The Solution
Nearly everyone can see at least some problems with the “government” he lives under, whether it be corruption, war-mongering, socialist redistribution, police state intrusions, or other oppressions. And many are desperate to find a solution to such problems.
So they vote for this or that candidate, support this or that political movement or party, lobby for or against this or that legislation, and almost always end up disappointed with the results.
They can easily identify and complain about various problems, but an actual solution always eludes them.
The reason they are always disappointed is because the problem does not reside in the people called “government”: it resides in the minds of their victims. Tinkering with “government” cannot fix a problem that does not come from “government.”
The dissatisfied voter fails to realize that it is his own view of reality, his own belief in “authority,” that is the root cause of most of society’s problems. He believes that a ruling class is a natural, necessary, beneficial part of human society, and so all of his efforts focus on bickering over who should be in charge, and on what the power of “government” should be used for.
When he thinks of “solutions,” he thinks inside the box of statism. As a result, he is powerless from the beginning. Begging masters to be nice, or asking for a new master, never leads to freedom. Instead, such behaviors are clear indicators that the person is not even free inside his own mind. And a man whose mind is not free will never be free in body.
People are so accustomed to engaging in the cult rituals collectively referred to as “politics” (voting, lobbying, petitioning, campaigning, etc.) that any suggestion that they not bother participating in such pointless and impotent endeavors amounts, in their eyes, to suggesting that they “do nothing.” Because they view voting, whining and begging as the entire spectrum of possibilities open to them when it comes to “government.” They are unable to even comprehend anything that might actually accomplish freedom.
So when a voluntaryist or anarchist explains both the problem and the way out of it, but without presenting a new candidate to vote for, a new political party to support, or some new movement or campaign to get behind, in other words, without proposing anything that coincides with the superstition of “government” and “authority”, the average statist will complain that no solutions were offered.
From their perspective, anyone who does not play the game of “politics,” within the rules set down by the ruling class, is “doing nothing.” They enthusiastically declare, “You have to participate!” They fail to realize that participating in the game created and controlled by tyrants is “doing nothing” nothing useful, at least.
In truth, rather than some event needing to occur, or some particular thing needing to be done, the real solution-the only solution to the problems involving “government”-comes from not doing certain things, and from certain things not happening. In one sense, there is no positive, active solution to “government.” The ultimate solution is negative and passive:
Stop advocating aggression against your neighbors. Stop engaging in rituals that condone the initiation of violence and reinforce the notion that some people have the right to rule. Stop thinking and speaking and acting in ways that reinforce the myth that normal people should be, and must be, beholden to some master, and should obey such a master rather than follow their own consciences.
When people stop bowing at the altar of “government”, stop playing the games of tyrants, stop respecting arbitrary rules written by megalomaniacs, the problem will go away on its own. Being a mythical entity, “authority” does not need to be overthrown, or voted out, or “reformed.” The people need only stop imagining something that is not there, and never was.
If the people stopped allowing an irrational superstition to warp their perceptions, their actions would immediately and dramatically improve. Most aggression, which is now done in the name of “authority,” would cease. No one would issue commands, enforce commands, or feel an obligation to obey commands, unless the commands themselves were seen as inherently justified based upon the situation, not based upon the one giving the command, or his supposed “authority.” That alone would eliminate the vast majority of theft, extortion, intimidation, harassment, coercion, terrorism, assault and murder which human beings now perpetrate against one another.
When the people recognize and accept no master, they will have no master. Ultimately, their bondage, and the means to escape it, exists entirely inside their own minds.
Human society does not need anything added to it to fix most of its problems, nor does it need the institution of some new “system” or the implementation of some new master plan. Instead, it needs to have one thing-one all-pervasive, extremely destructive thing-removed from society: the belief in “authority” and “government.”
What will “make things work” is not any centralized plan, not any authoritarian agenda, but the mutually voluntary interaction of many individuals, each serving his own values and following his own conscience. Of course, this does not fit at all with the way almost everyone was trained to think: that society needs a master plan with “leaders” who will make it happen.
In truth, what society needs the most is the complete lack of a master plan, and the complete absence of authoritarian “leaders” to whom the people must surrender their free will and judgment. The solution is not to add some new thing to society, but simply to understand and dispel the most dangerous superstition.
Reality Is Anarchy
Many people have become anarchists-advocates of a society without any ruling class-after having come to the conclusion that society would be more prosperous and more peaceful, and would enjoy more justice and security, without any “government” at all.
However, that is somewhat akin to an individual deciding, after careful analysis, that Christmas would work better without Santa Claus. But if Santa Claus is not real, it is pointless to have a debate about whether he is “needed” in order for Christmas to “work.”
If Christmas works at all, it already works without Santa. And so it is with the usual debate between “government” and “anarchy.” “Government” does not exist. It never has and never will, which can be proven, using logic that does not at all depend upon any individual’s moral beliefs.
To quickly rehash, people cannot delegate rights they do not have, which makes it impossible for anyone to acquire the right to rule (”authority”). People cannot alter morality, which makes the “laws” of “government” devoid of any inherent “authority.” Ergo, “authority”-the right to rule-cannot logically exist. The concept itself is self-contradictory, like the concept of a “militant pacifist.”
A human being cannot have superhuman rights, and therefore no one can have the inherent right to rule. A person cannot be morally obliged to ignore his own moral judgment; therefore, no one can have the inherent obligation to obey another. And those two ingredients-the ruler’s right to command and the subject’s obligation to obey-are the heart and soul of the concept of “authority,” without which it cannot exist. And without “authority;” there is no “government.”
If the control which the gang called “government” exerts over others is without legitimacy, it is not “government”. Its commands are not “laws.” Its enforcers are not “law enforcement.” Again, without the right to rule, and a simultaneous moral obligation to obey on the part of the masses, the organization called “government” is nothing more than a gang of thugs, thieves and murderers.
