Anarchism: how to sustain it?

[Neodoxy]

[quote=“Isaac “Izzy” Marmolejo”]

Are you saying that the market has problems with non-excludable goods in general?

[/quote]

Yes, and defense more specifically

[Live_Free_Or_Die]

Trust your intuition, buddy. Nothing is preventing a government from forming. Many “anarchists” on here are really idealistic when it comes to humanity. Not in the sense that violence would cease or anything that drastic, but they believe that people’s natural will to be free will override the majority’s will to be lazy and have things done for them.

Make no mistake, government is nothing that hit us out of nowhere in the middle of the night. It formed for a reason, and it is corrupt for a reason. Mankind has an innate urge to have more power, and some take this to a public size and seek to control others. We are naturally competitive, just like all other life on earth, and due to this competition, there is always a loser and groups of people will always pull a Robinhood and steal from the people who have while giving to the people who have not.

Government is a natural response for humanity, which basically comes from established law and order, territory, et cetera. Unfortunately, it is inevitable, even if there is a constant struggle between the anarchists and their enemy the state, it means the state still exists. I’ll prepare myself for a ton of flack, but I wanted to give my honest perspective.

It’s not a question of being idealist. Anarchy is being a realist. When you have a lazy society that likes free and cheap stuff anarchy is in their best interests because in a free market system people will achieve the highest standards of living. Because the economics of free markets are true, enough people will eventually believe free market societies are in their best economic interests.

Idealism would be thinking violence could be eliminated from humanity…

[Fool_on_the_Hill]

“Force is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. 'Tis therefore, on opinion only that government is founded; and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments, as well as to the most free and most popular.” ~ David Hume

[Epicurus_Ibn_Kalhoun]

1 + 1 != 2

In binary’ 1+1 can equal zero or one, but not two

Anarchism, imo, can only be maintained by taking away the material needs FOR the state. Anything else would be doomed to failure.

[Live_Free_Or_Die]

In binary’ 1+1 can equal zero or one, but not two

touche

imo the only material need for the state is a belief the state is in your best interest…

[mikachusetts]

@tcostel

I don’t consider myself an anarchist, at least not yet. One huge intellectual roadblock I am having preventing me from accepting anarchy is how it can be sustained.

One of the things you have to keep in mind about anarcho-capitalism is that its a theoretical explanation of how a stateless society could function and not how it will function.

Think of it like this: You ask an engineer to explain how he could design a plane, but he doesn’t have the supplies or ability to actually build it. The engineer uses his knowledge of aerodynamics, electronics, welding, etc. to create a theoretical airplane. As he explains how he would build it, you interupt him with concerns about various types of malfunctions that might occur. He explains that he would have various mechanisms to either avoid the issues or to correct them incase the occur. However, since he is not actually building the plane, there is no guarantee that any actual plane would have these mechanisms.

Anarchism is the same way. We can explain why it would be difficult and unapealing to try and conquer a politcally and legally decentralized area, but we can’t guarantee that the institutions that need to be in place to make that so would actually exist.