What Anarchism Really Is
"Anarchy is no guarantee that some people won't kill, injure, kidnap, defraud, or steal from others. Government is a guarantee that some will."
- Gustave de Molinari
"The voluntary society is the source of order that comes from freedom itself. There is no contradiction or even tension between liberty and security. If free enterprise works well in one sector, it can work well in other sectors too."
- Gustave de Molinari
Introduction to Anarchism
What anarchism is and why it is the only non-violent, true, and moral philosophy and way of living.
Foundational Principles:
- Objective morality
- Natural Law
- Natural Rights
- Principle of Non-Violence
- Voluntaryism
Anarchy = No Rulers
Anarchy = no rulers
There is no legitimacy, no reality to the idea of government.
Freedom is the natural law of nature.
The idea that we need to follow authority makes no sense.
Morality is not the arbiter of morality.
Anarchy is not no rules, it is no rulers. Free beings can still create localized rules.
There is just no belief that any people have a right to rule - no matter what processes and rituals have been done to create the illusion of legitimacy and consent.
Anarchism is Not Violent or Destructive
The common conception of anarchy is violent revolutionaries, nihilists.
And there are some young people today who consider themselves anarchist but are really left-wing Marxist idiots who just want to burn everything down due to their own inner suffering.
True anarchism is not fighting and attempting to overthrow the system.
It is helping people understand that the system does not exist except in our compliance and belief in it.
There is no legitimate government. Anarchy is No Rulers - there can be no rulers.
Anarchism is not what most people think it is - radical violent people wearing black bloc and destroying cities. These people are not anarchists, for they believe they need to fight against the rulers.
A true anarchist knows that THERE ARE NO RULERS AND THERE CAN NEVER BE RULERS.
It is people who are self-responsible.
Anarchy Does Not Equal Chaos
An anarchist society is one that requires great personal responsibility.
With freedom comes responsibility.
Without an external Government it is up to individuals and smaller communities to be responsible and sovereign and be responsible for each other.
Human beings have been existing in a childish state of consciousness where we abdicate our own responsibility and put it all on mommy/daddy government to rule us.
This is why, for most people, imagining a world without government is to them, a world of chaos and people fighting each other.
This says more about them than it does about the possible future anarchist world. It says that they do not trust themselves or their neighbors to take care of themselves and live morally and responsibly.
Why Anarchism Matters
Mankind Will Never Be Free As Long As Government Exists
It is not a luxury but a necessity to know this. Because otherwise you are participating in and contributing to a false system that is immoral and violent. You are participating in your own slavery.
Although the only true freedom is within and a man could be in a physical jail yet still be absolutely liberated, the human being and mankind as a whole is not and will not be absolutely free until we have evolved beyond belief and participation in government and all that comes with that.
Statism is a false belief system that has no basis in Objective Truth or Morality or Natural Law.
Freedom Requires Morality
Government is immoral and makes an institution of fundamental immorality.
An individual or a society that is not moral cannot be free.
Morality and freedom go together, just as freedom and responsibility are one.
Government Suppresses Humanity
"I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves."
- Harriet Tubman
In the quest for the ultimate liberation, empowerment of mankind, our governmental system - the free-range slavery system that we are enmeshed in - is central to the suppression of human freedom and the human spirit.
Government, media, economic, education, corporations - all weaponized against humanity to keep us enslaved, distracted, ignorant, divided, and asleep.
Going to the Root of the Problem
"You cannot solve the problem from the same level of thinking that created it."
We have to radically and fundamentally re-examine all of our suppositions about government, society, freedom.
People have been so indoctrinated into the cult of statism that they never even think to question the base supposition that we need government.
They will attempt to create a new government or rearrange the chairs in the current one - But they cannot even conceive of doing away with government altogether. That shows how deeply they have been conditioned.
Freedom or Slavery - Truth or Falsity
You are either free or you are not free.
