in an age of universal dependency, self-sufficiency is a revolutionary act.
anarchy is not a lack of order. proper anarchy is the taking back our our own rights to determine our societal order from the bottom up.
it is the move to an emergent society rooted in voluntary affiliation and away from a dictatorial one.
why does anyone have any right to tell you who you can buy corn or t-shirts or legal advice from?
why does anyone have a right to tell you what liquor you may drink, weeds you may smoke, or pharmaceuticals you may seek treatment with?
and why on earth would you trust some distant bureaucrat to determine or serve such a right?
why would you seek to be dictated to like a child rather that live as an adult possessed of agency?
imagine a society where the right of individuals to produce food and goods and services and trade them with one another as they see fit is absolute and inalienable.
imagine no regulation save that which we chose to impose upon ourselves, voluntary accreditation instead of convoluted governmental permission, and reputation and information instead of credentialism and guild mandate.
then imagine a society where a child can be fined or arrested for the voluntary making of lemonade and the sale of it to willing neighbors.
“The girls' mother, Sandi Evans, said, "I think that's ridiculous. I think they're 7 and 8 and they're just trying to make money for their own cause."
Meanwhile, Police Chief Clyde Carter said Overton police are just following the law: "We have to follow by the state health guidelines. They have to have a permit if they're going to do the lemonade stands."
imagine the lesson this teaches our children.
imagine a society where health and legal advice is massively overpriced because the supply is constrained by guild systems that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to join.
imagine a society where regulations pushed by incumbents are designed to have costly compliance to stymie small business in order to protect oligopoly by disguising predation and rent seeking as safety.
this july 4th, ask some pointed questions about which one of those societies you live in.
ask some pointed questions about which one you WANT to live in.
ask yourself: “which of these is truly the land of the free and the home of the brave?”
I think the biggest problem with both Team Donkey and Team Elephant is that they both refuse to accept that giving people freedom means that sometimes that means you have to allow people to do something you don't like. It takes a huge amount of humility and a brutally honest assessment of human nature to say that your team indeed doesn't and can't possibly get everything right, and it's better for society as a whole to allow people to make most decisions for themselves.
This line of thinking will not win you any friends among the rich and powerful, because many of the rich and powerful have forgotten that it was this same freedom that brought them to the place they are today. Or perhaps because they remember this but want to keep all the power to themselves. Either way, it remains implicit that what matters the most for those at the top is power.
I imagine this insight into human nature and humble admission of the fallibility of power is why Benjamin Franklin was dubious of the longevity of the work of the founding fathers of the United States of America. When asked what sort of government they had just formed, his reply was, "A republic, if you can keep it!"
It is the people's responsibility, NOT the government's, to "keep" their republic. We are the lions. Stop asking the donkeys or the elephants to do a lion's work.
Anarchy is wonderful in theory, but breaks down when you're attacked. In Barcelona, during the Spanish civil war, the anarchists were doing fine until they had to elect the generals to lead them, and because it conflicted with their principles, that failed.
Sorry, off topic, but anyone seen Billy G. lately? Been kind of missing on TeeVee of late. And funny how Warren Buffet exited stage right from BMGF last month, not long after Melinda exited stage left. You'd think they were like rats leaping from a sinking ship, or something, if they were rats and the BMGF were a sinking ship. Hey, wait a minute...
“That government is best which governs least.”-Henry David Thoreau
That used to be a very American attitude.
I have never heard that take on anarchy before, but if this is anarchy, I will gladly become an anarchist.
you and Michael Malice have converted me!
I think the biggest problem with both Team Donkey and Team Elephant is that they both refuse to accept that giving people freedom means that sometimes that means you have to allow people to do something you don't like. It takes a huge amount of humility and a brutally honest assessment of human nature to say that your team indeed doesn't and can't possibly get everything right, and it's better for society as a whole to allow people to make most decisions for themselves.
This line of thinking will not win you any friends among the rich and powerful, because many of the rich and powerful have forgotten that it was this same freedom that brought them to the place they are today. Or perhaps because they remember this but want to keep all the power to themselves. Either way, it remains implicit that what matters the most for those at the top is power.
I imagine this insight into human nature and humble admission of the fallibility of power is why Benjamin Franklin was dubious of the longevity of the work of the founding fathers of the United States of America. When asked what sort of government they had just formed, his reply was, "A republic, if you can keep it!"
It is the people's responsibility, NOT the government's, to "keep" their republic. We are the lions. Stop asking the donkeys or the elephants to do a lion's work.
I think it was GummiBear who recently said if you want to be left alone, you are now a right-wing extremist.
Nailed it.
So pleasing to find another anarchist on these Interwebs. Our tribe needs all the warriors it can find.
Anarchy is wonderful in theory, but breaks down when you're attacked. In Barcelona, during the Spanish civil war, the anarchists were doing fine until they had to elect the generals to lead them, and because it conflicted with their principles, that failed.
Sorry, off topic, but anyone seen Billy G. lately? Been kind of missing on TeeVee of late. And funny how Warren Buffet exited stage right from BMGF last month, not long after Melinda exited stage left. You'd think they were like rats leaping from a sinking ship, or something, if they were rats and the BMGF were a sinking ship. Hey, wait a minute...
What if the power center is not government?