“Government” is an impossibility; it’s simply not an option, any more than Santa Claus is an option. And insisting that it is “necessary,” when it does not and cannot even exist, or predicting doom and gloom if we do not have the mythical entity, does not change that fact. To argue that human beings need to have a rightful ruler, one with the moral right to forcibly control all others, and one whom all others are obligated to obey, does not change the fact that there is no such thing, and can be no such thing.
As such, the purpose of this final chapter is not merely to argue that society would work better without the fiction called “government”, but to introduce to the reader the ways in which people will perceive reality differently, think differently, behave differently, and interact differently-very differently, indeed-once they give up the most dangerous superstition: the belief in “authority.”
Anarchy, meaning an absence of “government,” is what is. It is what has always been, and will always be. When people accept that truth and stop hallucinating a creature called “authority,” they will stop behaving in the irrational and destructive manner they do now.
Almost everyone, at least to begin with, has difficulty thinking clearly about such a concept. Because every politician, and every “government,” is constantly proposing “solutions” that deal with how society will be organized, managed and controlled through a centralized, authoritarian “system”, most people do not even know how to mentally process the idea of a complete lack of any forcibly imposed “system.” They instinctively ask things such as “How would the roads work?” or “How would we defend ourselves?”
The truth is that no one can know how everything would work or what all would happen. Individuals can make suggestions about how things should work, or predictions about how things might work, but no one can possibly know the best way for everything to work. Despite the huge amount of uncertainty this creates, the historical track record of people living in freedom is far better than any centralized, managed “solution” has ever been.
However, statists have been trained to be terrified of this infinitely more complex type of society, where there is not one master plan but billions of individual plans, interacting with each other in innumerable different ways. To them, that means chaos. And in a way, it is chaos, in the sense that there is no single guiding idea and no single controlling entity. This does not mean that people cannot make agreements, or work together, or cooperate and find compromises. Instead, it means that each person will view life as an adult instead of throwing away his free will and responsibility to blindly follow someone else’s agenda.
As an aside, even without the “authority” superstition, there would still be leaders and followers. But it would usually be actual leadership, where one person leads by example, by demonstrating a level of intelligence, compassion or courage which inspires others to behave similarly. That is a very different phenomenon from what is usually dubbed “leadership” today.
When people talk of the “leaders” of countries, they are talking about people coercively controlling millions of others. The term “leader of the free world,” when talking about a “government” official, is inaccurate and self-contradictory.
Politicians do not lead by example. If anything, they set an example of how to be dishonest, conniving, narcissistic and power-happy. They say what people want to hear, in order to dominate and control them. To call such people “leaders” is as ridiculous as calling thieves “producers,” or calling murderers “healers.”
In the absence of the belief in “government,” real leaders could emerge: people who claim no right to rule, no right to force anyone else to follow them, but whose virtues and actions others recognize as being worth emulating.
No one could predict, and no one will control, what all will happen in a world without the myth of “government.” The following is not, therefore, intended to be a complete explanation of how every piece of human society would work once the “authority” myth is gone. Instead, it is an introduction to a few of the ways in which human beings might stop allowing an irrational superstition to distort their thinking and pervert their behavior, and might start behaving as rational, free beings, driven by their own free will and individual judgment, as they ought to be.
Fear of Freedom
Most people live their lives surrounded by authoritarian hierarchies, from families, to schools, to businesses, to all levels of “government.” As a result, most people have a hard time even beginning to imagine a “leaderless” civilization, a society of equals, an existence devoid of rulers, a world without “legislators” and their “laws.” The very thought, in most people’s minds, conjures up images of chaos and mayhem.
People are more comfortable with whatever they are accustomed to, and fear the unknown. People are so attached to whatever is familiar to them that even those who live in very high crime areas or war zones rarely leave the world they know to search for something better.
Similarly, it is a well-documented fact that some long-term prisoners develop a fear of being released, and when they are, commit further crimes with the intention of being sent back to prison. Even slaves can exhibit a dread of being freed.
This is because the life of a prisoner or a slave, though not likely fulfilling, is predictable, and imagining a new, drastically changed life, in a strange place, among strangers, with all of the related uncertainties-how will I eat? where will I live? what will it be like? will I be safe?-scares almost everyone.
So it is when most people contemplate human society without a ruling class. The concept is so foreign to everything they have ever known and ever thought about, and everything they were taught is necessary and good, that they hardly know how to begin to imagine it. Even our very language illustrates our fear of living in society as free equals, because such a state is defined as “anarchy”-a term also used to describe chaos and destruction. We have grown so accustomed to the mental cage which the myth of “authority” has formed around each of us that most of us are terrified of the idea of life without that cage. We are literally scared of our own freedom.
And some people work hard to reinforce that fear. Those who benefit the most from the myth of “authority”-those who crave dominion over others, and the unearned wealth and power it gives them-are constantly pushing the message that life without them in charge would mean constant pain and suffering for everyone. Just about anything people can be afraid of-crime, poverty, disease, invasion, environmental disaster, etc.-has been used by tyrants to scare people into subservience.
The details vary, but the template of the message from the tyrants is always the same: “If you do not give us power over you, so that we can protect you, you will suffer horribly.” That message, combined with man’s inherent fear of the unknown, has allowed for an incomprehensible level of oppression, theft, and outright murder, lasting generation after generation, all around the world.
Ironically, it has been the empty promise of protection against suffering and injustice which has duped so many people into accepting the very thing which has caused more suffering and injustice than anything else in history: the belief in “government.”
It seems strange that any thinking human being would not be naturally open and receptive to the idea that he owns himself and should be in charge of his own life, unhindered by any human “authority.” However, the average person who hears such a message often lashes out at the messenger, insists that actual freedom, a world without masters and subjects, would mean chaos and destruction, and then vehemently advocates continued enslavement of all of mankind, including himself.
