Anarchy and coercion
May 18th, 2005I find it fascinating how people from every political category and every walk of life recoil in horror when I inform them that I’m an anarcho-capitalist and that I don’t believe any government is legitimate or necessary. What is most surprising is how many well-read, intelligent and politically savvy people cannot grasp it. I’m going to lay out my reasoning here and you vultures are welcome to pick it apart. Just don’t be surprised if none of you can present an argument I’ve not heard before.
The first knee jerk objection is usually, “But… but… we need some government! If we had no government at all, it would be chaos and… and.. well, anarchy! Just survival of the fittest.”
My response: “Not true, but so what if it were. How much different would that be than the situation we have now?”
“You can’t have people just gunning people down in the streets and taking whatever they want!”
My response: “Oh, you mean like what currently happens every day in the inner cities and like government agents do everyday with complete impunity? I agree. That should be stopped. So let’s get rid of government.”
OK, I’ll stop the silly dialog and get to the point. Unless you live in a really bad neighborhood (and probably even then) the only coercive relationship you have in your life is with the government. I know that the only non-voluntary relationship in my life is with government. The point I’m trying to make is that I live an anarcho-capitalist life every day. Chances are, you do too. With the exception of the government’s coercion in my life, every other relationship in my life is voluntary and predicated on mutual agreement and mutual benefit. I’ve never called “the cops” in my life. It’s unlikely that I ever will and even if I did, I would prefer that they were privately employed as opposed to government agents.
I find that even when dealing with people with whom I have strong disagreements, we can either put them aside or mutually agree to stay away from each other. Only government has the legal right to put a gun to your head. One way or another, they do it every single day. Why? Because they can. When you “call the cops,” it’s nothing more than calling in the “legal guns.” It’s a cop-out (pardon the pun) because you’re unable or unwilling to resolve a situation yourself. I have no need for them. None. They’re largely ineffective anyway and if the situation escalates to the point that it requires gunfire and bloodshed, I’m willing to do it myself. Those situations are extremely rare unless you are a very unreasonable person or involve badged bozos. I tend to stay away from unreasonable people.
“But… but… what about national defense? That’s a legitimate function of government! And the courts! That’s legitimate, too.”
True. Those are legitimate functions of government that they’ve repeatedly demonstrated that they are either unwilling or unable to handle. I find it absolutely astounding that one of the first responses to 9/11 was to create a whole new government bureaucracy and a new cabinet position that they had the nerve to call “Homeland Security.” I guess I’m just stupid, but I thought that’s what the “Department of Defense” and the “Secretary of Defense” was for. Now we have a whole new level of bloat and we’re no more secure. The borders are still wide open, airport “security” is a much bigger hassle and an even bigger joke than it was before and we’re no safer. The government is either unwilling to defend this country or too inept.
As for courts… I’ve spent more time than I would care to in courts over the last few years in addition to observing the news reports and reading a lot. If you get anything resembling justice in any court in America at any level, you’re the exception, not the rule. Most of the lawyers are corrupt and keep in mind that a judge is typically just a lawyer that was either too power-hungry or too lazy to continue practicing law.
The bottom line is this: My life would be much, much easier with no government at all. The government offers me nothing of value and thrives on putting their gun to my head. I would rather deal with the Mafia. At least most of them have some sense of honor.
Government at every level is nothing more than a jobs program for the incompetent.
I’ll end with one of my favorite quotes in history. George Washington said:
Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.
“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”
So much of that has been forgotten, I mean, those guys REALLY feared government. Today, people are looking for an excuse to use government, they have nothing but confidence that a solution can be found there. Those deep fears that Washington had, I’m sure the vast majority will find out this century how well founded they are.
I’ve never been able to fully embrace the libertarian party because pure libertarianism is anarco-capitalism. I’m not commenting on this to argue the merits of the case. I wrote a page worth of response to a similar post today for Vox’s, in defense of Bill no less, but then I decided not to post. Because in the time it took me to write it, the libertarians had already descended into murder for hire and other anarchy as a matter of public policy.
I believe Americas founding fathers came closest to the right mix of freedom and government, then we made government our personal god and we threw it all away. Anarco-capitalism will never work, for the same reason America didn’t, someone will always seek power over another and abuse their position for their own self interest.
The libertarian ideal can only be realized under one of two conditions.
