What An Anarchist City Could Look Like [Social Ecology] 

It brings me joy and heal my soul. Some Dreams in my everlasting nightmare

The craziest thing about suburbs and sprawling strip malls is that they don't even make economic sense under capitalism. Strip malls and big box stores cost an incredible amount to hook up into the water/sewer/electric and give a tiny amount of tax to the cities for upkeep of those systems.

This is a pretty close approximation of the ideal setup I'd envisioned decades ago, before I'd even become a leftist, when I was still right-of-centre.

I think this leaves out the part a lot of places are actually just going to need to be completely torn down to make life sustainable. There isn't a city in the US that isn't suffering from sprawl, for example. A lot of our cities are going to need dramatic reductions in surface area and I'd have to disagree that using skyscrapers as enclosed communities would continue to do more good than harm because of all the resources that it takes to make those buildings functional. Think of all the electricity to get water up the building, waste disposal for all those in the building, and how costly it's going to be to basically build the skyscraper from the ground up again.

Great video. It shows us how inefficient the system we live under is.

Solarpunk City.

I recommend EcoGecko’s youtube channel for anyone interested in critiques of suburban sprawl and planning from a leftist (or progressive) perspective

One of the goals of socialism has been the unification of rural and urban. Urbanity historically has been the source of rigid social stratification and state crafting. This isn’t to say hierarchy can’t arise in more agricultural areas, but historically they have been more egalitarian, free, and communal. Hence why peasantry and rural populism has always been wary of the urban machine and consolidating of wealth and powers in cities. Post- capitalist industrialization and the creation of the proletariat class gives the opportunity for social revolution and to form urbanity into as much an egalitarian and communal civilization as rural counterparts. The advancements of civilization weren’t the problem, but the social relations and rigid hierarchies that took structure and power there. It doesn’t have to be so. And Urban advancement doesn’t have to be so ugly, but one with ecology. Sickle and hammer unite. ⛏🔨

I think a great example of an anarchist city would be the Venus project's resource based economy. Some people criticize it because they wrongly believe resource based city planning would be hierarchical, but I see it the same way as Kropotkin described production and building would take place in an anarchist society. Knowledgeable people come together to complete a task, these people being technicians and architects

Isaac Arthur is a sci-fi youtuber with a lot of knowledge. He has a video on Eco-Architecture I think you would like

Thanks. This is why I started a garden and exchange with my neighbours. Fresh vegetables every day, 100% local.

After watching this video, and the last one, I'm starting to think that your channel is the dead level best leftist RU-vid channel at this point. It's certainly always been one of my favorites. A lot of the content you condensed and discussed, comes not just from Murray Bookchin, but also from Arcology. I want to see contemporary leftists re-introduced to the British Arts & Crafts Movement, of the late 19th century, which itself was Socialist, and tackled so many of these problems. What we need in order to save our world, is an aesthetic and ecological socialism and anarchism. I think it is either we build a utopia where people's health and happiness, along with the health of nature is restored, or we perish. We must either be inspired dreamers, or humanity will meet it's end.

"Someway to deal with those pesky mosquitos" May I introduce you to my friends, the bats?

"...Some way to deal with those pesky mosquitoes." Frogs, spiders, & bats, oh my!

Can I just say, that one thing I love about your videos is that you're someone I feel like we could just chill, chat, and even disagree without getting heated and I think this space needs more of that. I seriously hope you have a kick ass day and are doing well. Take care, and if you ever need help with anything, reach out. :)

The channel Not Just Bikes talks about this sort of thing all the time if you want more.

I love SRSLY Wrong, it’s probably my favorite podcast ever and it’s also hilarious. They introduced me to communalism and social ecology through their 3 episode series on it and I’m so grateful. Great video!

Before i watch this i would suggest the city built upwards and together incorporate greenery,efficiency and sustainability up the wazzoo

Eco Gecko is a phenomenal channel that has a bunch of great videos on the subject of anti-capitalist city design

Srsly Wrong is one of the best podcasts. Great Collab!

i hate how sometimes socialists tend to attribute the drawbacks of industrialization to capitalism. monocultures are there because working on them is easier to mechanize. every industrial society will want them.

