Is Anarchy Possible?
Jan 25, 2015Before we can say whether an anarchist future is possible, we should start by saying what exactly anarchism is. Emma Goldman, the great American anarchist, defined it in 1910 as “the philosophy of a new social order based on liberty unrestricted by man-made law.” Anarchists believe that all forms of government—be it a liberal democracy or a socialist state—are based on violence and coercion. To sum it up: government equals tyranny.
Many of you might agree with that basic idea that state power is necessarily coercive, yet wonder if there really is an alternative. Perhaps we must suffer some degree of tyranny at the hands of government in order to guarantee certain public goods, like education, health care, and infrastructure. And don’t we need the state to ensure law and order? Who would protect us, if we didn’t have police and a judicial system?
Comments (3)
lewisbrown
Thursday, September 7, 2017 -- 10:57 PM
Better references than provided aboveA concise and cogent explanation of modern Anarchist thought, now often called Voluntaryism, can be found at the following link:
http://voluntaryist.com/fundamentals/introduction.html
lewisbrown
Thursday, September 7, 2017 -- 11:02 PM
Better references than provided aboveA concise and cogent explanation of modern Anarchist thought, now often called Voluntaryism, can be found at the following link:
http://voluntaryist.com/fundamentals/introduction.html
Harold G. Neuman
Saturday, November 4, 2017 -- 11:31 AM
AnarchyOf course anarchists abhor government. Many of them take great pride in their weaponry and their ability to use it. Once upon a time (around the time of Charles Darwin), someone said that evolution favored a survival of the fittest modality. While this was not really what Darwin proposed, it caught fire among the survivalists of the time and, accordingly, is so-favored by such like today. History shows, pretty convincingly, that civilization without laws and law enforcement is not favorably disposed to be, uh, civilized. Holocaust and Apocalypse are proven horsemen of destruction. How much freedom do we need, hmmmm? We ought to be smart enough by now to recognize misdirection when we see it.