1. A near homogenous Christian society, with no external or internal enemies. (although I doubt it could last given the history of ministers abusing their pulpit for personal achievement)
2. A near homogenous hedonist society, with no external or internal enemies. This is the true libertarian ideal, everyone sets around their personal bong half trashed with an ample supply of pot and porn or the mood/mind altering chemical of their choice and another consenting person(s).
Neither situation is likely to occur in the US.
Ah, but there will ALWAYS be government for the simple reason that people will always self-organize.
Even if there is no formal government, there will be an informal government. There are many places of the world where informal governments exist in communities because the official government is either too weak or too heavy handed for their preference.
Go check out a book called The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto. It’s mostly a book about economics and government policy but it’s also contains an informative look at the nature of governence and government policy and the effects it has on various communities around the world.
Your dream of no government is a noble one but it will never happen simply because we will always choose to be governed in some way shape or form. For a Biblical example, the Jews were crying out for an earthly king. Look at what that got them. Yet they still craved it.
It’s a wonderful ideal and if more people held that view, perhaps we would move incrementally closer to it rather than further away from it.
Until that time comes, my motto is, “No King But Jesus”
DC: I wish I could live an anarcho-capitalist life. But I just got my property assessment(TX) and it went up more than 10%. So I get to go argue with an unelected person about ‘why my rate should not have gone up so much.’ If they eliminated the PS function of my prop. taxes I would pay about 1000.00 p/y. And I have to pay all those other damn taxes!!!! It is hard to live a truly A-C life when the govt. has their hand out four or five times a day.
An interesting anarco-capitalist world was Stephenson’s “White Crash”.
That comes the closest to was seems possible. A lot of autonomous self governing enclaves and corportations.
Of course, if we were reduced to this state, China, or a strong para-military body would start conquering the adjacent city-states, and we’d be back in 4500 BC.
Difster, the self organizing government you speak of is called family or clan or tribe. It’s the natural God-given organizing unit. As long as the head of the household and the larger tribe keep their allegiance to God things go along just fine. The ideal government is acceptance of God’s leadership.
They were already going down the road of sin when they began asking for a king. They wanted protection from the neighboring kingdoms, by asking for a king they were proving they didn’t trust God to protect them. It’s really the perfect example of why democracy is a bad thing. They in essence voted to have a king.
FYI, The tribes of Israel asked for judges before they asked for a king. They had a history of resisting the leadership of God.
Government of the people and for the people is simply government of the sin and for the sin.
“Government at every level is nothing more than a jobs program for the incompetent.”
Amen brother!!
And it’s a jobs program with no checks and balances. It just keeps growing and growing.
Thank YHWH that He has given us something to look forward to – eternal life with no human government. I think government is another example of humanity’s constant urge to usurp God’s place in our lives – an urge spurred on by the original failed usurper.
I posted a comment here yesterday.
I got a message that said it was waiting on moderation to be posted.
I come back today and find that my comment is not here.
Was it rejected?
Did the blog software make it disappear on it’s own?
Some sort of explanation would be nice.
If I am to be prevented from posting here I would like to know why.
Res said:
I’ve never been able to fully embrace the libertarian party because pure libertarianism is anarco-capitalism.
I gave up on the LP years ago because they weren’t committed to “pure” libertarianism. (That and the fact that they have no chance of any real electoral success.)
I pretty much agree with every thing else you wrote, Res. What I wrote in this post was about principles and ideals. I know it will never happen and whole-heartedly agree that the Founding Fathers got it right. They intended competition between free states.
I wrote the post to try to help people understand why I’m not interested in debating politics or government “solutions.” Those are oxymorons.
DC: I wish I could live an anarcho-capitalist life. But I just got my property assessment(TX) and it went up more than 10%. So I get to go argue with an unelected person about ‘why my rate should not have gone up so much.’
I probably wasn’t clear because I was quite tired when I wrote the post. What I intended to convey, John, was exactly what you’re saying. Without government we can “all just get along” for the most part.
Government is the problem. It really makes no difference if you’re dealing with someone that’s unelected. You’re still dealing with government and, ultimately, they still have a gun backing them up. And it’s a gun that has a legal right to take you out whether you’re out of line or not.
I forgot to point out that governments are usually responsible for inciting their citizens to war, as well. Otherwise it’s just a mob and it’ll fizzle out before too long.
It’ll never happen.
Thank God.
Good post, DC; some stuff to think about. Unfortunately, though, I don’t think it will ever fly, not with the way some folks have mucked things up (and after the Founding Fathers had done such a nice job, too). I’m in the “No King But Jesus” camp myself.
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