Posted on 01/14/2002 6:38:35 AM PST by SteamshipTime
Anarchy, I must point out, is not synonymous, at least in my mind, with bomb-throwing lunatics, or rioting in the streets. It is as placid as a pond, as peaceful as a park. There is nothing chaotic about it. It is certainly not the absence of government, but only of government imposed by strangers. The anarchist governs himself, based upon principles found to be enduring and valuable: the Ten Commandments, for example. Anarchy has been the basis of society, long prior to the existence of government. Does your family have bylaws? Are there regular elections, or meetings for the sake of writing new laws to cope with new problems? Do family members regularly charge one another with violations of the law, and demand justice, as meted out by strangers? Not in my family. Family members may disagree, of course, but these disagreements are worked out and eventually settled without recourse to written statutes or judges. No lawyers are necessary. God’s law, we have been taught, is written on our hearts. We don’t need to quibble about the precise meaning of words in laws because we all know, instinctively, what is right and fair, and what isn’t. It is only when we leave the family that we encounter the world of legalisms. As a physician, I am on the staff of several hospitals. All have staff bylaws. These are bulky multi-page documents, intended to deal with any and every circumstance surrounding a physician’s staff privileges. Before being accepted on the staff, you must sign the bylaws and agree to abide by them. Indeed, one hospital even affixes to its signature-line the jurat that the signer will be bound not only by these bylaws, but by any additions that may be made in the future. Astonishingly, this absurdity seems to provoke little reaction from the doctors. Perhaps that is because they realize that the bylaws don’t mean anything anyway, but exist mainly to provide the hospital with justification for acting against a particular physician if his actions might be considered dangerous to the hospital. Strangers from hospital-accreditation, who, ultimately, control the purse strings, require them. The laws of your local community, not to mention state and federal governments, are sufficiently numerous and complex that you cannot possibly know them, although ignorance of the law – an excellent excuse for any alleged lawbreaker—is considered no excuse by the lawmakers, who may profit from infractions. You manage your day to day activities quite nicely without reference to these countless regulations. Indeed, were you to consider them prior to acting, you would be reduced to inactivity; they would overwhelm you. In fact, the innumerable laws which are said to apply to all of us are out of our thoughts. That undeniable fact is, in itself, an excellent argument for anarchy. We have government, with its innumerable laws, but we function as though we didn’t, because otherwise we’d spend more time pouring over the statute-books, and haggling over definitions, than doing our work. Moreover, the government itself, though passing new laws with alacrity, pays little attention to them, at least where its self-interest is concerned. It does what it thinks it must do, and if its actions are prohibited by the laws, it ignores them. The proof of this is all around us. To wit: "No state shall make anything but gold and silver coin a legal tender for debt." That constitutional provision would virtually eradicate our economic problems; the government not only ignores it, but violates it. Actions not specifically permitted to government by the constitution are denied it. Nearly all of the government’s actions are, by this constitutional standard, unconstitutional. Does anyone in Washington care? Do most Americans? The written laws are tools to be used, when it is considered desirable to do so, against individuals and corporations, except the federal corporation, which ignores any laws it finds oppressive. What keeps society together are not the myriad laws imposed by government, to be applied as needed; it is the law written on our hearts. The shootings at schools around the country have undoubtedly stimulated a new outpouring of laws, but there are already numerous laws prohibiting shootings at schools, or anywhere else. "Thou Shalt Not Kill" is the relevant law, and it’s already written, though not taught. Indeed, it is forbidden to be taught in many schools. Therein lies the problem! There is freedom in the law, we are told, but that is only true if it is God’s law, not that of some strangers who call themselves government. Those laws bring slavery. Indeed, that may be their purpose.
I believe it was Chesterton who remarked that Christianity had not failed; it had not been tried. And Ayn Rand described capitalism as the unknown ideal. I would like to suggest, in a similar vein, that anarchy has been tried, is being tried and is a universal success, but remains an unknown ideal. I’ll explain.
The natural human order is anarchistic, as the author of this article points out quite eloquently. Government is a perversion of natural community, which is a consensual ad-hoc kind of thing. It is increasingly taking over the family as well, replacing father and mother with courts and CPS "professionals".
Government has no limits. That is the problem.
So only those with enough money to hire a PI can expect justice?
I might be for anarchy if I though people would follow the Golden Rule. The problem is they don't.
Sure, the "natural order" is to not have government...or computers, or electricity, or cars, or modern medicine, or indoor pluming, or...
Anarchism only works in very small, mostly isolated groups. The larger the society, the more easily people can abuse/rob/kill others and get away with it.
Take another toke 'bro, you ain't high enough yet. Your solution is perfect in a society that does not breed contempt, jealousy, and greed. Your societal description is reflective of a StarTrek episode. It would take many generations of re-programming of mental processes to get to the utopia that you seek. But, you will never be able to simply throw some cultural switch and "whango-bango" everybody is "thinking ourside the box". Your utopian dreams are, at best, unattainable, and at worst, communism.
Semper Fi
Anything may be asserted.
C'mon cdwright. Make us proud.
ONLY if you consider the Police Department to be "public property". DoJ stats say that 73% of violent crime occurs in the home with 86% associated with the family or families that reside there. Get some REAL facts witll you, not something that is a mixture of the "legalize pot" and the Harry Browne Libratarian diatribe.
Semper Fi
Government is, by definition, monopoly power. Why do you think government would live by the Golden Rule when you think individual people would not?
Since government is founded on the idea that theft (AKA taxes) is acceptable, government is far less likely to obey the Golden Rule than individuals are.
Whoa hoss, you can't have it both ways. Insurance, in an "outside the box" anarchic society???? Perish and forbid. You should carefully frame your utopia, p[ublish it then come back and frame your arguements against your baseline, you are WAYYYYY out there in this comparison to anarchy.
Semper Reality
And what percentage of these are mysteries with the victim unidentified, do you think? I would say that it is approximately zero. Learn to read instead insulting me and quoting statistics which have nothing to do with the issue at hand.
Wow, you really do live inside the box, if you think that it is impossible to have insurance without government.
After reading your and BlackbirdSST's posting, all I see is a camoflauged effort to play the same old libratarian saw but with a prettier wrapper. If this is so right, so pure, and so easy, why havn't the masses latched on to it and voted the "bums" out of office? Its because it isn't an answer.
Until you can eradicate the base instincts of man, those selfsame evils I listed previously, then you are stuck with the 80-20 rule. Societies cannot simply make mid-course corrections. It takes a LOT of time and energy to affect change in society. Simply declaring "anarchy rules" is NOT a solution. Give me a structured solution to move society to an anarchic base and I will stand beside you and defend it. But, don't destroy the existing system unless you have something or someway to accomodate the aftermath.
Semper Fi
Semper Reality
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