ACTIVISM

THE TROUBLE WITH SMASHING THE STATE

CAMERON, GREEN COMMONS - Every agenda for social change that I've ever
heard of that involved "smashing the state" suffers from a logic design
flaw known as "logical race condition." Anarchists, Marxist-Leninists,
and the modern movement claiming the proper name "Libertarian" make the
same mistake.

Behavior of a system with a logical race condition is determined by
factors that are to a great extent random or chaotic (randomness and
chaos are not the same) or at least poorly controlled. Race conditions
are one of the most common software design mistakes that create security
holes. Something that should be protected is exposed temporarily, and
it's a race between the end of the exposure and the attacker trying to
exploit it.

When the state is "smashed," a race begins. The different cliques who
seek power race to grab it, and whoever gets there first is the new
state. Trouble is, authoritarians usually get there first, because
they're unencumbered with (slow) democratic process. There is no
mechanism, during the transient "smashed state" condition, to prevent
this race from occurring. Power vacuums always get filled. That's why
armed revolutions and coups d'etat tend to make things worse for the
working class.

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