You either allow, support, and become an accomplice to violence and evil and lies - or you do not allow violence, evil, lies and actively remove it from the world.
You live based in eternal truth or you live in lies and falsity.
You either believe and participate and uphold a false system that enslaves mankind - or you do not believe in, do not participate, and do not sustain an anti-human and anti-divine system and so contribute to building a world that is based on natural law and universal rights.
There is no middle ground.
You are either awake or you are asleep.
Voluntaryism: All Human Interactions Must Be Voluntary
The Foundation
All human interactions must be voluntary.
No threat, no coercion, no violence, no compulsion.
If something is done under duress, coercion, force, etc. - then it is not voluntary, it is not done of a person's free will - therefore this is a form of threat and violence and is a violation of that person's Rights.
Free Will is Law.
In a Voluntaryist society everything is optional.
The Difference Between Voluntary Organization and Government
"Some people might assume that if people organize for mutual protection and defense, then that is government. But that is not at all the case. Political authority is not about people coming together to do something that everyone already has the right to do; political authority is about one group of people claiming the right to do things which normal people do not have the right to do, such as taxing and controlling everyone else."
- Larken Rose, What Anarchy Isn't
The difference is whether it is completely voluntary for all people at all times, or whether you are forced into it and have no choice.
Core Principles
Self-ownership - No person or group has any legitimate claim to exercising control over, or otherwise placing restraints on, the actions of others so long as the person's actions do not violate the equal rights of others.
Nonaggression principle, Non-violence
Individual consent, no coercion
"Violence is never a means to knowledge. As Isabel Paterson explained in her book, The God of the Machine, 'No edict of law can impart to an individual a faculty denied him by nature. A government order cannot mend a broken leg, but it can command the mutilation of a sound body. It cannot bestow intelligence, but it can forbid the use of intelligence.'"
William Godwin pointed out that force "is contrary to the nature of the intellect, which cannot but be improved by conviction and persuasion," and "if he who employs coercion against me could mold me to his purposes by argument, no doubt, he would.. He pretends to punish me because his argument is strong; but he really punishes me because he is weak."
The use of coercion to compel virtue eliminates its possibility, for to be moral, an act must be uncoerced. If a person is compelled to act in a certain way (or threatened with government sanctions), there is nothing virtuous about his or her behavior. Freedom of choice is a necessary ingredient for the achievement of virtue.
"If the government directed them to do something that their reason opposed, they were to defy the government. If it told them to do what their reason would have told them to do anyway, they did not need a government."
- Epictetus
Voluntaryists oppose the State because it uses coercive means. The means are the seeds which bud into flower and come into fruition. It is impossible to plant the seed of coercion and then reap the flower of voluntaryism.
The coercionist always proposes to compel people to do something, usually by passing laws or electing politicians to office. These laws and officials depend upon physical violence to enforce their wills.
Voluntary means, such as non-violent resistance, violate no one's rights. They only serve to nullify laws and politicians by ignoring them.
Voluntaryism does not require of people that they violently overthrow their government, or use the electoral process to change it; merely that they shall cease to support their government, whereupon it will fall of its own dead weight.
If one takes care of the means, the end will take care of itself.
The voluntaryist rejects the use of political power because it can only be exercised by implicitly endorsing or using violence to accomplish one's ends. The power to do good to others is also the power to do them harm.
Power to compel people, to control other people's lives, is what political power is all about. It violates all the basic principles of voluntaryism: might does not make right; the end never justifies the means; nor may one person coercively interfere in the life of another.
Even the smallest amount of political power is dangerous.
Explaining Anarchism/Voluntarism Simply
The only way a society can be free, moral, and flourish is through allowing total individual liberty, voluntary contracting, private property, no authority (other than sovereign individual), and no monopoly on violence.
Most Powerful Arguments for Anarchism/Voluntarism
- Government that is not freely chosen is always immoral and exists through violence
- You cannot delegate a right you do not have. No individual has the right to do what government does and claims the right to do, therefore this amorphous group of "government" does not have the right to steal and aggress.
