When you say you are an anarchist, what exactly do you believe? For example, do you believe in a police force?
My problem is this. I agree a utopian society is an anarchist society. But it seems to me that the only way anarchy can work is in a world where resources aren't scarce.
As soon as resources become scarce, you have conflict. As soon as you have conflict, you need a way to resolve it fairly.
This is something that I'm still actively exploring. I only have an understanding from a high level on all of this; the details are quite fuzzy to me.
To give you some background, I'm coming from what's basically the a hardcore right-libertarian place. However, eventually, I've come around to realizing that the world is a bit more complex than "remove the rules and everything will work out." I was only thinking about some of the rules, I had just assumed that capitalism was the way things _had_ to be. The more that I compared my beliefs about capitalism to my former beliefs about religion, the more I came to understand that I believed in those things simply because they were stated to me as fact for a long period of time.
Anyway, what I believe: I don't really believe in a police force, to be totally honest. I've said before that "I'm a middle class white kid from the suburbs, so if I don't like the police, I can only imagine what it must be like for others." I try to avoid as much contact with police as possible, because they only cause more problems. I think that social constructs hold society together much more than the threat of punishment. People respond much better to positive reinforcement than negative. Authority will always be abused.
In general, I believe the world would be a better place if we tried working together rather than fighting. If people actually knew their neighbors and built communities. If more people gave rather than took. I also think that we've been conditioned to be adversarial, and that it can be unlearned, albeit with hard work.
I also recognize that we're not living in such a place, and so I try to live in a way that's closest to my ideals, knowing that I'll never get there. My house is run collectively, I try to support organizations that do good, I attempt to help others as much as possible. I think that entrepreneurship is a great path for doing a lot of good for society.
> As soon as you have conflict, you need a way to resolve it fairly.
I think that you underestimate how different an anarchic society would be, and overestimate how scarce goods really are. But in any case, don't think that anarchy means no conflict resolution, as the saying goes, "anarchy means no rulers, not no rules." Anarchists believe in direct democracy, generally speaking. A lot of these kinds of details are the ones that haven't been worked out yet, or would differ from one community to the next.
I don't think it matters whether you like the police or not. What's important is the question of, if there are no police, then who or what will fulfill the role that the police currently fulfill.
For example, someone decides to kick your teeth in and steal your wallet. Without police, what's your recourse? Vigilantism? What prevents a rising escalation of retaliatory vigilantism? Hasn't society been down this road, in both micro and macro scenarios, many times before?
> who or what will fulfill the role that the police currently fulfill.
I touched upon this a bit; I think that the police don't have as big of a deterrent effect as you'd think. Social structures such as "I don't want to get robbed, so I don't rob others" play a much larger role.
TL;DR, most crime wouldn't exist under anarchism, because many crimes simply aren't crimes anymore. There's no incentive for someone to steal my wallet, because a small piece of leather isn't really useful.
> Hasn't society been down this road, in both micro and macro scenarios, many times before?
We have, and we still haven't found a good answer. Are you saying petty theft is nonexistent today? Plenty of people still steal wallets.
My problem is this. I agree a utopian society is an anarchist society. But it seems to me that the only way anarchy can work is in a world where resources aren't scarce.
As soon as resources become scarce, you have conflict. As soon as you have conflict, you need a way to resolve it fairly.
I just can't understand the "how" of anarchy.