article by Colonel Nogov on Feb. 2, 2015
Yes!!! Click here to see Merriam-Webster define anarchy. also posted below
Anarchy has 2 definitions.
The first definition is “absence of government”. If you’ll also notice definition 1c. states, “a utopian society of individuals who enjoy complete freedom without government”. Doesn’t that sound wonderful! Anarchy means freedom! This is from a mainstream source, Merriam-Webster, not some fringe element.
The second definition describes a lack of established authority and lack of order. Is that bad?
Whenever I talk to statists, they always think that without government, without authority, without order there will chaos, mayhem, murder, theft, violence, etc. But I say, hold on there paranoid schizophrenic, why do you assume the worst? Humans are a social species. We cooperate to survive and thrive.
Let’s walk through a mental exercise and assume the best. After all didn’t Merriam-Webster define it as “a utopian society”? Take a minute to imagine the best case scenario if there was no government.
To me, the best case scenario is people work together, there’s no murder or theft or violence, the sick and the old are taken care of, no one has the right to force you to do anything against your will, or take your money against your will (aka taxes). People are free to pursue their happiness. Private property is established through peaceful means and everyone respects private property rights. People can travel freely.
As an anarchist, I don’t subscribe to the best case scenario. I don’t subscribe to the worst case scenario either. As with any scale of this type, the bulk is in the middle with it tapering off to the fringes on the sides, a bell curve.
Without government there would still be all the nasty stuff in the world, murder, theft, violence, but it would be equal to or less than what there is today. Certainly no more. I’ll explain why that is so.
Let’s start with violence and murder. The biggest complaint I get about violence and murder from statists is that they think without government there are no consequences for people who commit violence and murder. That simply isn’t true.
Imagine a stateless society and a serial killer begins killing people. Do the people just wait around to be killed? No. First of all, they take precautions, maybe they arm themselves, maybe travel in groups, hire security companies to secure and watch their homes, etc. At some point, they will hunt the serial killer. Just because there is no government to do it, doesn’t mean the people won’t do it. They will. They will collectively or singly hire a detective or multiple detectives to find the killer.
There will be consequences for violence and murder in a stateless society. Even for single cases of murder. What will the punishments be? It depends on the society. It could range from ostracism and restitution to execution.
Even without consequences, the murder rate wouldn’t go up. It is hard to commit murder. People just have a hard time killing other people. The military trains men and women to kill by breaking through their psychological barriers to do so. There are some people who kill naturally, but they are psychopaths and a small percentage of society. Very few of them become killers, even psychopaths realize it’s beneficial for them to work with other people than to kill them. Most people wouldn’t kill, even given the opportunity.
Government is horrible at solving crimes. I know, but CSI. It’s a TV show. In real life, the government only solves about 60% of all murders, and most of those are confessions. Others are so simple, even a government agent could solve it, usually husband kills wife or wife kills husband. The murder weapon still in hand looking over the dead body. As for the confessions, people’s consciences overcome them. They can’t live without confessing. It’s hard to commit murder, even harder to keep it bottled up.
Black market violence is one of the biggest sources of murder and violence. Mostly the drug trade. Gangs battle over turf. It makes them prone to violence and murder. If there was no government, there would be no prohibition on drugs. Think back to alcohol prohibition in the U.S. It created gangsters out of business men. Violence and murder rates went way up. When prohibition was lifted, the violence and murder surrounding the sale and distribution of alcohol stopped. Without government there would be no black markets and the violence and murder associated with the drug trade would stop.
Governments are the number one all time committers of violence and murder on the planet. Governments, through their police and military commit atrocities all over the world. They kill and capture foreigners. They kill and capture their own citizens. The U.S. has the highest prison population on the planet. Total and per capita. The U.S. has hundreds of military bases all over the world. The U.S. is engaged in wars of aggression perpetually. Take away government and most of the violence and murder in the world disappears overnight.
Theft pretty much follows the same line as violence and murder with government being the biggest thief there is. It’s just they call their theft “taxes”, but it’s still just theft. Technically, you’d call it extortion, but that’s just a subcategory of theft.
The difference with theft is that, without government, it will go down over time. Free societies are prosperous societies. As the society becomes more wealthy, theft naturally reduces. Most theft is out of necessity and not sport. Rich people generally don’t steal.
Anarchy means freedom, not chaos. People cooperate because it’s in their best interest to do so. In a free society, if you’re a committer of theft, violence, or murder those things are going to be done right back to you.
The world would look a lot the same if there were Anarchy. There’d still be schools and work and computers. Friends, family, neighborhoods, and property. The internet and money. It would be absent a horrible evil: violent, controlling, thieving governments.