From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Date: Wed Dec 23 1998 - 08:12:34 MST
Emmanuel Charpentier wrote:
> Nobody has answered my question about anarchy systems in cases of
> crisis (like war).
>
> Any try???
>
> exemple: how could an anarchist earth defend itself effectively
> against an invading virus or ETs (say the invader start with some sort
> of advantage in technology)?
>
> I read somewhere that a spanish group of soldiers did organise
> itself democratically or anarchistically (?), but that they only managed
> to lose their battles. Has anybody heard about that or such
> experiments...?
Any guerrilla or terrorist movement is by necessity a very distributed
group, authoritatively. Even given a cell structure which tries to maintain
a pyramid of authority, there is still plenty of secrecy between levels and
legs and enough power within individual cells to mount successful missions
indepenent of the chain of command. You also frequently get independent
factions allied to a single cause but operating independently, only sharing
or coordinating on missions where crucial skills or equipement is required.
One could say that the PLO, the IRA, the Viet Cong, the Sandinistas, and the
Contras are all examples of such organizations on a regional level which
have all had their own levels of success. One weakness of such small
regional groups is that they require for their success that there be a place
of supply and refuge which is outside the theater of operations, which
basically necessitates that such groups find a nation-state to sponsor their
activities, however this is only when such groups are opposed by another
nation state.
Now, considering that a small nation like Vietnam was able to defeat the
army of a much larger and more technologically advanced nation like ours
indicates that guerrilla movements can be highly successful.
Now, assuming that the first contact with aliens is of the survey/scouting
type, we should have sufficient advance warning of at least a few decades to
prepare. Given that such a threat is evidently applied to all on the planet,
in a libertarian society, the evidence of alien contact would be widely
distributed rather quickly, giving all a chance to prepare defenses rapidly.
In the present day, with nation states, we can see from their behavior that
any initial contact is likely to be kept highly secret, with one nation
state either trying to negotiate a deal to its advantage, or failing
negotiation, to use any technology gained to pursue its own defense, while
leaving its enemies who may be unaware open to invasion.
An invading virus
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