Jim Roye
Jim Roye
Sep 2, 2018 · 3 min read

I think it is easy to claim that something would work under an anarchist system if you isolate that particular “work” from everything that surrounds it. But that’s cheating, isn’t it?

Under capitalism, coffee shops serve as a great place to meet people, make appointments, hang out, relax, and enjoy delicious food and coffee. There’s no reason to believe that these experiences would not still be sought after under anarchism.

You are contrasting capitalism and anarchism here but your anarchist society still seems to be practicing capitalism. Capitalism is about more than just “profits”. It also includes the right to claim ownership of assets.

My quick solution: remove the counters. Under capitalism, counters serve as a way to reinforce the distinction between consumer and worker. In an anarchist coffee shop, this distinction would be practically useless.

And you’re cheating. Remove the counters? The building itself is a capital asset. So are all of the furnishings and equipment used to produce any coffee. An “anarchist coffee shop” would be 2 people standing in an open field drinking coffee.

If the world suddenly switched to being 100% anarchist, the grower of coffee beans no longer “owns” any land or crops. Where do you get your beans from? The distributor no longer “owns” any ships or planes. How does coffee get from where it is grown to your shop? Would the coffee grower have the ability to continue growing beans? Would they have the ability to grow enough beans to supply distant lands with those beans? How would they get there? There is no money so you’re reduced to trading trinkets. Would you expend your own labor to build a boat, sail to South America (or Africa, Indonesia, etc…), trade whatever you have to get coffee beans (assuming the person with those beans wants whatever it is you have to begin with), sail them back and then trade them for… what?

In an anarchist society, no one would “own” a cow. So who is going to invest their labor to obtain access to a cow (that they don’t own!) and then invest more of their labor into caring for that cow in order to produce the milk used to make those lattes? No one “owns” the fields where sugar used to be grown. Where does your sugar come from? No one “owns” the factory that makes your bean grinders, coffee makers or any of the other equipment found in a typical coffee shop. How long do you figure it would take you to produce enough “things” of value to trade for all of the equipment necessary to open and run a “nice” coffee shop? (Let’s say it is the equal to your standard Starbucks.). What can you produce all on your own that would create enough value that all of the other people involved in producing everything you’d need would be willing to trade with you for everything necessary to create, maintain and run a coffee shop?

It all works out, because most people are not assholes.

That’s cheating again. Those charitable coffee shops that do currently exist aren’t operating within an anarchist society. Go get yourself a box truck, show up at one and start loading all of their equipment and furnishings into your truck. See how long they wait before they call the police to have you arrested for theft.

The problem, IMO, with all of these “-isms” that there there is a segment of the population that are assholes. Pick any complaint you have about capitalism and ask yourself if that same complaint would exist if there were no assholes. Pick an -ism and get rid of assholes that choose not to comply with it and it works. Easy peasy!

But that’s why we have governments. Because there always is, and always will be, a segment of society that chooses to be assholes.

The distinction between anarchism and any other -ism used to describe a society is that all those other -isms have a system for identifying and controlling assholes. Anarchists practice wishful thinking and hope the assholes don’t show up.

Build your anarchist coffee shop. But be prepared for the point in time where someone who is an asshole shows up and decides to take or trash it. Will you just shrug your shoulders as you stand there watching years of your labor burn to the ground?

    Jim Roye

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    Jim Roye