From the White-PillBox: Part 4
Imagine if anarchy was consistent with the natural, default behavior of virtually everyone. Oh wait...it is.
To begin, I will make clear that I am using the word “anarchy” to mean the absence of coercive hierarchies such as monarchs and governments. Nothing more. In popular usage, of course, it tends to mean lawlessness and chaos.
The classic justification for government claims it brings order to society; that, without a governing State, people would behave as animals, ready to attack and brutalize each other without consequence1. Put differently, it claims man is not responsible enough to govern himself, and needs other men to rule (govern) him. Law is seen as the mechanism to keep man civilized; without law, society descends into chaos.
This notion fails even cursory examination. For example:
As we know, there are laws on the books across the world, forbidding us to stare directly at the sun for an hour. This prevents sighted people from going blind.
But hold on…there are no such laws. So why are we not all blind?
It is because staring at the sun till blind is not in our best interest. Whether there is a law against it or not, is irrelevant. We successfully govern our own actions.
One could say that on the issue of going-blind-from-staring-at-the-sun, people live in anarchy, without problems.
This is but one example. Indeed, anarchy lives and breathes all around us. It is not a utopian dream, nor is it a dystopian nightmare. It is the simple and evident reality in which man lives, and has lived, since emerging as a species. True, government (in one form or another) has existed for thousands of years - but merely as a parallel condition grafted on society.
The historical attention government has enjoyed obscures the fact that anarchy is a ubiquitous reality.
A household lives in anarchy. Government does not rule the family. There are of course imperfections in households (anarchy is not utopia). But most have a reasonable level of peace and stability; they are not chaotic hellscapes (which one might expect, if law and government were necessary to keep them in order).
In the same way, most life choices are made in anarchy. No government law or oversight whatsoever tells us what sort of work to pursue, where to work, where to live, with whom we may associate personally or professionally, what and when to eat, what to wear, where and when to shop, how much to spend and save, whether to have children, how to parent, what entertainment and hobbies to enjoy, etc.
These and countless other areas of life exist in anarchy. And most of the time, people interact with relative peace and stability. There are exceptions, but this distracts from the key point: the claim that anarchy results in chaotic hellscapes is observably false. In every example provided, government has no role, yet things work reasonably well most of the time.
A common objection is: man can make his own decisions at the small scale, but the bigger issues need a State. Aside from the fact that this is usually nothing more than an unsubstantiated assertion, it is easily countered with some examples.
Language is one of humanity’s most important tools; no more than a moment’s reflection is needed to appreciate this. It is highly ordered, complex, and universal. It is extraordinarily adaptable, and expresses itself in sound, writing, facial and hand gestures, graphically, etc. Yet language is not implemented by law. Languages evolve in anarchy.
Physical tools of any complexity are created in anarchy. From a pencil to a cell phone, no individual person could hope to produce such tools from scratch on their own. No laws or mandates were necessary to produce the theory of relativity, computers, and the Internet (no law or mandate could have). They naturally arise spontaneously, through voluntary, ungoverned interactions…anarchy.
The White Pill
Those who advocate for a free society are often discouraged; they feel it is a monumentally impossible task to convince people of the Non-Aggression Principle.
But the natural inclinations of humans are most clearly expressed in their day-to-day behavior. And observably, peaceful coexistence is the simple, moral and practical day-to-day behavior of virtually all human beings; behavior that practices non-aggression to the letter. Anarchy is their default behavior; they do not need convincing.
In this respect, the overwhelming majority of humans is on the side of anarchy.
This is classic bait-and-switching of words. We can’t have anarchy (no rulers) because it would lead to anarchy (chaos). The unfortunate dual-meaning of the word creates an uphill battle to understanding. Then again, it isn’t that hard to make the distinction, and remember it.