He does so not based upon any rational thought or any evidence or experience, but based upon his own deep-seated, existential terror of the unknown--the unknown in this case being a society of equals instead of masters and subjects. He has never seen it in action on a large scale and has never thought about it, cannot imagine it, and therefore fears it. And those who desire dominion over others are constantly reinforcing and encouraging that fear in those they seek to subjugate.
Seeing a Different World
When someone who has been indoctrinated into the cult of “authority” finally disentangles himself from the superstition, the first thing that happens is that he sees a drastically different reality. When he observes the effects of the “authority” superstition, which infiltrate nearly every aspect of most people’s lives, he sees things as they actually are, not as he had formerly imagined them to be.
Most of the time, when he sees so-called “law enforcement” in action, he recognizes it as raw, illegitimate and immoral thuggery being used to extort and control the people in order to serve the will of politicians. (The exception to this is when the police use force to stop others who are actually guilty of acts of aggression-ironically, the very acts which the police routinely commit for the ruling class.)
When the recovering statist watches various political rituals, whether a presidential election, a legislative debate in Congress, or a local zoning board passing some new “ordinance,” he sees it for what it is: the acting out of delusions and hallucinations by people who have been indoctrinated into a completely irrational cult.
Any discussions in the media of what “public policy” should be, or which “representatives” should be elected, or what “legislation” should be enacted, appear, to one who has escaped the superstition, as useful and rational as well-dressed, attractive, respectable-looking people seriously discussing how Santa Claus should handle the next Christmas.
To one who has escaped the myth of “authority,” the premise upon which all political discussion rests disintegrates, and every bit of the rhetoric which stems from the superstition is recognized as being utterly insane. The un-indoctrinated individual sees every campaign speech, every political argument, every discussion in the news about anything political, every CNN broadcast of another debate on the House floor over some new piece of “legislation,” as a display of the symptoms of profound delusions due to the blind acceptance of utterly asinine, cult-like dogma.
All voting, campaigning, writing to one’s “congressman,” signing petitions, suddenly appear no more rational or useful than praying to a volcano god to grant its blessings to the tribe. One who has been deprogrammed sees not only the futility in all “political” action, but sees that such actions, no matter what their intended goals, actually reinforce the superstition.
Just as everyone in a tribe praying to a volcano god would reinforce the idea that there is a volcano god, so begging politicians for favors reinforces the idea that there is a rightful ruling class, that their commands are “law,” and that obedience to such “laws” is a moral imperative.
Those whom most people now regard with great respect, and who are often called “honorable,” are recognized as delusional, god-complex lunatics by those who have escaped the “authority” myth. The un-indoctrinated would take no more pride in shaking the “President’s” hand than he would in shaking the hand of any other psychotic, narcissistic mass murderer.
The men who wear black dresses and wield wooden hammers and refer to themselves as “the court” are seen as the madmen they are. Those who wear badges and uniforms, and imagine themselves to be something other than mere human beings, are not seen by the deprogrammed as noble warriors for “law and order” but as confused souls suffering from what is little more than a mental disorder.
Of course, those who have given up the superstition of “authority” can still fear the damage which the megalomaniacs and their mercenaries-soldiers and police-are capable of inflicting, but the mercenaries’ actions are no longer seen as being in any way legitimate, or rational, or moral.
Those who have escaped the myth begin to see that those whose actions are influenced by their “official” badge are as dangerous as people who are high on PCP, and for the same reason: because they are hallucinating a reality which is not there, which leads them to act out violently, unrestrained by a rational thought process.
Those who have escaped the “authority” superstition, when confronted by a “police officer,” may still act as they would if confronted by a rabid dog: speaking softly, behaving in a submissive manner, and not making sudden movements. But it is not out of respect for either the “law enforcer” or the rabid dog; it is out of fear of the danger posed by a brain that is malfunctioning because it is infected by a destructive disease, be it rabies or the belief in “authority.”
When believers in “authority” commit acts of aggression, imagining such acts to be righteous because they are called “law,” their targets have few options.
When a “tax” collector, or a police officer, or some other enforcer of the will of politicians, attempts to extort, harass, control or assault those who have escaped the myth of “authority”, the targets of the “legal” aggression can either go along with what they know to be injustice, or they can try to somehow circumvent or hide from the “legal” aggressors, or they can forcibly resist the aggressors. It is unfortunate that the last option is ever necessary, because, though using defensive force is morally justified (even when “illegal”), it is sad that one good person would ever have to use violence against another good person simply because the latter has had his perception of right and wrong twisted and perverted by an irrational superstition.
Even the murderous thugs of the most brutal regimes in history, due to their faith in the “authority” myth, thought they were doing their duty; they thought, on some level, that their actions were noble and righteous, or they would not have committed them.
Such mindless loyalty to “authority” often leaves the intended victims with only two options: submit to tyranny or kill the deluded “law enforcers.” It would be far better for everyone if, before forcible resistance becomes necessary, the mercenaries of the state could be deprogrammed out of their delusion, so as to avoid the necessity of having to scare, hurt or even kill them to stop them from committing evil.
Author’s personal note; The nicest thing you can do for anyone who has been duped into acting as a pawn of the oppression machine called “government” is to do whatever you can to persuade him to rethink his loyalty to the myth of “authority.” If all else fails, give him a copy of this book. As uncomfortable as that might be, you might be doing a lot of his potential future victims a huge favor, and you might even be doing the enforcer himself a huge favor, by negating the need for one of his future intended victims to maim or kill him.
A World Without Rules
One who has been deprogrammed looks out at the world, and instead of seeing hierarchies of different ruling classes within different jurisdictions, sees a world of equals-not in talent, ability, or wealth, of course, but in rights. He sees a world in which each person owns himself, and he comes to the realization that he has no rightful master, that there is no one above him, and that that is true of everyone else, as well. He is beholden to no “government,” no “country,” and no “law.” He is a sovereign entity. He is bound by his own conscience, and nothing else.
