On The Futile Delusion Of Anarchy

As my late friend Sam was so fond of pointing out, words matter. I should HOPE their opposition is not to “government” but to “abuse of power.” So say that. Because the two are not equal, and attempting to equate them just makes you look like an ignorant hand-waving agitator with little if any understanding of what government even is at its most basic level.

As long as there are people, there will be government. Inescapably as there will be wetness as long as there is water and it’s above 32*F somewhere the water is. Trying to ignore or “work around” or protest that is the absolute definition of Quixotic.

It’s not that I’m telling you “you can’t because I say so,” I’m telling you “you can’t because it’s functionally impossible,” like trying to create a one-sided three dimensional object.  This isn’t about “I don’t like what you’re saying,” or about “I think you” anything.  It’s about the basic impossibility of the premise of having “no government.”  The very second there are two sentient beings interacting, there is some kind of government, no matter how rudimentary, and that government is going to do exactly the same things in terms of function as any other: work to ensure its own survival through the easiest means available.  That means you have to work out SOME kind of rule for your relationship with that other person you inhabit your planet with, even if that rule is “there will be no other rules.”

Yes, even that is a form of government.  Even a two-person world in which the only rule is there will be no rules, has government.  It also has authority; you just exercised your authority to negotiate “no rules” with your co-planeteer.  They exercised theirs to negotiate with you.  Their authority extends only over themselves inherently; to extend it over you requires either your cooperation or force.  But it’s still authority; it’s still the privilege to make a decision and commit to it, and it’s still the responsibility for bearing the consequences of failing to live up to that agreement – or for that matter the consequences of succeeding – even if that consequence is nothing more formal and organized than a punch in the eye.

So we now see that simply poo-pooing government and making aggressive anti-government generalities just doesn’t float.  To put it more formally it’s an ineffective, dead-end tactic for genuine reform or even revolution.  All it does is mark those who fall for it as easily manipulated and not real careful thinkers.

Of course, it’s very easy to agitate people into the streets to make anger and break things. Doing the hard work of actually crafting a better idea and implementing it is a much more daunting process, and it often doesn’t fit easily into a meme or bumper sticker.

Ours is a world in which words matter, and the chest-thumping pronouncement of inflamed passion untempered by wisdom or depth of thought creates nothing but the same old stupid escalations and abuses they always did.  If you’re going to take on the system, you need to know that before you even leave the house.

This is precisely why so many revolutions end up becoming tyrannical themselves.

Either you want to be rid of Orwell’s Boot, or you want to wear it. If you want to be rid of it, engaging in doublespeak and agitprop is pretty much the opposite of doing that.

That makes you no different from the power you’re supposedly fighting.

No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

George Orwell, “Animal Farm”