Anarchism is the opposite of chaos

“Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, & county commissioners.” Edward Abbey

When a person hears the word anarchy, what is the first thing they think? They are probably thinking of the opening scene of the Road Warrior or some other post nuclear war movie.  Others are probably thinking it is street demonstrators who are opposed to G-20 or some other derivative.  Well, there is a reason to not believe everything.

The entry from Wikipedia states that:

Chaos (derived from the Ancient Greek Χάος, Chaos) typically means a state lacking order or predictability. In ancient Greece, it first meant the initial state of the universe, and, by extension, space, darkness, or an abyss (the antithetical, or possibly complementary, concept was cosmos), but later uses of the term by philosophers varied over time. In modern English, the word is used in classical studies with the original meaning; in mathematics and science to refer to a very specific kind of unpredictability; and informally to mean a state of confusion. In philosophy, and in popular culture, the word can occur with all three meanings.

So in other words, people are basically afraid that their existence would spin out of control or lack significance without someone or something guiding them every step of the way.   In ancient times, emperors and high priests would manipulate the uncertainties that people had about their lives by claiming that if the masses would worship them, they would be delivered from discomfort, starvation, even death.  Yet, despite their promises, discomfort, starvation and death exist to this day.  There is a mistaken belief amongst most humans that in order to overcome discomfort, starvation and death, we need to surrender our minds, hearts and souls in addition to our physical possessions.  What really upsets the tyrants is that there are some of us who refuse to worship fallible beings as God and to turn over our lives to these beings who can’t save us anyways.

If not this, some people say we should have police and fire protection from the government.  But even there, it is an understood principle that the government is under no obligation to protect you even if you think they should.

Would you say Adolf Hitler is an anarchist? How about Stalin? Or even Julius Caesar? Say what you want about them, but anarchists they were not and look at the results they yielded.

As Lysander Spooner put it in Natural Law: “These tyrants, living solely on plunder, and on the labor of their slaves, and applying all their energies to the seizure of still more plunder, and the enslavement of still other defenceless persons; increasing, too, their numbers, perfecting their organizations, and multiplying their weapons of war, they extend their conquests until, in order to hold what they have already got, it becomes necessary for them to act systematically, and cooperate with each other in holding their slaves in subjection.
But all this they can do only by establishing what they call a government, and making what they call laws.
All the great governments of the world — those now existing, as well as those that have passed away — have been of this character. They have been mere bands of robbers, who have associated for purposes of plunder, conquest, and the enslavement of their fellow men. And their laws, as they have called them, have been only such agreements as they have found it necessary to enter into, in order to maintain their organizations, and act together in plundering and enslaving others, and in securing to each his agreed share of the spoils.”

Some people think that without a government, we would “look like” Somalia or Afghanistan. But the situation in those countries wasn’t caused by the lack of government, but rather from the presence of government particularly one that is involved in every aspect of one’s life.  Never mind the fact that most Americans have never actually been to Somalia or Afghanistan. What they think they know is solely based on watching corporate media 24/7 and we know how trust-worthy they are.

The problems whether it is poverty, war or what have you are really a result of socialistic government practices that reduce the capacity of people to educate, clothe, house and feed themselves. Poor countries are rife with agricultural restrictions controls, export and import controls, restrictive licensing, price controls, not to mention gross human rights abuses that encourage their most productive people to emigrate.  The most promising anti-poverty tool for poor people and poor countries is personal liberty.

Ultimately, individual liberty is the answer to alleviating many of the challenges that we face as living beings.  It is the notion of trying to turn ourselves into supermen is where we really run into problems.