The Venus Project has been preaching this for decades.

Some floors of those township-towers could be kept open as indoor plazas for community gathering and just being among neighbors. And where you have polyculture gardens, you have something that _also_ serves as an outlet for hobbyists and a sort of walking park.

That was both interesting and eye-opening. Methinks I'll be checking out your other videos. :)

this channel is awesome and deserves a lot more attention, may the algorithm lift you unto the masses

Cities need a makeover, fantastic vid

This is one of the most beautiful, well made videos I have ever seen on how not just anarchist cities, but how a whole anarchist society could look like and how we can use existing things and transform them into something amazing. I'm gonna be honest, I cried during this video. I know, I call myself sensitive, but this really raised my hopeness to an endless level. I am so happy that this video exists and thank you for everything.

Awesome video. RU-vid needs more Murray Bookchin.

Less suburbs, more densification, medium size cities... Something a little more "european" maybe.

7:33 While not necessarily the kind of Solarpunk art I think is most realistic and uplifting, I love this piece far more than the 'giant plaza with skyscrapers and a few green trees' greenwashed pieces we see now and then. The art at this time stamp looks functional, utilitarian, and blends well in an aesthetically pleasing way with the local environment around it. Also great video Re-Education!

I didn’t know what an anarchist would look like but this guy is it😂

Why do I think that everything will collapse until this happens..

I love that you put in this shot of you cobbling at 32:05 💖

I swear I JUST wondered when your next video was coming out, and not 30 seconds later I hear the ping.

Yeah but how does this make stonks go up? If stonks don't go up, the obscenely rich kleptocrats that have us in a squirrel grip won't see their net worth go up by a fraction of a percent.

Great work Aaron. Tx

awesome video! I'm sharing it around.

Thank you so much for this video, have to write about living in anarchistic society soon and this gave me so much insight :)

Can you do an episode on Murray Bookchin? I loved this video and wanna know more!!

It’s time to genetically modify mosquitos out of existence

In case any of my comments have/will give you any other impression, I agree with you on almost everything and appreciate you and what you are doing. Thank You for, if nothing else, letting me know I'm not alone or insane.

Just a small nitpick about the urban design part: much of Europe has a lot of those things, like fountains, public open air gyms, art in every neighborhood, playgrounds integrated into the design of the neighborhood, etc and we're social democracies. I'm not saying we couldn't do more of it, it's just not unique to anarchism. and yes, it improves living in a place a lot. Esthetics matter.

*Jim Sterling reference* Ah, I see you are also a man of culture.

This is going straight to my playlist. OUTSTANDING video. I love the vision made so clearly.

I’m a libertarian. Thank you for putting this out. One sincere question: where does the capital come from in this society to fund large-scale enterprises like space exploration, hadron colliders, etc that the public isn’t interested in funding?

