“My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs) – or to ‘unconstitutional’ Monarchy … the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity”
-J.R.R Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 52
The Great Misunderstanding
(Note: By “propertarian anarchy” I mean that which respects private property via self-ownership — voluntaryism — as contrasted with the false “anarchy” of Communist states, etc. I do not mean to indicate any other statist, or otherwise political, philosophy or worldview.)
As I was leaving a large shopping center in town this morning, after a stop at a clothing store and picking up some lunch, it struck me again: the strange and bitter irony that those known by friends and family as the most hardcore, wacky, and “extremist” libertarian anarchists, actually love sensible rules and order much, much more than any advocate of government, commonly understood. In fact, the reason most of us became anarchists, libertarians, and voluntaryists in the first place, is because we were so fed up and disgusted with the disorder, and violent chaos of orderless and arbitrary rules of “the state.”
I was pulling out of the clothing store parking lot, and an old woman was coming from the supermarket lot opposite, both of us heading to the center of this one massive, amalgamated lot, so we could enter the the lanes traversing the middle, and get to the exits. She didn’t have her signal on though, and I needed to turn left, so I paused unsure of what she was about to do. At just the right moment, she put on her hazards, and that let me know she was backing into a parking spot, and not turning out onto the thoroughfare as I was.
I was amused at how satisfied this made me feel. She had — unlike so many others — signaled her intentions, letting me know I could proceed with caution, and happily exit the shopping center. I started to think back about how I’ve been both commended and teased in the past about being such a “safe driver.”
I love order. I am obsessed with sensible rules, properly defined. This is the mere facade of the statist’s arguments justifying violent governance, but the actual meat and marrow of what makes an anarchist. Driving home, I shook my head at the realization that those who mock us anarchists, accuse us of being utopian pipe-dreamers, and radically violent, are infinitely more those things than any propertarian anarchist could ever hope to be. The laws of the state are irrefutably underpinned only by arbitrary violence — our desired order, however, is based on logic and love for ourselves and our fellow man. This is, of course, not to say that folks with mainstream views are intentionally for this violence. To the contrary, the tragedy we anarchists see is that so many genuinely kind-hearted people have been duped into supporting chaos and violence and lies, in the name of (and in name only) the exact opposite.
I’d like to issue an explanation and apology to those not yet on board with this wacky Voluntaryism/anarchy thing. The perceived acid-tongued, kiss-my-feet judgmental tone some of my friends have attributed to my ranting over these years, is not something I’m unaware of. At times it’s been intentionally provocative or out of pure frustration. At times we wacky anarchists do get carried away. All the same. Imagine you saw a house was on fire and everyone called you crazy for trying to leave. It might make you act a little… crazy.
The Core Philosophy
The core philosophy of propertarian anarchy is this: you own your life and body by nature’s very design. For this body to survive, you need to be able to acquire resources, the use of which you, exclusively, get to determine. If someone else can determine what you do with your property, acquired by your body which you own, you might starve to death, become homeless, or perish.
Thus, in order for any given community, society, or world civilization to work, each individual’s ownership of themselves and right to acquire such property must be recognized. If this self-ownership is not recognized, the result is chaos and death. If one’s goal is chaos and death, lack of recognition of property and self-ownership is a great model.
The core philosophy of statism/government is this: arbitrarily selected rulers own you, and get to decide how you can use resources. If you do not obey them, they will fine, cage, or kill you.
While this violence allows for various degrees of fearful “order” and free-range captive living to exist, it is never truly moral or free. Individuals, just like you and I, assign themselves special roles and power as if by magic, and though they act freely and own themselves, we may not exercise, apply, or live such realities. We must obey. There is no one governing these governments at the top. So there is no logical justification for their so-called authority.
Real Life Examples of Order vs. Chaos
There is no shortage of real-life examples of anarchic order. That is to say, order that occurs as most humans are good and want to survive and thrive in peace when their needs are met.
Watch these boats, like nutrients flowing organically through a bloodstream, in flexible, spontaneous order. There are not nearly enough Port Authority agents in the water — nor could there ever be — to ensure that each individual ship does not maliciously decide to smash into the others. So what keeps this all flowing so nicely? Self-interest, technology, and the desire to survive and thrive:
Watch these pedestrians and motorists in Ho Chi Minh City. No traffic lights here. Just anarchic order, similar to the Port of Amsterdam:
It was the human mind that designed these motorways, vehicles, systems of travel, technological wonders, and cities. It was not “a government,” but single, individual human minds thinking, planning, and problem solving. There is no reason such organization cannot be done without what is commonly referred to as a “state.” To argue against this reality lends itself to silliness.
Next, a perfect example (in the realm of transportation) of why individuals relying on their own nature/god-given senses to stay safe, is better (and cheaper!) than blind obedience to a signal or directive from the state:
How about money? Have a look how decentralized money fully controlled by the individual, can work as compared to the sluggish, privacy-invasive, antiquated high-fee systems of the state that can be shut down or censored on a whim. With 12 simple seed words in memory, or written down, even large sums of money can be moved securely across borders, for pennies (or less) in fees when using a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Transfers are instantaneous, and there is no middleman, corporation, or state to block transactions. I can send anyone in the world, any amount of money I wish. Some coins (also like Bitcoin Cash) allow transactions to be obfuscated to preserve privacy. See this dramatization to help understand the importance of individual financial sovereignty (note: I do not endorse the video creator, just the message):
https://odysee.com/@Bitcoincom:c/12-words-to-freedom:8
Of course, crypto as a whole is being cracked down on, and many coins with poor or intentionally state-friendly technology and philosophies (like the stablecoin Tether), are heavily surveilled. Some cryptocurrencies are much worse than physical cash when it comes to privacy.
