Quotes for Discussion: Anarchist Edition

In existing States a fresh law is looked upon as a remedy for evil. Instead of themselves altering what is bad, people begin by demanding a law to alter it. If the road between two villages is impassable, the peasant says, “There should be a law about parish roads.” If a park-keeper takes advantage of the want of spirit in those who follow him with servile obedience and insults one of them, the insulted man says, “There should be a law to enjoin more politeness upon the park-keepers.” If there is stagnation in agriculture or commerce, the husbandman, cattle-breeder, or corn- speculator argues, “It is protective legislation which we require.” Down to the old clothesman there is not one who does not demand a law to protect his own little trade. If the employer lowers wages or increases the hours of labor, the politician in embryo explains, “We must have a law to put all that to rights.” In short, a law everywhere and for everything! A law about fashions, a law about mad dogs, a law about virtue, a law to put a stop to all the vices and all the evils which result from human indolence and cowardice.

~Peter Kropotkin, “Law and Authority”

Perhaps most fundamentally: government is not a solution to the public goods problem, but rather the primary instance of the problem. If you create a government to solve your public goods problems, you merely create a new public goods problem: the public good of restraining and checking the government from abusing its power. “[I]t is wholly owing to the constitution of the people, and not to the constitution of the government, that the crown is not as oppressive in England as in Turkey,” wrote Thomas Paine; but what material incentive is there for individuals to help develop a vigilant national character? After all, surely it is a rare individual who appreciably affects the national culture during his or her lifetime.

To rely upon democracy as a counter-balance simply assumes away the public goods problem. After all, intelligent, informed voting is a public good; everyone benefits if the electorate reaches wise political judgments, but there is no personal, material incentive to “invest” in political information, since the same result will (almost certainly) happen whether you inform yourself or not. It should be no surprise that people know vastly more about their jobs than about their government. Many economists seem to be aware of this difficulty; in particular, public choice theory in economics emphasizes the externalities inherent in government action. But a double standard persists: while non-governmental externalities must be corrected by the state, we simply have to quietly endure the externalities inherent in political process.

Since there is no incentive to monitor the government, democracies must rely upon voluntary donations of intelligence and virtue. Because good government depends upon these voluntary donations, the public goods argument for government falls apart. Either unpaid virtue can make government work, in which case government isn’t necessary to solve the public goods problem; or unpaid virtue is insufficient to make government work, in which case the government cannot be trusted to solve the public goods problem.

~Bryan Caplan, Anarchist Theory FAQ Version 5.2

It is with some irony that I realize that I am becoming more absolutely anti-government the more time I spend on political web sites, most particularly progressive web sites.

7 comments

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  1. …to be utterly stunned by some of the things people believe.  Which is probably the reaction that people here will have to this.

  2. “After all, surely it is a rare individual who appreciably affects the national culture during his or her lifetime.”

    This has changed, via cable, internet, and radio, these relatively cheap forms of broadcasting/communicating have altered the odds of appreciably affecting the culture.  Look at the the indy bands, rappers, sports figures, etc. etc. all with their own pulpits from which to speak.  Millions listen intently to their words and pay attention to their actions and take them to heart thereby affecting culture on every level.

    In general I believe that true anarchy cannot exist because their will always be some structure put in place for people to protect each other, it’s human nature.

  3. …though with regards the Caplan

    but what material incentive is there for individuals to help develop a vigilant national character

    seems to me like an actually very good question, and I think it probably does have answers, if not direct ones.

    …you did skip my favorite anarchist, like, ever…

    http://www.spunk.org

     

    • pfiore8 on October 28, 2007 at 17:26

    perhaps this way of thinking addresses how we evolved in small tribal groups.

    and how out of whack is the scale we now face. tribal councils blown up to mediate and moderate relationships among large groups of people with competing priorities and then those diverse competing groups to disparate institutional and industrial entities

    and we’re talking thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions and then billions… of people. not to mention interacting with other creatures.

    it’s not anarchy at all… it is thinking in old, primative terms of how 30 or 300 people in a group would cooperate because it was clear what was at stake and that whatever it was, it was at stake for the entire group.

    it’s funny to see this and i just read a short essay by rabid lamb at pff about tribes and scale.

    put together with this essay, it makes so much sense.

    and why i think we need to consider we may be pushing through to another evolutional model that can address the modern scale of tribes

    it’s all about the relationships

     

    • pfiore8 on October 28, 2007 at 17:32

    a crisis of global proportions, like disasters of global warming, might provide the common sense of purpose we lack in these large groups.

    and maybe it’s not a bad idea to think of breaking the US into smaller federations… and iraq into three separate states…

    anyway… just thinking out lout

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