Thread by @PeterGelderloos

When anarchists talk about abolishing hierarchy.
A short thread.
Hierarchy is one of those words whose meaning has slipped significantly over the years.
Its original meaning is "rule by priests".
It is NOT the same as ranking, status, or inequality.
akpress.org/worshipingpowe…

Maslow should have described a "flow chart of needs," wolves and primates don't have hierarchies but relational systems, sometimes with limited ranking (many animal behavioral studies were corrupted by the observer's cultural projections & the stress of captivity)

A hierarchy is a self-reproducing system in which power is distributed unequally across a linear scale, and those in the top tier or tiers predominantly decide on the common values and norms for the system, including how people may move up or down on the scale.

In the archetypal example, a community of believers share a common religion, the laity have no decision-making power short of revolting, lower priests get privileges and status, the highest priests decide doctrine, ordain new members, and distribite community resources.

In other words, it is a system everyone participates in, but the majority have to surrender wealth, credulity, legitimacy, and their own ability to decide in exchange for various forms of control (and stability), and the more privileged also have to obey, but get to actively...

...shape the mechanics of control, strategies and discourses, and they get to enjoy a far greater share of the system's resources.
This is what all anarchists are against.
And tho' popular education has hidden this from us, many human societies in history have not had hierarchies

(Also, in before the first colonial take, please please please note the difference between a shared spirituality, even with specialists, and a religion with the power to control access to full social life).
There are plenty of anarchists, myself included, who want to go beyond...

...abolishing all hierarchies and also strive for a society with as much freedom as possible, critically questioning other forms of status and ranking that do not constitute hierarchies.
Nonetheless, I think anarchists who claim to be in favor of equality may not be aware...

...of the Enlightenment origins and implications of the concept of equality. This is a rationalist concept that presupposes the interchangeability of people and divorces ppl from environment. Equality is a mathematical concept that uncritically views difference as a problem.

States are needed to guarantee equality. On the contrary, with autonomy, people guarantee their own well being. Historically, the imposition of legal equality has been connected to colonialism. The only equal human states contemplate is the Western one.

In sum, in an anarchist society, people can still have football tournaments if they want, and this doesn't constitute a hierarchy.
But, Calvinball is more fun.