Pic Of The Moment: You've Really Been Reduced To THIS?

[nxylas]

101. I last heard this argument from an anarchist-primitivist

His name was Richard Hunt and he was a former editor of Green Anarchist magazine and author of a book entitled, with no irony intended, To End Poverty. He argued constantly for a regression of technology to practically Iron Age levels, and for society to be organised into autarkies of around 500 people, each with its own non-transferable currency. Once I was in a pub with him and asked him how a self-contained village of 500 people would provide something like medical care if there weren't enough trained doctors and nurses among those 500 people. He assured me the "a village of 500 people wouldn't need hospitals". "But what happens if people get sick?", I asked. "They die", came his blunt reply.

The "people get sick in hospitals" argument was a lame attempt at backpedaling, perhaps intended to stave off the next obvious question, namely why the hell anyone would want to live in a society like that.