Such a realization is incredibly freeing, but also can be quite disturbing to those who have always measured their conduct by how well they obeyed others. Obedience not only is easy, as it allows someone else to make all the decisions, but it also allows the one who blindly obeys to imagine that the consequences, whatever they may be, are always someone else’s responsibility. To have to figure out right and wrong, and to know that you alone are responsible for your decisions and actions, can feel like a huge burden.
Essentially, losing the belief in “authority” means growing up, which has advantages and drawbacks. The un-indoctrinated person can no longer face the world as a care-free, irresponsible child, but at the same time, he will possess a level of freedom and empowerment he could not have imagined before.
Statists often have a deep-seated terror of a world in which every person decides for himself what he should do. Unfortunately for them, that is all that has ever existed, and all that ever will exist. Everyone already decides for himself what he will do.
That is called “free will.” Many assume that if an individual is not bound by any “authority,” and has the attitude “I can do whatever I want,” he will behave like a selfish animal. Some even imagine that they themselves would become animals if they were not governed by a master. Such a belief implies that people feel a strong moral obligation to do as they are told, but otherwise have no moral compass at all.
But most people obey “the law” because they believe that it is good to do so. There is no reason to think that, without being subservient to a master, those same people would no longer care about being good. Yet many still imagine human beings to be stupid savages, kept in check only by controllers. So they expect that, if unrestrained by a belief in “authority,” most people would become like unchained animals.
Those who have given up the “authority” delusion know better. There are, of course, consequences to actions, with or without “authority.” Aside from moral issues, most people usually choose to behave in ways that do not incur the wrath of others. Even if no one believed in right and wrong, being a habitual thief or murderer would be dangerous, and finding ways to peacefully coexist benefits the individual and the group. But aside from that, most people try to be good.
In fact, that is why they obey “the law”: because they were taught that doing so is good. The problem is not that people do not want to be good; it is that their judgment of what is good and what is bad is horribly twisted and perverted by their belief in “authority.” They are taught that funding and obeying a gang of thugs is a virtue, and resisting is a sin. They are taught that asking those thugs to rob and control their neighbors (via “legislation”) is perfectly moral and legitimate.
In short, when it comes to “authority,” they are taught that good is evil and that evil is good. Initiating violence via “the law” is seen as good, and resisting such assaults (”breaking the law”) is seen as bad.
Without the myth of “authority,” people would still have disagreements, and some would still be malicious or negligent, and would still do stupid or hostile things. The main difference in how human beings would interact without the “authority” superstition is quite simple: If someone did not feel justified in doing something himself, he would not feel justified in asking someone else to do it, nor would he feel justified doing it himself on someone else’s behalf. The concept is so simple, almost to the point of sounding trivial, but would lead to a huge change in human behavior.
To wit, if someone would not feel justified in paying for his children’s education by forcibly robbing his neighbors, he also would not feel justified in “voting” for local “government” to impose a “property tax” to pay for “public” schools. And if someone would not feel justified in stealing his neighbor’s property to fund a school, he still would not feel justified in doing so even if he was given a badge, and told to do so, in the name of “the law.”
As another example, if someone would not feel justified in kicking down someone’s door and dragging him away and putting him in a cage for years, for having possessed a plant with mind-altering properties, then he would not feel justified in supporting “anti-drug laws” either. Nor would he suddenly feel justified in engaging in such trespassing, assault and kidnapping just because some “authority” gave him a badge and told him to do so, in the name of some “law.”
As yet another example, if someone would not feel justified using violence to keep a complete stranger from setting foot anywhere in an entire “country,” then he would still not feel justified in doing so if someone gave him a badge, nor would he feel justified in supporting “immigration laws” which instruct others to do so.
In a society without the myth of “authority” there would still be thieves, murderers, and other aggressors. The difference is that all of the people who view theft and murder as immoral would not advocate and condone “legal” theft and murder, which every statist now does. Again, to advocate any “law” is to advocate the use of whatever level of authoritarian force is required, up to and including deadly force, to achieve compliance.
And the people who perceived theft and murder as immoral would not commit such acts simply because some “authority” or “law” told them to. How much of what police do on a daily basis would they do on their own, without a “law” or a “government” telling them to? Very little. How much of what “soldiers” routinely do would they do on their own, without an authoritarian military leader telling them to? Very little. How much of what “tax collectors” do now would they do on their own, without any “government” telling them to? None of it.
Everything good that the people who are called “law enforcers” now do-i.e. trying to stop genuinely hostile, destructive people from harming innocents-they could continue to do without the myth of “authority.” And they could do so out of the kindness of their hearts, or as a paid career, in the likely event that other people would want to voluntarily pay them for doing so.
At same time, everything bad that “law enforcers” and soldiers now do-e.g. terrorizing or shooting people they know nothing about, aggressing against those who commit victimless “crimes,” detaining, interrogating and assaulting complete strangers-most of them would stop doing.
How many people were assaulted, tortured and murdered by the population of Germany as a whole, or the population of Russia as a whole, or the population of China as a whole, before the respective “governments” of those countries, under the regimes of Hitler, Stalin and Mao, enacted “laws” pretending to legitimize such atrocities? Almost none.
And how many atrocities were committed after “authority” issued commands directing people to commit them? The numbers are staggering: tens of millions murdered, hundreds of millions assaulted, oppressed or tortured. Obviously, the people of those countries (and just about every other country) were far less inclined to commit acts of aggression on their own than they were to commit acts of aggression when commanded to do so by an imagined “authority.”
Ironically, when faced with the concept of a purely voluntary society, in which every service, even defense and protection, is funded by willing customers instead of by coercive “taxation,” many statists predict that private security firms would evolve into new, abusive, oppressive “governments,” or that competing security companies would end up being engaged in perpetual violent conflicts with each other.
Such predictions fail to recognize that most people do not want to attack and rob their neighbors, and do not want to be attacked and robbed themselves, and it is only through the belief in “authority” that the majority ever feels okay about advocating robbery via “taxation,” or ever feels obligated to go along with being attacked and robbed themselves via “obeying the law.”