- "Voting" does not make anything moral and Lawful. I have not voted for anything the gov does. The majority cannot tyrannize the minority.
- If a societal organization is entered into voluntarily, then it is not government. Government is monopolization on violence and authority.
- Belief and obedience to government is a cult based on indoctrination and the ignorance and disempowerment of individuals.
- That which is moral has nothing to do with what is legal
- I am a free, sovereign individual. I have the divine right to do as I will as long as it harms none.
- Anarchism is people existing in freedom and choosing who to associate with voluntarily without the threat of violence. It is the normal status quo of almost all of our society, except for where government dominates.
Different Ways of Saying What Anarchism/Voluntaryism Is
- Self-ownership
- Being your own Master - no masters, no slaves
- Absolute free will choice (as long as it does not commit violence/aggression against others). Free Will (which also includes being responsible for the effects of your actions)
- Own your body, own your property, own your choices
- All external authority is illegitimate
- Non-aggression principle - "No individual or group of individuals has the right to initiate violence and coercion against other human beings who are not aggressing against them."
- No one outside of you has any right to rule you
"In a nutshell, anarchists want you to have complete control over your choices, your money and your life. As long as you are not using force or fraud to inflict harm onto others, they want you to have absolute freedom. All they ask is that you treat them the same way.
You own yourself.
Your neighbor owns himself.
Committing aggression is wrong.
Despite what would-be rulers want you to believe, anarchism does not mean chaos and violence, or every man for himself, and having no government doesn't mean having no morality, no organization and no cooperation. Simply put, anarchism means that no one is your master and that no one is your slave. And that's all it means."
- Larken Rose
It is actually so very simple. The truth that the only just, moral, true state of being is to have free will choice and not to be a slave.
The fact that 99.99% of the population are brainwashed into belief in the utter necessity and immutable reality of the state is astounding. The fact that almost everybody accepts and believes it is right that we have a government and this entity has the right to control what you do.
You Can't Force People Into Morality
You can't FORCE people into morality. In fact, using violent force is the definition of immorality.
Advocates for government believe it is moral for Gov to force people into morality.
There will always be violent, immoral people in the world (at least until humanity evolves in consciousness as a collective).
When there is government, many of the most violent, immoral, and psychopathic of them recognize that joining this mafia and rising up the ranks is the best way to be a violent psychopath and not only get away with it - but to be lauded for it and win prizes, make a lot of money, etc.
In an anarchist society, the violent psychopaths would at worst be able to organize into small gangs with very little power.
(Most) people believe in and advocate for government because they are generally good people who believe in working together to create a better community - this is all good. They have an intuitive feeling that it is much better to work together than for everyone to be lone wolves in the law of the jungle.
However, they don't understand the basic moral foundation of what they are advocating for. They don't realize that in an anarchist society, you can still create groups and communities as much as you want to. They would just be totally voluntary for others to participate in - and if they aren't interested, then they can do their own thing.
Total voluntary association. If it is not voluntary, then it is not moral. Then it is SLAVERY.
Either You Own Yourself, or Someone Else Owns You
Individuals can choose to come together in groups, collectives, communities, organizations and agree to certain rules and make certain contracts with one another.
Either you own yourself, or someone else owns you - there is no middle ground.
Right now:
- I can't grow or consume certain plants without being fined, jailed, kicked out of the country.
- I am forced to pay taxes to governments for things I don't want to support - or I am fined and jailed.
- I have to pay fees and take tests and jump through hoops to get a "license" to drive a car. If I drive without a license I get fined, jailed.
The Government is really a very sophisticated mafia system that has very cleverly disguised itself as being absolutely necessary. It has placed itself at the apex of every system in our society - law, finance, education, media, etc.
It gives people the illusion of choice, freedom, comfort, security - so that they don't wake up enough or get angry enough to overthrow it.
Who Governs the Government?
