I've never heard of it before, what's it about?
this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2023
1 points (100.0% liked)
Anarchism
3703 readers
1 users here now
Are you an Anarchist? The answer might surprise you!
Rules:
- Be respectful
- Don't be a nazi
- Argue about the point and not the person
- This is not the place to debate the merits of anarchism itself. While discussion is encouraged, getting in your “epic dunks on the anarkiddies” is not. As a result of the instance’s poor moderation policies and hostility toward anarchists by default, lemmygrad users are encouraged not to post here, though not explicitly disallowed if they aren’t just looking to start a fight.
See also:
- /c/debateanarchism
- /c/antiwork
- @lemmy.dbzer0.com
- @slrpnk.net
- Anarchy101
- Anarchism@lemmy.ca
- XMPP chat
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Bolo‘bolo is a alternative - some might say utopian - social structure, that was layed out by P.M. in the 80s. In a nutshell the concept they offer/have developed aims for autonomy, diversity and resilience through a (voluntary) network of autonomous and (semi-)selfsustaining communities (‚bolos‘), each of the bolos being their own cultural entity. They do this however in a really interesting way, which - to me - makes it pretty unique: They coin new concepts (i.e. ‚bolo‘ and ‚ibu‘) instead of using established terms (‚community’ and ‚individual’) and thus break with the old assumptions these terms carry. This approach makes it way easier to approach than the topic might suggest. Readers will most likely note though, that it was written in the 80s, as much of the critique of the status quo is pointed towards disciplinary societies rather than societies of control.
Sounds pretty interesting, but honestly it just sounds like regular anarcho-communism to me. Maybe it's a good introduction though?
I understand your view, I think. It might be caused by my brief summary though. Bolo‘bolo differs from ‚traditional‘ anarcho-communism - at least as I understand it - in a key aspect. Or maybe it specifies traditional an-com?
Besides the new terminology, which allows a fresh approach, I see the difference in the diversity/flexibility of social organizations within the bolos (internal organization may or may not align with traditional an-com notions like collective ownership etc.) as well as these organisations ‚fluidity‘ over time. Each ibu and every group of ibus is/are free to choose their own ideology and value systems. To me this is an interesting approach to solve the tensions individual/community. What fascinates me, is the pragmatism the concept shows by allowing for diverse communities with different internal arrangements to coexist and interact.
If you know any theorists you advocate this approach, please share :)
And also its just fun to read and discover whats behind all those new terms :D
I also think that bolo'bolo should be more widely read. It's really well written and really thinks through how an alternative society could work, it often feels like an Ursula Le Guin book to me. It's critique of both capitalism and state communism as the Work Machine is pretty great.
I think its spot on about the size of community that's best for humans (a few hundred), and I like that each bolo is based around some guiding principles, I often think that's important for a community to stick together.
It's obviously not perfect or an exact blueprint but its great food for thought and I wish other plans for alternate societies were worked out in engaging detail like bolo'bolo
P.M. has also written several novels! I not sure whether any were or are being translated.
For those who speak German: I really enjoyed the 'Die große Fälschung'-series.