The central goal of anarchism is the dissolution/destruction of all governing systems. 'No Rulers!' is the cry, & any organized hierarchy is seen as an enemy. It is an absurd ideology, that ignores some of the most basic realities of human nature.
Q. Does man need a governing system?
A. 1. Man is a herd animal. The basic unit of mankind is the nuclear family. Anthropologically, this basic unit is the building block of the herd. Within that herd, there are sometimes rogue males, who disrupt the social fabric. And there are detached females, with or without children, who depend on the central core of the herd for protection & sustenance. In a healthy herd, all do their part & the disruption & dependency is minimal. The central core of family heads provide the protection, & must be united to present a deterrence to dangers & disruptions. The rogue males are kept in check by the core of family heads, & are either run off or submit to the power structure. The central role of the united family heads is to provide protection.. from outside aggressors, or inside disrupters.. i will call this 'Justice'.
2. Size of the 'herds' correlates with the organization needed to provide justice. Small, detached family units need little organization to function. Justice is simple, & easily adjudicated by the family unit. But as population density increases, the need to organize also increases. Remote country roads need no traffic controls. Busy urban intersections do. A single sherriff can provide protection for a large, sparsely populated county, but a dense city needs a big police force. This also carries over to national protection. A large, affluent society needs more deterrence to protect from outside aggressors. Thieves & imperialistic nations will come in & plunder the resources of a people, if they do not have the means to deter them. Some herds unite in larger coalitions, but these have become so blurred as to be indistinguishable from a single large herd of modern national identity.
3. As society grows & evolves, the reach of the central power system has gone through many changes. We have had kings & emperors, caliphs & parties, juntas & coalitions. Some have done a better job at providing justice for the citizens than others. Some have claimed divine ordination, or special privilege to rule. Some have ruled by decree, whimsically dictating justice to a confused people. Then the concept of LAW began to grow. This is the idea that there is a higher set of rules that EVERYONE is subject to, not just the ruled people. The lords, kings, caliphs, or anyone in authority was subject to this law. You see that in the 10 commandments.. the magna carta.. martin luther's 95 theses.. these are all appeals to LAW over subjective, imperial decree. This concept was codified into a system of governance in the american experiment. We were not to be ruled by elected leaders, but by LAW.. the elected representatives were in charge of protecting, tweaking, & crafting these laws for the protection & benefit of all.
4. In historically disruptive times, when the existing organizing system breaks down, there is chaos & disorder. The strong oppress the weak, theft & murder goes unchecked, & a vacuum is created. In every instance, a new system of order is forthcoming. It is usually despotic, with a powerful central govt that takes authoritative power to 'bring order'. The people submit to this, & prefer it to the chaos of disorder & crime.
Summary: Yes. Man needs & always wants some kind of social order & justice system in his collective communities. The more moral a people are, & the more they recognize & esteem natural law in a society, the less intrusion is needed by the justice providers. This is the closest you can get to a voluntarist society, where a moral people live in united harmony under an agreed upon core of law. It does not eliminate the need for order, it just minimizes the cost & effort of the society to provide it.
“I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such: because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no Form of Government but what may be a Blessing to the People if well-administred; and I believe farther that this is likely to be well administred for a Course of Years and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other.” ~Benjamin Franklin
Q. Can society function 'without rulers'? Is an anarchist system possible?
A. 1. If justice is a commodity, it can be bought & sold to the highest bidder. This is a 'devolution' of society into more primitive governance, where 'might makes right'.
2. Without a common defense, with power to enforce it, there would be a proliferation of 'justice providers', battling each other for control, & none as strong as if they combined their forces. This weakens the society, & would encourage crime & foreign aggression.
3. There are NO examples of this actually working in any society in the history of mankind. A few small tribes functioning in a vacuum of power for a while is not a shining example of anarchism working in a modern industrial society.
Q. Why should the state have a monopoly of force?
A. This prevents corruption of justice, if the justice providers are HIRED by the people to dispense justice for society. Competing justice providers are merely gang turf wars on a national scale. A citizen run, citizen funded, citizen overseen system of blind justice is the best for preventing corruption, providing fair, unbiased justice, & is a more efficient system than multiple, competing justice providers. National defense is also better under a single, powerful deterrent force, than many competing factions. The native american tribes exemplify that point.
Q. Why not boil all the law down to 'thou shalt not initiate aggression'?
A. God himself, sir, gave 10 commandments to moses. The son of god summarized them like this:Matt22:36“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38“This is the great and foremost commandment. 39“The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ 40“On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
'Initiate aggression' is too vague. It is not a model for a system of governance, or a system of law. It is a return to the old way of 'everyone did what was right in his own eyes', aka 'might makes right'. If you are starting a religion, & want to use this as a starting point, good luck with that. You have no basis or authority to appeal to, just some vague notion of 'natural rights' which the aggressors will ignore & plunder you & yours with superior force. You rely on the goodwill & altruism of man, which is not there, collectively. It exists in singular form, rarely, but still needs the deterrence of punishment of law breaking to keep order in society.
Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants." –William Penn
In the black & white world of the anarchist, there is only statism & 'no rulers'. They see no difference between a limited, subservient govt & totalitarian despotism. The nuances of governance are ignored, as they pitch their fantasy of 'no rulers'. But true to form, they disrupt & destroy any semblance of order to promote their fantasies. Law & order, logic, human governance, & even the concept of self rule are ridiculed & heckled by them as 'statist' or authoritarian.
At its root, anarchism is chaos. It is 'no order', & pretends that this is a virtue. They have spread chaos in every generation since the concept has gained traction. It has never become a system of national identity, but has always been crushed by stronger forces, supported by the people who want law & order, & the ability to live & work in peace. Anarchists destroy. They build nothing. They tear down any hierarchy, order, or organization in a society, whatever it is. They were stereotypically bearded, bomb throwing rogue males... atheists, agents of chaos, & haters of any tradition or religious values. They can hide behind the anonymity of the internet, now, but their goal is the same. Chaos. Disorder. Destruction.
We can learn from history, evolve as a society & pursue human freedom & sound governance, or we can be stuck in an endless loop of doomed repetition. Anarchy is a celebration of that loop, & is a surrender of the social structure of society to the rogue males.
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