Without the notion that “government” has rights that individuals do not, no malicious, aggressive private security firm would ever have popular support. If they were seen merely as private employees of average people, no one involved-neither the customers nor their hired protectors would imagine the employees to have any right to steal, harass, terrorize, or do anything that anyone else does not have the right to do.
To look at it another way, and to make it more personal, imagine living in a world where none of your neighbors felt justified in advocating that you be “taxed” to fund things which you object to. Imagine if every cause, every plan, every program, every idea, every proposed solution to all sorts of problems, was something you could either voluntarily support, or not. Imagine living in a world where none of your neighbors felt that they had the right to forcibly impose their ideas, choices and lifestyles upon you. They would feel justified (as they already do) in using force to stop you if you decided to attack them or rob them, but very few would feel good about committing any sort of aggression against you.
Contrary to what most people assume, this is exactly what a “world without rules” would look like. Each person would be guided by his own conscience-which could be thought of as self-imposed “rules” or “self-government”-and even though some people acting on their own would still make stupid or malicious choices and commit acts of aggression, no longer would anyone imagine that calling something a “law” or a “rule” can make an inherently unjustified act into something good. And if you were to resist such an act of aggression, your neighbors would praise you for doing so, instead of condemning you as a “criminal,” which nearly all of them would do today if you resisted an act of aggression which happened to be “legal.”
Thinking Differently, Talking Differently
Many of the terms people use and the discussions they have on a daily basis are based upon the assumption that “authority” can exist. By constantly hearing and repeating the superstition-based dogma, nearly everyone unwittingly reinforces the myth, in their own minds and in the minds of those they talk to. Authoritarian propaganda is so ubiquitous that it does not feel to the masses like a “message” at all; it just feels like “talking about what is.”
Most of every history book is about who ruled what area when, which authoritarian regime conquered another authoritarian regime, which individuals or political parties came to power, which forms of “government” and types of “public policy” various empires have had, and so on. They speak about elections, who wielded the power behind the scenes, what “laws” were passed, what “taxes” were imposed, and what the people thought about their “leaders.” The underlying premise, which comes through loud and clear even if it is never openly stated, is that it is both inevitable and legitimate for there to be a ruling class-some variety of overlord with the right to forcibly control everyone else.
That message continues to be a constant underlying theme of nearly everything written in the newspapers, or broadcast on the radio or television. The news reports, whether local or national, talk about what “legislation” the “representatives” or “congressmen” have passed, what “law enforcers” did that day, which candidates are running for “public office,” what “public policies” they support, and so on. The way every bit of it is reported is heavily tainted by the superstition of “authority.” Of course, the way people think affects the way they talk, and each person is constantly expressing his fundamental beliefs, even in seemingly trivial discussions.
Compare how the same exact situation and events would likely be reported, first by one who believes in “authority,” and then by one who does not: With Superstition: “Today the local government of Springfield put into place a four percent increase in local building permit fees, the proceeds of which are intended to fund a program to provide certain medical assistance for the elderly.”
Without Superstition: “Today a group of Local extortionists issued a formal threat to anyone doing construction or renovation in Springfield, demanding four percent more than the group had previously demanded from such people. The thieves say they intend to give some of the money they seize to the elderly.”
When someone escapes the superstition of “authority,” his thought patterns, and therefore his speech patterns, change dramatically. He does not use the euphemistic terms which assign legitimacy to “legal” violence. He describes “tax collectors” as what they actually are: professional extortionists. He describes “law enforcers” as what they actually are: the politicians’ hired thugs. He describes “laws” as what they actually are: threats from politicians. He does not proudly describe himself as a “law-abiding taxpayer,” because he recognizes what that term actually means: one who allows himself to be robbed and controlled by power-hungry megalomaniacs.
Most statists have a hard time imagining a world in which there is no centralized machine attempting to control everyone else. However, some find it equally difficult imagining a world in which they themselves are not being forcibly controlled. The thought of looking out at the world and feeling beholden to no one, feeling no obligation to obey the “laws” of others, is utterly foreign to anything they have ever contemplated.
As sad as it is, many people find it very hard to even imagine a world in which there is no one they must bow to, no legislature they must subjugate themselves to, no “law” or “rule” that can ever outrank their own consciences. Such ideas are worlds away from what nearly everyone has been taught to believe, and accepting such a drastically different view of reality feels like a profound, existential awakening. He who has escaped the myth says to himself something like this:
“Does any person, or any group of people, have the right to demand payment from me for something I did not ask for and do not want to fund? Of course not. If I am not committing aggression against anyone (via force or fraud), does anyone have the right to force me to make the choices they wish I would make? Of course not. Do I have the right to resist such aggression? Of course I do. Does any person, or any group of people, possess any rights that I do not possess? Of course not. How and from where would they have gotten such rights? Do I, at any time or in any place, under any circumstances, ever have an obligation to do anything other than what my own conscience dictates? Is there any situation in which the decrees or ‘laws’ of any supposed ‘authority’ could ever obligate me, in any way and to any degree, to abandon my free will, or ignore my own sense of right and wrong? Of course not.”
Teaching Morality vs. Teaching Authority
It is commonly held that unless children are taught to respect and obey “authority” they will be like wild animals, stealing, assaulting, and so on. But being obedient, in and of itself, merely means that, instead of the individual using his own judgment, he will defer to the judgment of those who seek and acquire positions of power – some of the most immoral, corrupt, callous, malicious, dishonest people on earth.
Training people to be merely obedient only prevents animalistic behavior if the supposed “authority” does not itself condone and command theft and assault, as every “government” in history has done in the name of “taxation” and “law enforcement.”
Obviously, teaching obedience does not help civilization if those giving the orders are commanding the very behaviors that harm society: acts of aggression against innocents. The idea that widespread subservience is good for society rests upon the patently false assumption that people in positions of power are morally superior to everyone else.