What i would like to add to the conversation: a pretty good history for interested parties. "one thing you should know a lot of urban planning is actually rooted in anarchy and i find that really interesting because an anarchist movement is not just about a different built environment. anarchy is about a different society and we have backed away from our anarchist impulse i think in urban planning but i think we should think about where are we with envisioning an alternative society " ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YhVSrCWvR4k.html New Urbanism 101: The History of Planning - Congress for the New Urbanism *** on to this video though: this large scale vision is nice. but this isn't really "What An ANARCHIST City Could Look Like", it is more like the thumbnail "Imagine Utopia", wishes and dreams with no talk about fulfillment. "placing workers nature and the community right up front" SOUNDS good, but this is possible for anarchists to accomplish under capitalism but i have yet to see it happen. It would be interesting to make a follow up on WHERE these anarchist cities are in the world currently. yeah solar punk is an interesting topic ... but its really an art movement not a city planning movement. 1) I am glad that large scale productions is recognized as needed. Because realistically, artisan crafts are the only thing that can be local IMO. i have not been convinced otherwise here. what has been laid out here keeps industrial zones in their own sector all the same. 2) as for the camp ground fees ... um yeah... there has to be a fee under a system were humans are garbage-nature-abusing-people. the fees go towards undoing some of that damage. its a stop gab for bad agents. enjoying nature for all people freely is asking for all kinds of ecological damage. i can imagine you mean something deeper than that but could expand for the sake of brevity. but that's a BIG part of nature. *** my ask: i would love to see collaboration with some futurists that run the numbers on actual feasibility and some urban planers/designers. its great to say this stuff but without the deeper understanding of the systems at play its really just a wish list. some possible collaborators off the top of my head: ru-vid.comfeatured Not Just Bikes ru-vid.com/show-UC0intLFzLaudFG-xAvUEO-A City Beautiful ru-vid.com/show-UCZFipeZtQM5CKUjx6grh54gfeatured Isaac Arthur Edit: ( additional collaborator) Real Life Lore ru-vid.com/show-UCP5tjEmvPItGyLhmjdwP7Ww

SO much this man, so much this (and more!). Slight plug, but I've talked a lot about a few of these concepts on my channel, although I'm more of an advocate of what I call Community Ecology (a variant of SE I suppose, but based on Resource-Based Economics). I definitely think localisation and decentralisation of production is the way forward, in terms of food production, energy, small industry etc. I've given a rough idea of what one of my 'Communities' could look like, although I do focus a bit more on the technologies involved. I think within communities, there should be a strong emphasis on Access over Ownership: where practical, it would be more efficient for a good to be publicly accessible so that more of that good's utility can be made use of, as opposed to each person having their own and then the good in question not getting used much; an example I always give is bikes and scooters and such. I think really, self sufficiency and building peer-to-peer networks for sharing ideas and resources based on said self-sufficiency would be a good kick-starter for a transition into a new social paradigm. In my view, it would be beneficial for people to learn basic tech and engineering skills. Makerspaces and the maker community in general have the potential to be a real powerhouse in helping the reshaping of our society and communities. Most of this video is great, but as a science nerd I just have a slight pet peeve when it comes to people talking about chemicals. I mean if there's a real concern like say cyanides leaking into a river then I get the issue. However, h2so4 is likely used to produce sulfate salts, which are a good source of sulfur for plants (although I guess stuff like onion scrap could be used as an alternative). On agriculture though, yeah vast monoculture is a problem. I like vertical farming, although I'm uninformed about the benefits of polyculture in such a setup (I'm sure there are).

I love this. Much of it reminds me of The Venus Project. Thanks for the video!

As a communist, I often find myself getting in the weeds on things like class struggle and the social path towards a better future, but it's good to pause every now and then and remember that communism will essentially be anarchism, and explore that field of thought. Great video.

You are delving into the idea of constructive anarchy. Another aspect to consider is destructive anarchy, fueled by widespread disillusionment with governments perceived as the cause of societal issues. This discontent can manifest in individuals choosing not to conform, living as homeless individuals, and resorting to vandalism and theft from shops as a way to express their dissatisfaction with a system they believe is not working for them. However, a city necessitates effective leadership, and if those in leadership roles lack wisdom, it may result in destructive outcomes once more. The ultimate outcome significantly hinges on the individuals chosen by society as their leaders.

Hey, for the longest time a video from you RU-vid will actually let me watch. Can't recall the last time.

This was so well made !!!!

dude I just met my mayor I wish I saw this sooner

thank you for using resonance/simpsonwave at 7:25 actual good music

I recently found a channel called Edenicity that proposes a model that ticks a lot of these boxes!

Holy shit, somebody made a video articulating my thoughts for me. I LOVE YOU

Reat video, eloquent and consise. Andrewism has a great video on social ecology too, for those who want even more on futuristic city planning.

