What I want to do with this thread is lay down what I think about minarchism and explain why I’m a minarchist. I don’t really want this to be a long post, I’ll try to make this as short as possible without sacrificing the ideas I want to share. Be forewarned, this is mostly rambling and me trying to articulate thoughts that I usually don’t put words to so this will probably be messy.
Ok, my first concern in terms of ideology is how applicable and useful it is for analyzing, understanding and ultimately recommending public policy. I am not as motivated by the desire to be 100 percent consistent with my principles as I am with being able to translate whatever principles I have into something that’s palatable to the everyday person. Moreover, I am not beholden to any ideals nor do I imagine a perfect world or even a world where things are necessarily good. I’m also not heavily driven by morality although I’m still motivated by morality to some extent. I am not entirely sold on the Non aggression principle. I think it’s a nice idea but sometimes one has to use aggression to get certain things done. But for the most part, I like to avoid aggression.
Secondly, with politics, one needs less of a logical reason or justification for things than just the ability to convince people that something is right for them. So, while anarchy may be the most logically consistent position, it’s also one of the least motivating politically. People often have a natural distrust for the market and a lot of people simply don’t like to compete with others. It’s really quite understandable. Minarchism is really not usually that appealing but it can be sold to people who have a natural distrust for big government. Still, socialism has the most psychological appeal and so I like to incorporate as many light socialist ideas into my sales pitch as possible without going overboard with them.
One of the other main reasons I’m a minarchist is because I think that keeping things stable and predictable and familiar, from a political standpoint, is more important than building a system that yields the greatest returns in terms of wealth or adheres strongly to any particular moral code. In other words, I despise regime uncertainty, and I think that protecting the status quo is usually the best way to avoid regime uncertainty even if the status quo isn’t perfect.
Finally, I don’t think of minarchy as some ideal thing that’s ever going to happen. It’s just a way of thinking about public policy that’s a little more skeptical and cynical than the way that most progressives tend to think about public policy. In the end, though, I know I’m something of a progressive myself. I just disagree with how much money to take from people and what I want to spend it on.
I know that a lot of anarchists will read this and either be furious, disappointed or simply put off by what I’ve said here and that’s fine. I don’t really want to get into a screaming match with anyone but if you guys want to talk about any of this, I’m open to it. It’s also important to point out that I’m not representative of all minarchists, just myself. I have no idea why other people are minarchists, I just know my own reasons.
Thank you for taking the time to read my quasi rant [:D]
