has given a general picture as to why rape occurs. Taking that into account, it seems to me that the best way for an anarchic society/culture to stop rape is to focus on prevention rather than punishment. In other words, teach all children that human beings (and all animals for that matter) are not objects but living things that should be treated with respect. If you look at today's culture, it really comes as no surprise why rape is so prevalent. You can argue all you want about all the rights and freedoms women have acquired over the last century, but everytime I turn on MTV I still see women on leashes being spanked and called bitches and hos. Sexism is still as prevalent as it ever was, we just refuse to see it. Going back to the issue of rape in an anarchist society, I should point out that it would be naive to think that even if we are able to create a loving, egalitarian, fulfilling culture, rape, murder, theft, and such violence will never be eradicated. Although they may be extremely rare occurences, communities still need to have a way of dealing with them to make sure the perpatrators are never able to commit again. But like I said earlier, there is no one right way. It's something that communities and natural selection will have to figure out as they evolve.
