I am a player of Urban Dead with a character in The Black Flag and Malton revolution radio. My other human character is a squatter in Gibsonton.
My alt is a zombie named Araghaz who was plucked out of the Arkham Asylum and used as a test subject in Project Sunrise by Necrotech. He now operates as a feral zombie looking for a group and some survivors to kill, especially those associated with Necrotech or the Asylum. He takes particular pleasure in tearing down free running choke points and hospitals.
Outside of the game, I'm a student, farm worker, musician, and an anarchist without adjectives, in favor of economic pluralism, with a mutualist bent. Economically, I support worker's control of the means of production through a property system based on the possession and use of productive property and the actual ownership of the products of production. I desire transactions to be carried out in a pluralism of forms interacting with one another, including a market of backed currency notes, a market of mutual credit such as the LETS or ROCS model, which may outcompete backed currency if given the chance, and gift/communal economies, including communes and mutual aid societies. I am torn on whether or not municipalities (organized by federation along bioregions and managed through participatory democracy) are necessary, or whether total free association can be maintained.
In the field of conflict resolution, I support polycentric law, preferably some sort of customary common law. If that is not feasible, I am willing to settle for the social anarchist view of autonomous municipalities ruled by popular suffrage.
I support enlightened self-interest, meaning an interest that takes into account the benefits of reciprocal altruism, cooperation, restraint and long-term planning, and that keeps in mind that the purpose of economic activity is utility, not the accumulation of ownership- the latter is only a means to the former, and is not the only one. Culturally, I oppose mass society and view it as the result of the alienation of the laborer from the commons and the position of the industrial and post-industrial laborer as wage labor. This has fed the process of urbanization and the breakdown of the extended family in favor of the nuclear one, giving rise to a culture in which we no longer know the people we grow up with, and the withdrawal from the community coupled with the rise of mass media has created a cultural neuroticism of alienation.
I think that Urban Dead's in-game society is an interesting example of the principles of anarchism, and I do not mean this in a way to support the stereotype of anarchism as 'chaos'. Let's think about it. Little or no government exists in Malton- there are groups that try to be governmental, but they are unable to widely enforce their monopoly of violence. In lieu of government, survivor groups are organized by free association, with many being essentially nonhierarchical. General rules and agreements are made not by an authority, but through the development of behavioral norms by a polycentric society. These rules are even enforced by the people of the society, and one need not be a member of a group to gain the protection of this customary polycentric law, whcih is itself minimalistic but functional. With the exception of predatory groups (which can be found in any society), groups generally act in mutual aid, with most conflicts arising because of extreme personality differences and antagonism, or because of the imposition of 'property'. On the subject of property, the game has no real property system, and even with some people claiming to be the inhabitants of certain areas, exclusive property rights are generally absent. Where claim to exclusive property develops, especially when these are conflicting claims by groups of different ideologies, such as at Krinks Power Station or Gibsonton, conflicts follow. So we see that exclusive use claims are a source of major conflict. Now, obviously, Urban Dead doesn't delve into the harder complexities of stateless society, but it does do a good job of depicting some of the basic ideas- even the zombies have decentralized leaderless social cohesion, such as the Feral Movement (I call it zombanarchism).
 |
Anarchism
|
| This User or Group supports the concept and ideals of Anarchism, and will fight against all kind of oppression and groups that want to establish the old capitalistic order.
|
|
Fascists
|
| This user or group hates fascists and will do everything in their power to feed them to the zombies.
|
|
Nazi Hunter
|
| Jack Finegan has killed a lot of nazis.
|
 |
Revolution
|
| This User or Group supports the belief that zombies are the true revolutionnary force in Malton, created by the capitalists to destroy capitalism.
|
 |
It's true!!!
|
| Communists do make better lovers!
|
|
Atheist
|
| This user is an atheist.
|
|
Tear down the wall!
|
| Like the Berlin Wall, the wall around Malton will fall!
|
 |
Anarchy!
|
| This User or Group supports the ideal of absolute equality and freedom: anarchy! They will stop at nothing to ensure that the deadening, repressive institutions of government and capitalism are kept out of Malton.
Politicians and stockbrokers: BEWARE!
|
|
Anti-Copyright User
|
| This user hates copyrights.
|
 |
Mutual Aid
|
| Aid the community and the community aids you.
|
| This User or Group advocates mutual aid by means of being helpful, creative, and cooperative in-game, on the Wiki, and everywhere else in Urban Dead; in other words, not being a horrible, useless bastard.
|