You'll never guess what RU-vid once again didn't do despite me having notifications set up for your channel…

This is a beautiful video essay.💐

If you want to know what an anarchist city looks like, just check out Port au Prince, capital of Haiti. A lot of white American kids (including those older than forty, who should know better) have a serious pathology of perspective in their belief that anarchy is what the world needs. The great irony is that these dreamers would be the first to regret a system of anarchy. I mean_ really_ regret, for the brief duration of their survival.

First thing I thought when I saw the title was SolarPunk

Amazing video. I wish you touched on importance of "third places" in an anarchist city. Also can you make videos on space exploration in anarchist society, how would that work large scale? Gracias

Is that you making the boots? Neat!

Great presentation!

June 22nd 2024, Peace day & united we stand, for each other 🌎

Any collaboration with Isaac Arthur of SFIA on this topic possible? He’s a big fan of arcologies and other possible futures grounded in realistic principles.

I hope we can get there someday. Down with capitalism! Up with humanity!

I just wanted to ask if Ecovillages are considered Anarchist? I wonder what is your stance on that type of society?

7:12 i need this and would love a video on how to seize the means of electricity and directly put it in the hands of the proletariat

Ecologism must be the focus of our civilisation

There's a few issues with the "lots of solar panels = utopia" line of thought, but I'd love to have a discussion with you about what complimentary technologies would bridge the gap

Self sustaining high rises dont work because you need a lot of extra conctete, steel etc to support the plants

I really appreciate this kind of video. I hear so much about how bad current systems are, and I agree, but rarely do people propose something to work toward. Rarely is there ever an idea of how we could potentially organize ourselves.

5:45 that insertion of the TMNT 1990 theme

It's this or return to monke. Anyhow, I'm in.

This is why I use RU-vid. Great video!

Wonderful video.

Very inspiring. Thank especially for introducing me to the concept of library socialism.

Very illuminating video 👁

There's also AI Greenhouses being made that produce 400x the food without pesticides because they monitor them on a cycle.

I love to see this videos :D

Let’s try and build it

for first time since the pandemic started i can dream of a better future, thanks

What kind of local self-governing organizing entity are you involved with? I find it funny how much we hate and decry the planned economy but how we build roads is 100% exactly the same as the soviet planned economy.

This gives me hope

We don't need to convert every inch of space into productive space, especially not for energy. You forget to take into account the quantity of matter and consequences of extraction on top of greenhouse gases and pollution. There is a (very) limited and not renewable amount of minerals except for aluminium on the earth's crust, we should use them wisely.

Love Srslywrong podcast

Brandon, Florida is literally a giant strip mall.

35:29 what media is this from?

I feel like i am learning

Did you see Office Space. In your illustration who does the dirty jobs?

positive video. thanks!

Isn't uranium based nuclear energy safe so long as you have a structurally sound building with a qualified staff running it 24/7 in case of a malfunction? And that's not even getting into throrium based nuclear energy that doesn't rely on something as unreliable as water for cooling and can shut down automatically without the need of human intervention.

I love it! Can I move in?

Wonder if anyone here would consider Freetown's legthy existance within the capital of a state entity a successful example of an anarchist society. I kinda feel there is quite a lack of discussion about Christinia

I'm weirdly cursed with seeing webs of inefficiencies in everything around me... the outrageously interconnected wastefulness of humanity is maddening, there are more than enough resources for everyone when 90% of those resources aren't spent propping up the ridiculous hierarchies that keep capitalists in power. Efficiency, IMO, is morality. Capitalists are only 'efficient' from their own myopic viewpoint that can''t extend beyond a dollar sign. Utopian dreams...

At least you point out how atomized modern society is. My generation is struggling with social isolation and a loneliness epidemic due to the technological system growing stronger

Great! 👍

This is fascinating info. Not to throw shade, but it would be much easier to follow if the narration wasn't so annoying. But great info. Thank you for compiling it.

Have you made a video on how an anarchist system would interact and behave on a global level? If we weren't a governed country how would we interact with other countries and delegate?