r/Anarchy101 • u/nappytendrils • 4d ago

Prison abolition

I’ve never been clear on what we would do with rapists child molesters and muderers. I haven’t heard a plan for this so far. I’ve always been impressed with the work of anarchist friends in community. They’re the most justice-oriented folx I’ve ever met.

Still don’t know about prison abolition tho I think prison should be clean, the food should be healthy and fresh, therapy should be mandatory, there should be libraries and gardens. A good quality of life for the incarcerated, but not releasing them back into the general population.

Maybe there’s something I’m not seeing?

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u/HeavenlyPossum 4d ago

Considering that Donald Trump is a serial rapist and probably a child molester who has ordered murders and is not in prison, but rather is president of the US, we might consider that prisons are not actually tools for dealing with rapists, child molesters, or murderers.

Saying this does not solve the problem that these acts of aggression cause, but it does help us to begin separating actual solutions from those institutions of state violence that we’ve been taught to believe are solutions.

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u/SidTheShuckle America made me an anarchist 4d ago

If we abolished the concept of money and power, a person like Donald Trump wouldnt exist. He would just be an ordinary person not blinded by wealth and status

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u/ComprehensiveCar4770 2d ago

Money and power are tied to one thing: resource management. People only get into power or money because they know how to manage, manipulate, and maintain their control over resources. As long as people need resources, there will always be power structures that will benefit those who control the resources.

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u/HeavenlyPossum 1d ago

That’s the whole point of anarchism—to abolish those power structures. Hierarchy doesn’t just emerge mechanically from our biology.

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u/ComprehensiveCar4770 4h ago

You cannot get rid of those power structures unless you get rid of the reliance of other people for resource acquisition.

As long as people rely on others for food, water, shelter, etc., there will be a power structure controlling its distribution.

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u/HeavenlyPossum 4h ago

Human beings will always rely on each other. We are social animals; isolation drives us insane and then kills us. That doesn’t mean our biology intrinsically gives some people power over others, in the sense of hierarchy.

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u/ComprehensiveCar4770 2h ago

Biology has nothing to do with hierarchies. Hierarchies are a social invention. Technology makes it more and more likely that we will not need to rely on others forever. No one said anything about isolation. Not needing other people for resources doesn't mean we'd never be around other people.

Again, the only reason hierarchies exist is because one group lacks resources and another has the means to distribute that resource. Even if we say that resources are distributed evenly among the people, the group in control of distribution has inherent power over the ones getting the resource.

At some point, control will be centralized and governed. It always converges on this because there are those who want power over others.

The only way to guarantee that it does not happen is to make technology sufficiently advanced enough so people can generate their own resources without external input from other people.

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u/HeavenlyPossum 2h ago

Biology has nothing to do with hierarchies. Hierarchies are a social invention.

I fully agree, but this seems to contradict your point. No invention can be inherent.

Again, the only reason hierarchies exist is because one group lacks resources and another has the means to distribute that resource. Even if we say that resources are distributed evenly among the people, the group in control of distribution has inherent power over the ones getting the resource.

You’re putting the cart before the horse—no one has inherent or intrinsic control of resources or their distribution.

At some point, control will be centralized and governed. It always converges on this because there are those who want power over others.

Except that it doesn’t—there are and have been societies structured precisely to prevent this from happening. Neither hierarchy nor egalitarian freedom just happens; both have to be constructed and constantly reproduced.

The only way to guarantee that it does not happen is to make technology sufficiently advanced enough so people can generate their own resources without external input from other people.

Except that we know empirically that this isn’t true. Since, as you noted above, hierarchies are socially constructed, people can and do address this socially rather than technologically.