It should be self-evident that having most people disregard their own consciences, instead entrusting politicians to make their choices for them, is not going to make society any safer or more virtuous. Instead, it will simply legitimize the very acts that interfere with peaceful human coexistence.
Consider the analogy of a robot, which is programmed to do whatever its owner tells it to do, whether productive or destructive, whether civilized or aggressive. This is akin to a child learning to respect “authority.” Whether the obedient robot or child ends up being a tool for destruction and oppression depends entirely upon who ends up giving the orders.
If, instead, children are taught the principle of self-ownership – the idea that every individual belongs to himself, and therefore should not be robbed, threatened, assaulted, or murdered-then the supposed virtue of obedience is completely unnecessary.
Consider which of the following is more likely to lead to a just, peaceful society: billions of people being taught the basics of how to be moral human beings (e.g. the principle of non-aggression), or billions of people being taught merely to obey, in the hopes that the few people who end up in charge will happen to give good orders. If there is any difficulty imagining what would happen in the two scenarios, one need only look to history to see what has happened.
Even randomly selected “rulers,” when given permission to forcibly control everyone else, will quickly be corrupted, and will become tyrants. But average, decent people are not the ones who desire power over others. The ones who seek and obtain power are usually already narcissists and megalomaniacs, people with a never-ending lust for power, who love the idea of dominating others. And the desire for dominion is never driven by a desire to help those who are being dominated, but always by a desire to empower the controller, at the expense of those whom he controls.
Yet people continue to echo the claim that the average person, if guided purely by his own conscience, would be less trustworthy, less civilized and less moral than if he sets aside his own conscience and just blindly does whatever the tyrants of the world tell him to do. If each person relied on his own judgment, that would, by definition, be “anarchy,” while widespread obedience to authoritarian tyrants, by definition, constitutes “law and order.”
Note the drastic contrast between the usual connotations of those terms-”anarchy” sounding scary and violent, “law and order” sounding civilized and just-and the real-world results of following conscience versus following rulers. The level of evil committed by individuals acting on their own is completely dwarfed by the level of evil committed by people obeying a perceived “authority.”
Though many imagine teaching obedience to “authority” to be synonymous with teaching right and wrong, the two are actually opposites. Teaching children to respect the rights of every human being, and teaching them that committing aggression is inherently wrong, is very important. But teaching them that obedience is a virtue, and that “respecting authority” is a moral imperative, will make them grow up to either advocate widespread, large-scale aggression, or to participate in widespread, large-scale aggression. Every statist does one or the other (or both).
In fact, teaching obedience dramatically hinders the social and mental development of children. After having grown up in a situation where they were controlled by others, rewarded for obedience and punished for disobedience, if they ever escape the situation, they will have had little or no training, and little or no experience or practice, in how to think and act from morals and principles. Having never exercised their individual judgment and personal responsibility, knowing only how to do as they are told, they will be like trained monkeys that have escaped, but that have no way to cope with a life of freedom. If their upbringings have been molded mainly by controlling “authority” figures, people become existentially lost if that control vanishes.
In short people trained to obey “authority” do not know how to be independent, sovereign responsible human beings, because all their lives they have been intentionally and specifically trained not to follow their own consciences and not to use their own judgment.
So the indoctrinated, when they escape one institutionalized control setting (“school”), hallucinate another “authority” to take its place: “government.” The escaped monkeys simply build a new cage, and eagerly jump into it, because that is all they know, and all they have ever known.
In a world without the “authority” myth, on the other hand, children could be taught to be moral instead of merely obedient. They could be taught to respect people, instead of respecting the inhuman, violent monster called “government.” They could be taught that it is up to them, not only to do the right thing, but to figure out what “the right thing” is.
As a result, they could grow up to be responsible, thinking, useful adults, members of a peaceful and productive community, instead of growing up to be little more than cattle on the farms of tyrants.
No Master Plan
If tomorrow, by some miracle, everyone in the world let go of the belief in “authority,” the vast majority of theft, assault, and murder in society would immediately cease. All wars would end; all robbery in the name of “taxation” would stop; all oppression carried out in the name of “law” would cease. The people as a whole – including the perpetrators, victims, and spectators of oppression – would no longer view such acts of aggression as legitimate.
But there would be another, less immediate change as well. The belief in “authority” is, in essence, a psychological cage. It trains people to believe that they do not need to judge what is right and wrong; that they do not need to take it upon themselves to fix society; that all that is required of them is that they “play by the rules” and do as they are told while looking to “leaders” and “lawmakers” to handle the problems of society.
In short, the belief in “authority” trains people to never grow up, to always view the world as children view it: an incomprehensibly complicated place that is, and will always be, someone else’s responsibility. Whatever the problem-poverty, crime, disease, economic or environmental trouble-the indoctrinated statists are always on the lookout for some new “leader” to elect, who will promise to fix things.
In one way, a world of authoritarians function exactly the way a kindergarten classroom does: if anything goes wrong-if anything outside of the predictable, pre-planned, centrally-controlled agenda occurs-the “children” call on the “teacher” to fix everything. The entire authoritarian environment of a classroom teaches the children that they are never in charge; it is never up to them to decide what to do.
In fact, they are strongly discouraged from ever thinking or acting on their own. After all, if they were allowed to think and make their own decisions, the first decision most of them would make would be to walk out of the classroom.
Likewise, adult authoritarians are constantly told that one should not “take the law into his own hands.” The people are trained to call “the authorities” whenever there is a conflict or other problem, and then meekly do whatever the “government” enforcers tell them to do.
If there is any dispute between people, the people are told that they should always run to the masters, whether by calling the “police” or by going to authoritarian “courts” to settle disagreements. When discussing societal challenges, the well-trained subjects of the state talk in terms such as: “They should pass a law ...” or “They should make a government program ...” They view their lives as part of a giant, centralized, master plan, so it logically follows that if they want their lives improved, the solution is to petition the planners to change the plan.