Who watches the watchmen?
A Society Without Government
"How would society work without Government?"
It works very well, thank you.
Society generally works now DESPITE government.
Everything that works in society is done voluntarily. When government gets involved, that's when there are problems - the DMV, the courts, public schools.
Government is coercive violent aggression being introduced into what would otherwise be a voluntary relationship.
Why People Think We Need Government
People say that without government there will be massive wealth inequality, business will plunder the environment, scientific research and innovation won't happen, poor people/homeless people will have no help, etc.
They neglect to realize that THESE THINGS ALREADY ARE HAPPENING WITH GOVERNMENT!
Government only is a major cause of these things and major factor in making these things much worse.
What they are really saying is "I don't trust that most people are capable of being rational and virtuous beings." They are really saying that we need government to rule us because we are not capable of ruling ourselves.
They don't trust themselves, they don't trust others, they don't trust God. They don't trust that we can work together and solve problems and that things can work themselves out.
They don't trust that people who are experts and passionate about environmental conservation won't be able to use the internet to get their voice heard and that a critical mass of people won't listen to them and support them.
This is already happening outside of government - people who are doing good things and speaking truth are independently supported by people that value them.
They believe in "experts" and authority. They believe we need people to make our decisions for us. They believe people aren't capable of being self-responsible.
The Voluntary Society: Our Future
Individuals freely choose which causes and organizations they wish to support.
Local communities protect and defend themselves, decide on their own rules and choices for what to do.
The question of, do we need some type of international facilitating, peacekeeping organization to ensure that rights and freedoms are upheld - can this exist without it being Government?
Principles of Anarchy/Voluntaryism/Freedom
Principles of nature, of existence that can be applied to anarchism and much else. To Nature, to the Divine…
When you allow nature to flow in harmony - goodness results. Look to nature for how to best live your life and organize our societies.
Spontaneous organization
Emergent Order - Not externally imposed "order"
Voluntary cooperation
Symbiosis - mutually beneficial relationships
Everything has a place - Every being has a role. Every one is a piece of the puzzle.
The individual contains the whole - The whole is strengthened by the health and uniqueness of the individuals.
Natural is Right - No force, no violence. When things happen naturally, they are correct, harmonious, beautiful.
True equality - No hierarchy. No masters, no slaves.
Local organization creates harmony in the macro society - Bottom-up rather than top-down
Voluntary association
Mutually beneficial cooperation
Inner authority of self-mastery is all
Foundational Ethical Principles Require Anarchist/Voluntaryist Politics
Anyone who advocates for any government - no matter what type or how small - is not being internally consistent.
If you are internally consistent on morality, you have to be an anarchist/voluntaryist. Because government is violently forcing people to do things.
If there is no taxation/theft, no forcing people to follow laws, no forcing of people to be a subject of that government - then it is not government. Then it is voluntary and moral.
"Get consistent inside your own head, and you will end up an anarchist."
- Larken Rose
"Peaceful coexistence is better than violent domination."
Anarchism is a Relationship, Not a Political System
Anarchism is people existing in freedom, and choosing who to associate with voluntarily without the threat of violence. It is the normal status quo of almost all of our society, except for where government dominates.
Within an anarchist society there could be all manner of different political formations – communist communities, socialist communities, statist communities, etc.
If the US government allowed people who live within its borders to opt-out completely of paying taxes and being subject to its arbitrary laws (like drivers licenses, plant medicine prohibition, etc.), then I and other anarchists would not have a problem with the US Gov (unless it aggressed against us).
But the fact that it is a total monopoly that does not allow you to opt out, is fundamentally immoral and it means that you are not a free being.
"To believe in liberty is not to believe in any particular social and economic outcome. It is to trust the spontaneous order that emerges when the state does not intervene in human volition and human cooperation. It permits people to work out their problems for themselves, build lives for themselves, take risks and accept responsibility for the results, and make their own decisions."
- Ron Paul, Liberty Defined intro