Reddit reviews The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia (Yale Agrarian Studies Series)
We found 2 Reddit comments about The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia (Yale Agrarian Studies Series). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
It's much bigger than communism, and goes back further. In James C. Scott's classic anarchist work The Art of Not Being Governed, he discusses a problem that States have had since antiquity: keeping their subjects' activity legible. Legibility in this context means visible, and therefore taxable.
So in The Art and the particular context of pre-colonial Southeast Asia, "legible" meant irrigated rice farming. The State and its enforcers can clearly see how many rice paddies there are, and therefore can tax the farmers, and plan their military campaigns accordingly.
You know what fucks all that up? A bunch of people who go run for the hills, plant their own crops and hide them from the State. Totally illegible. Does not compute. Must ban!
you cant compare your need of a fascist modern state with a self organizing community, so yes, people can live without a state but capitalists/fascists will try everything to destroy it, obviously it will not last much in Europe.
I would recommend two books on the matter:
https://www.amazon.com/Society-Against-State-Political-Anthropology/dp/0942299019/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1539429544
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Not-Being-Governed-Anarchist-ebook/dp/B01N75OC23/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539429842