So, I came across an interesting youtube video where the user set up a server of 256x256, divided it into 4 quadrants of the political compass, and then an experiment to let people choose their quadrant and see which one worked best. To some extent, there was no best, it was a political roursch test. What your idea of best depends on what quadrant you're in, as they mostly followed their own quadrants ideals for better or for worse. I'm lib left so I have my preferences, so let's get into it.
Libertarian left- Libertarian left seemed to do "the best" in my opinion, but of course, your opinion may very. But generally speaking, they tended to just be the most chill and laid back. They made a lot of nice things, and it came off like your typical minecraft server with limited space. Lots of large creations that looked nice. However, as pointed out, because there was no ownership of the land, and because there was little coordination, sometimes the stuff people made clashed, and sometimes space was wasted, for example on apartment complexes no one actually used. Still, it was chill, people mostly did what they wanted it and turned out nicely.
Authoritarian left- If you want efficiency, authoritarian left nailed it. One guy basically took over the quadrant and put everyone to work in a way that abided by central planning. The result looked a lot like a capital city in a communist country, with large communist monuments everywhere. Compared to lib left, they were a lot more coordinated, and used their space far more efficiently. They took advantage of their limited space by building upward, establishing multiple levels of a densely packed communist city. Unlike real communism, no one starved either since there were wheat fields stacked literally on top of each other, creating a weird vertical farming sort of thing. Unlike real communism, if you like efficiency, it was great. Probably had the highest level of "advancement" of any society on the compass on this server. Just not my cup of tea because, well, I like freedom.
Libertarian right- While both sides of the left developed very advanced civilizations, the right was...a different story. Anarcho capitalism should be perfect for minecraft. It's an ideology that involves staking out your claim, building an empire out of your own sweat and tears, and abiding by the nonaggression principle. But...it...didn't work out. Arguably because of the lack of space. After all, these guys had 128x128 to build their ancap utopia in. And it just...didn't work. First of all, much like the IRL right, these guys were given villagers to trade with. They ended up murdering them all and taking their stuff and using the resources to build their own homes. These homes were not advanced at all, unlike both of the right factions, they were small little huts well out of the way of each other. Because they were strict with private property and not encroaching on each other, they never advanced beyond that. They just had small little huts and tried to stay out of each other's way. Often times they wouldn't any way, and there would be turf wars in which they would start fighting each other and burning down each others' homes and taking their crap. They didn't always abide by the nonaggression principle. Funny how that works. Look, I have no doubt anarcho capitalism can work in minecraft, but it's an ideology that relies on having a nearly limitless expanse of land where every person can truly be an island unto themselves. When people are forces to share the same environment with each other, anarcho capitalism...doesn't work. While the left, which had no sense of private property, managed to make some great things because they weren't so atomized, the right...didn't. It's like they never advanced beyond some tribal society. To prove a point though they did have some nice toll roads, but that's about all they had.
Authoritarian right- I don't know what happened with these guys, they just imploded. I mean, I'm not even sure this is an adequate representation of the auth right. For the most part, they just lacked the members of the other factions. And a lot of the people who went to this quadrant ended up being edgy. They literally build an Auschwitz like concentration camp at first, and then for some reason their entire world flooded, which the host in the video referred to as being like global warming. Water levels rose, land was flooded, it ended up being very islandy. The concentration camp was torn down and eventually replaced with some skyscrapers, and the swastikas were taken down and replaced with "Brexit" signs, but it just devolved into this weird water world type thing that was arguably the least developed of the four factions. I'm not sure this could even be considered a representation of the ideology, because technically modern capitalism is moderately auth right and they're the most advanced in real life. Here, they just destroyed their own environment, engaged in ethnic cleansing, and the yeah, it ended up imploding.
Conclusion
I wanted to write about this simply because I found this experiment interesting. I highly suggest watching the video, it's very interesting. But yeah. I'm not sure these are adequate representations of the real life ideologies. I mean, authoritarian communism ended up being the most "advanced" society arguably, when its inefficiencies in real life end up making it more stagnant. The authoritarian capitalists ended up being severely underdeveloped compared to reality. Libertarian right ended up about as expected, given my low opinion of anarcho capitalism. Libertarian left seemed the most attractive to me, but that's basically....a normal minecraft server. You build stuff. You have fun, you chill out. No one thinks about it too hard.Stuff emerges organically, and while it may lack the scientific precision of authoritarian ideologies, most of the fun is in that organic emergence. Some auth left hive mind might be the best system in theory from a developmental standpoint, but it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of how you end up actually living in practice. Without freedom, whats the point with that level of advancement? You can't enjoy it. You're not free to.
I guess part of the issue with all of these ideologies was scale. Obviously right wing ideologies work a lot better when you have tons of space. This is why many rural areas, especially in America, lean conservative. The whole rugged individualism thing is a frontier attitude of going west, staking out a claim of your own, and making a modest living working the land. Anarcho capitalism obviously can work very well in a very wide open environment with more than enough land for everyone. Enough for you, enough for me, enough for everyone to just live in their atomized bubble and stay out of everyone else's way. Arguably authoritarian capitalism could've worked too in such a way. Authoritarian righters also often get planning stuff right in practice, much like the authoritarian left in this server. I mean it's why most societies are authoritarian right in some form.
As far as the left goes, they did very well on a small scale. The communists were able to make an extremely efficient society that made the most of their meager land, and obviously everyone there had a pretty high standard of living relative to the other quadrants. While on the large scale they are rife with inefficiencies, they did a much better job in such a limited environment. Even the libertarian left did a better job as their commune style living also led to fairly good results.
But ultimately, it depends what you value. I could never prefer an authoritarian society. Communism and even auth right IRL can make crazy advanced societies in real life, but coming at the expense of freedom, I struggle to deem such a society as worth the cost. Likewise, I couldn't live as an ancap unless land truly was limitless. Otherwise such a society would become stagnant and unjust very quickly. Lib left is where it's at for me. Do what I want when I want it and still end up pretty well off. A society where everyone is taken care of, but people are free to do as they want. My version of heaven.
No comments:
Post a Comment