This view is so ingrained in the masses that many people literally cannot comprehend the idea of individuals living their lives without being part of anyone else’s master plan.
This is demonstrated by the common response authoritarians have to the idea of a society without rulers. Almost without exception, a statist who ponders a stateless society will begin by asking how things will “work” without a ruling class. He does not ask this simply because he is curious about how roads, defense, trade, dispute resolution, and other things might function without “government.’ He asks this because he has always been trained to view human existence inside the framework of some centralized, forcibly-imposed master plan, and is literally incapable of thinking outside of that paradigm. And so he will ask how things will work “under anarchy” and will refer to it as a “system,” imagining it as a new type of master plan to be inflicted upon the masses, when, of course, it is the exact opposite: a complete lack of a centralized, forcibly-imposed plan.
But an overall plan for humanity is all that the statist has ever considered, and often it is all that he can comprehend. The idea that no one will be “in charge,” that no one will be making “the rules” for everyone else, that no one will be planning or managing mankind as a whole, and that no one will be telling the statist what to do, is simply something most authoritarians have never even imagined. The concept is so unfamiliar that they do not even know how to process it, so they desperately try to fit the idea of “anarchy” (a stateless society) into the mold of a master plan.
Such contradictory thinking is only reinforced by those who wear the label of “anarcho-communist.” The term implies that there would be no ruling class, and that society would be organized into a collective system.
Of course, if some group claims the right to forcibly impose such a system on everyone else, that is authoritarianism, and so the “anarcho-” part of the term would not apply. Another option is that those calling themselves “anarcho-communists” are merely hoping that, in the absence of a ruling class, every single individual on the planet will freely choose to participate in communes or collectives-which, of course, would not happen. As a final possibility, perhaps the “anarcho-communists” would, for themselves, choose to be part of a commune, but would allow others to choose different arrangements.
In the end, the term “anarcho-communist” makes little sense, and is actually a symptom of authoritarianism: even when advocating a stateless society, some people automatically imagine that there must be some over-arching system or plan, some grand scheme, some form of societal management which must be imposed upon mankind as a whole.
The truth is, with or without the myth of “authority,” no one can guarantee justice or prosperity, or predict everything that might occur, or know every problem that might arise, or how to solve them all. The difference is that those who believe in “authority” continue to pretend, despite constant overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that an authoritarian system of control can guarantee safety, security, prosperity, fairness and justice.
Meanwhile, those who have given up the most dangerous superstition no longer pretend that it is possible to control everything and everyone via any “system.” Bizarrely, despite the nearly incomprehensible degree of economic disaster, human suffering, and mass oppression which the belief in “government” has repeatedly caused, proponents of authoritarianism still insist that those who oppose statism must be able to describe in minute detail exactly how everything in society would work in the absence of “government,” so that nothing bad could possibly happen. And if they cannot-as of course no one can-the statist then proclaims that as proof that “anarchy will never work.”
Rather than being a rational conclusion, such an idea is the symptom of deep-seated mental dependency and fear of the unknown. Statists want the promise that some all-knowing, all-powerful entity will take care of them and protect them from all possible misfortune and from all of the bad people in the world. The fact that politicians have been making such promises forever, and have never once actually fulfilled such a promise (because the promise is patently ridiculous), does not stop statists from wanting to hear the promise.
No matter how many times authoritarian “solutions” fail horrendously, most people still think that some other “government” plan is the only answer. What they want is a guarantee that some all-powerful entity outside of themselves will make sure that their lives are comfortable and safe. They do not seem to care, or even notice, that such “guarantees” never come true, and that anyone claiming the power to make such a guarantee is either an amazingly bold liar or a lunatic.
Nonetheless, because anarchists and voluntaryists would never make the absurd promise that, without “government,” nothing bad will ever happen, most statists remain terrified of the idea of a stateless society.
Author’s personal note: I have found that, whenever the topic of a stateless society comes up in my discussions with statists, almost without fail they begin asking questions in the passive voice: how will this get done, how will that be handled? They speak as if, even when it comes to their own lives, they are little more than spectators, waiting to see what will happen. This is because, for many of their formative years, especially while in “school,” they were little more than spectators. The scripts of their lives were written by others; their destiny was determined and decided by “authority,” not by themselves.
So, in an effort to get them to escape that mindset, when they ask me something like, “Under anarchy, how will this be dealt with?” I respond, “How would you deal with it?” When they ask, “What would be done about this potential problem?” I ask, “What would you do about it?” And they can usually come up with ideas, off the top of their heads, that are better than any authoritarian solution. The problem is not that they are incapable of being in charge of themselves, their futures, and in fact the future of the world; the problem is that it has just never occurred to them that they already are in charge of themselves, their futures, and the future of the world.
One who understands that “authority” is a myth does not have any obligation to explain how every aspect of a free society would work, any more than someone who says that Santa Claus is not real has some obligation to explain how Christmas will work without him. However, statists often insist, as a condition of even considering the possibility of a stateless society, that someone tell them how every aspect of everyone’s life will work without “government.”
Of course, no one knows-with or without the myth of “government”-what all will happen, and clinging to a provably false, self-contradictory myth, which itself has led to large-scale murder, extortion and oppression, because someone failed to describe in detail a perfect world without the myth, is absurd. People can make suggestions or predictions about how different aspects of a free society would work without the involvement of “authority”-and many scholarly treaties do exactly that-but once someone truly understands the insanity inherent in any belief in “authority,” he will never go back to accepting the myth regardless of what he thinks might happen without it, any more than an adult would go back to believing in Santa Claus because he does not know whether Christmas would work without him.
You Rule You, I Rule Me
By definition, in the absence of “authority,” no one would have the power or the right to proclaim, “This is how things will be done.” Yet that is the only template of thought which most authoritarians have ever considered. Those who realize that they have neither the ability nor the right to control all of humanity do not think in terms of a master plan for the human race.
