AnCap Communes

[MAM]

Are there any AnCap Communes out there? If there are they're probably in NH I'm curious if anyone knows of the existence of them?

[Victor]

The only place I'm aware of that currently exists is Slab City, California. They don't have any explicit political philosophy though, as far as I know, they're basically just a group of squatters living off-the-grid and enjoying their freedom. You can find their "official website", (meant somewhat ironically since "official" doesn't mean much without any authority to give it meaning,) here. I heard of them through this video.

Never been there myself though, so I can't vouch for its level of awesomeness. I will say though that watching that video was one of the early things that pushed me farther towards anarchism rather than just libertarianism. (I had wanted an example of an anarchist society or community actually existing in the real world, and that was one of the first I found.)

[Seth King]

Wow! A bunch of fucking burnouts! 

[SimonJester]

Victor, great info and video, Sir, thanks.  If you're still looking for more examples read up on the history of Deadwood, in the Black Hills of the Dakotas.  There was an entertaining but very inaccurate show about it on HBO, but it was a purely Stateless community that worked quite well for several years.

[Victor]

Victor, great info and video, Sir, thanks.  If you're still looking for more examples read up on the history of Deadwood, in the Black Hills of the Dakotas.  There was an entertaining but very inaccurate show about it on HBO, but it was a purely Stateless community that worked quite well for several years.

Thanks! I am absolutely still looking for more examples, I'm trying to collect as many as I can. (Last I counted I'd found over a dozen, including both Stateless societies and societies with States that still had voluntary provision of law/security, in spite of more than because of the State.) If you have any others, or if anyone else has any, or even if you find more in the future, I'd be happy as a lark if you could send them my way.

[SimonJester]

I'll keep shooting them off as I think of them... At one point, I forget the year, San Francisco was bankrupt, so they passed an ordinance allowing for private security companies to obtain the powers of police, collect from local businesses, and patrol the streets.  They sundowned the law so no more can be created, but a few of the private companies still exist, or so I'm told.  There was a silly but cute Christian Slater movie... Wait one, I'll google... "Kuffs".  

Another interesting one is the corporation that nearly became a State.  You spend a whole summer reading about the "Dutch East India Corporation", but basically, they were handed a royal monopoly on trading with the Far East.  


EDIT:  Isn't "An-Cap Commune" sort of contradictory?  Communities, maybe, but none of these examples are Communes.

[Victor]

I'll keep shooting them off as I think of them... At one point, I forget the year, San Francisco was bankrupt, so they passed an ordinance allowing for private security companies to obtain the powers of police, collect from local businesses, and patrol the streets.  They sundowned the law so no more can be created, but a few of the private companies still exist, or so I'm told.  There was a silly but cute Christian Slater movie... Wait one, I'll google... "Kuffs".  

Another interesting one is the corporation that nearly became a State.  You spend a whole summer reading about the "Dutch East India Corporation", but basically, they were handed a royal monopoly on trading with the Far East. 

I've heard of the San Francisco Patrol Special Police. Edward Stringham did a study comparing them to the San Francisco Police Department, and concluded that they provided a higher quality service, (according to their customers,) at a lower cost. Other than that though, I don't know much about San Francisco, and I didn't know the city had declared bankruptcy at some point. So thanks for the info and the suggestion! The example of the East India Trading company sounds quite interesting as well. (To be honest, I anticipate a great many summers spent reading history in my future. )

EDIT:  Isn't "An-Cap Commune" sort of contradictory?  Communities, maybe, but none of these examples are Communes.

True, the word Commune doesn't make much sense as a description of a community with institutions of private property or a pro-capitalist philosophy. I figured I knew what MAM meant though, so I went with it, but I'd agree they're communities but not really communes.

On that note, I did a tiny bit of research on Twin Oaks at some point when looking up examples of anarchist communities, and it seems like one example of a commune existing today. It was founded on the ideas of B. F. Skinner though, rather than on any of the communist anarchists, so I'm not sure how much it counts as communist. I'm also not sure how much it counts as anarchist, to be honest, because from what I read B. F. Skinner imagined a society with people planning out who would do what and how the economy would be run, and that appears to be how Twin Oaks is run.

[SimonJester]

Victor- just to clarify, I don't believe San Francisco ever "declared" bankruptcy.  I stand by my statement, though, that they were bankrupt, in the sense that their liabilities exceeded their income.  They solved the problem the way governments always do, they stole some more.


Also, I believe Orange County, California, did actually declare bankruptcy at one point in the 1990s, when their residents refused to rubber-stamp some tax increases.  They were unable to pay their employees.

[Victor]

Ah, alrighties! Thanks for the clarification.

I think I vaguely recall hearing about Orange County before, in the news somewhere at some point perhaps.

(...After some looking...) It might have been the New Libertarian Manifesto I heard it from. I just went and glanced at said manifesto because I had remembered seeing mention of an "Anarcho-village" which I'd thought had been in California. Given that Shasta County, (studied by Robert Ellickson in Order Without Law,) was also in California, it seems like we're seeing a lot of private/stateless order in California.

Which seems kind of weird, given that California's state government has a reputation for spending beyond it's means and things like that.

Cool though, none-the-less!

[SimonJester]

Actually, it makes perfect sense to me that Cali would be a hot spot for stateless types.  If it wasn't for our government, this state would be great.  With our government, it's barely tolerable.  At the state level, we're probably giving people more motivation to reject government than any other state in the union.

[Syock]

If it wasn't for our government, this state would be great.  With our government, it's barely tolerable. 

I swear, the more people you put in a city or state, the worse the government gets.   

[SimonJester]

If it wasn't for our government, this state would be great.  With our government, it's barely tolerable. 

I swear, the more people you put in a city or state, the worse the government gets.   

I agree, pop. density is a major factor.  So is the type of immigrant we get.  Half the left-wing loons in the U.S. and Mexico have been flocking to California since the sixties.  And they breed faster than we do.  They've got about 60% of the vote, now.  They're concentrated in cities on the coast, but they manage to wag the whole State.