Instead, they think in terms of the only thing they can truly control: their own actions. They think in terms of, “What should I do about this?” instead of, “What should I ask the masters to do about this?” They are not so arrogant or delusional to think they have the right or the ability to make choices for all of mankind. They make their own choices, and accept the unavoidable reality that other people will make different choices.
On a practical level, it is absurd to expect that a system of centralized control, wherein a handful of politicians, with their limited understanding and experience, come up with a master plan and then force it on everyone else, would work better than comparing and combining the knowledge, ingenuity and expertise of hundreds of millions of individuals, via a network of mutually voluntary trade and cooperation.
No matter what the goal is-whether it is food production, road building, protection against aggressors, or anything else-the ideas that come from the “chaos” of millions of people trying different inventions and solutions will always be better than the ideas which a handful of politicians will come up with. This is especially true in light of the fact that while politicians force their ideas on everyone via “the law,” even if they are lousy ideas that no one else likes, free market ideas have to be good enough that others will voluntarily support them.
Despite the amazing prosperity already created by relatively free, “anarchistic” trade and mutual cooperation, the thought of people coexisting without all of them being controlled and regulated by some master plan is still incomprehensible to most statists. Most statists have never even begun to contemplate the possibility of truly being in charge of their own lives.
Everything about modern authoritarian society trains people to be loyal subjects of a system of control, instead of training people to be what they should be: sovereign entities, figuring things out for themselves, interacting with others as equals, answerable to their own consciences above all else. To most, the idea of a world where they are the ones who have to solve problems, settle disputes, help those who need help, protect themselves and others, without being able to run to an all-powerful “authority” instead, is a completely foreign and terrifying concept. They love to advocate authoritarian solutions, but do not really even want to be in charge of themselves, much less to be personally responsible for making society work. And their belief in “authority” is what they use to attempt to evade that responsibility and avoid the realities of life.
The life of a caged animal is, in many ways, easier than life in the wild. Likewise, life as an unthinking human slave can be more predictable and feel safer than a life of responsibility. But, just as living in the wild makes animals stronger, smarter, and far better able to care for themselves, letting go of the “authority” myth will force human beings to be smarter, more creative, more compassionate, and more moral.
That is not to say that all people will, without the belief in “government,” be wise, kind and generous. But if millions of individuals each understood that it is up to them personally to make the world a better place, instead of merely obediently playing an assigned part in someone else’s master plan while crying to “government” to fix everything, it would unleash a level of human creativity, ingenuity, and cooperation beyond what most people could possibly imagine.
A Different Society
Today, most people associate the idea of “everyone doing whatever he wants” with chaos and death, and associate everyone being obedient and “law-abiding” with order and civilization. Without the “authority” myth, however, people would have a very different mindset. Without an “authority” to blindly follow and obey, without being able to whine to “the powers that be” to fix everything, people would have to figure out for themselves what is right and wrong, and how to solve problems.
Some might claim that human beings are too short-sighted, lazy and irresponsible to run their own lives, but it is precisely the belief in “authority” that has allowed them to become so lazy and helpless.
As long as they believed that making things right was not their job, that fixing problems was not their job, and that all they needed to do was to obey their masters, acting as unthinking pawns in someone else’s master plan, they had no need to grow up. But shedding the superstition forces one into the position of realizing that there is nothing on earth above him, which means that he is responsible for his own actions (or inaction); he is the one whose job it is to make the world a better place; he is the one who has to make society work.
There are certainly already statists who are trying to make a positive difference, but more often than not their belief in “authority” converts their good intentions into evil actions, perverts their compassion into violence, and turns their productivity into the fuel of oppression.
For example, many people who join the armed forces start with the noble goal of defending their countrymen from hostile foreign powers, and many of those who become “police officers” do so with the intention of helping people, and protecting the good people from the bad people.
However, once they become agents of the mythical beast known as “government” they immediately cease to be advocates of their own values and their own perceptions of right and wrong, and instead become enforcers of the arbitrary whims of politicians. In every “government” in history, those purporting to be “defenders” have quickly, if not immediately, transformed into aggressors.
The first act of almost every regime is to impose some sort of “taxation,” to forcibly rob its subjects, usually under the asinine excuse that it must do so in order to be able to protect the people against robbers. It is, therefore, ironic that so many people accept the idea that “government” is the only entity capable of protecting the good from the wicked.
In truth, only in the absence of the superstition of “authority” can the good intentions of would-be protectors and defenders actually serve humanity.
A private militia, for example, formed for the purpose of defending a certain population against foreign invaders-which is not imagined, by its members or by anyone else, to have any special “authority” whatsoever-will be guided by the personal conscience of each individual member. Such an organization can be an extremely effective means of exerting justified defensive force, while being immune to the usual corruptibility of authoritarian “protection” rackets.
A private militia member who did not suffer from the “authority” delusion could not and would not ever use the excuse of “just following orders” to try to deny responsibility for his own actions. If he uses violence, he, and everyone around him, knows that he personally made the choice, and that he is personally responsible for it, and he should personally be held accountable for his actions.
In short, the only time a private, non-authoritarian militia could become oppressive is if every individual in it personally chose to act that way. In contrast, “government” militaries can become oppressive as a result of even one genuinely malicious person in the chain of command, if those beneath him have been effectively trained to faithfully follow orders.
Without the myth of “authority,” not everyone will act responsibly or charitably. But when each person accepts that he is in charge of himself, it is far less likely that good people will be doing the bidding of evil people, as happens constantly now, by way of the belief in “authority.”
Statists are often afraid of what some individuals may do if not restrained by “government.” What they should fear, however, is what those individuals may do if they become “government.” The amount of damage which one hostile, malicious individual can do by himself is nothing compared to the damage that one hostile, malicious “authority figure” can do, by way of obedient, but otherwise good people.
To put it another way, if evil was only committed by evil people the world would be a far better place than it is today, with basically good people constantly committing evil acts, because a perceived “authority” told them to.
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