Suffice it to say that any currency — including physical government money like dollar bills and coins — that can be readily exchanged and moved privately is a threat to the state’s violent pyramid scheme. These decentralized trade models are much more ethical and efficient than the state’s intentionally dysfunctional models.
Here is how statist financial institutions work:
https://odysee.com/@SweetHomeCalifornia:3/canada-court-orders-givesendgo-funds:6
More statist chaos:
The “War on Drugs” justifying the imprisonment and murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings while the politicians do and sell the same drugs themselves, and intelligence agencies intentionally introduce them to communities.
The “Covid” lockdowns, putting hardworking men and women out of business, driving them into poverty, while the politicians that preached the rules went out to enjoy fine dining and awards ceremonies. They pushed an untested injection on everyone, and meaningless masks and social starvation methods on children, resulting in record high child suicide numbers in Japan, among countless other tragedies.
Cops blowing red lights for no real reason (we’ve all seen this), and much worse abuses of power and non-accountability up to and including rape and murder because, like politicians, their salaries are guaranteed through theft (taxation), and the individuals called “the state” protect them. They don’t suffer nearly as much for poor or abusive behavior as private businesses do.
War:
Common Objections and Responses:
O: If there were no state, everyone would just go crazy robbing and killing!
R: Is that what you or your neighbors would do? I’ll be sure to stay away from you, then. 99.9% of people I know would just go on living their lives. In fact, statistically speaking, only a minute fraction of the world population is neurologically damaged and/or criminally psychopathic.
O: But myself and my neighbors are not who I’m worried about! People are bad!
R: There are indeed evil people out there, but why couldn’t we still have police/security forces that are funded voluntarily, and not under threat of violence (taxation)?
O: Those security forces will just form another state!
R: That’s doubtful, in a world where the majority understands self-ownership, rejecting state-sanctioned monopolies based on the “divine right” myth. But even if they did form new governments, your argument itself admits that states are not good!
O: This anarchy/free market approach has never been tried.
R: It is practiced every single time you pay for a service and receive it non-violently, whether a cop is around or not. Further, it has existed historically, in places like Ireland and anywhere folks are voluntarily existing and trading freely. Further still, it really doesn’t matter anyway. Wrong is wrong. General freedom for blacks in the United States had not existed there prior to their emancipation from chattel slavery on plantations. Should we have kept them enslaved for the sake of not breaking historical precedent? WhO WiLl PicK thE CotToN!?!?!
O: If there were no state, borders would be overrun and under-defended.
R: In the absence of a state, the only borders would be those of private property — not arbitrarily drawn claims of ownership across vast swathes of unhomesteaded land (the current situation). “Eminent domain” would be impossible for the most part, and defended against with societally sanctioned fatal force. No foreign visitor you did not want on your property would be welcome. You have the right — along with other private property owners individually or as a collective — to defend your legitimately acquired property. Anything beyond that is Communism. As it stands now, even if I own a ranch in Texas, and want my cousin in Mexico to come be my business partner, we have to get the state’s approval for him to move his body to, and exist upon, my property. The state has no right to tell me how to use my ranch, and no authority over my cousin’s body.
O: If there were no state, there would be no quality control for businesses. We need licensing systems and other security measures.
R: Those things have all been done, and can still be done, privately and without the threat of violent coercion and state-sanctioned licensing rackets which are prohibitive to impoverished individuals who may want to work and provide services, with or without a license.
O: I need my government to protect me from terrorists and bigger governments.
R: States historically have only protected state interests, not individuals. Even in times of war, individuals are sacrificed as if their lives were worth nothing. See, for example, the internment of Japanese Americans in California, the 9/11 psy-op, the Allied bombings of Dresden and Tokyo, the Oklahoma City bombing, Waco, Ruby Ridge, etc.
O: There’s no way this anarchy could happen overnight. There would be chaos!
R: Nobody said it would happen overnight. But it happens and grows each time any individual refuses to commit an immoral act for the state, or to be stolen from by the state. If a small critical mass of individuals globally simply refused to go to war to kill strangers for their politician slave masters, war would simply end. All it takes is one individual cop refusing to jail a man for cannabis, to save a whole precious human life from being wasted away in a cage. If a critical mass of cops refused to do their immoral jobs, these abuses would end naturally as well. There is a saying: “Think Global, Act Local.” The truth is, if individuals en masse act locally, refusing to obey unjust laws, feeding their neighbors, cheating the state where they can, and helping in tiny ways where they can, the whole world changes.
O: Okay, okay, But you need taxes to support things.
R: Taxation is literal extortion. It is violent and immoral.
O: Sure it is technically theft, but it’s a necessary evil.
R: The income tax is historically a very recent phenomenon. The average person in Japan and the U.S. didn’t even have to pay it until the 1940s. Despite this, vast, efficient, and marvelous engineering and infrastructure were in place, along with useful social programs. But more importantly, if you think that stealing is sometimes necessary (when you arbitrarily say it is), why are we even have a conversation about morals and ethical society?
Conclusion: Nothing’s Perfect, But It Could Be a Helluva Lot Better
Well. I hope I have made some sort of a point here. I love order and peace to what most would likely call an obsessive degree. I have no interest in extremist violence. To the contrary, I want more peace and order in the world, and propertarian anarchy is the sensible, logical, ethical and practical way forward. The state is a pipe dream. I am begging the world to put down the crack pipe.
Even propertarian anarchy/voluntaryism has some “gray areas” that have to be worked out by communities wishing to live within such a basic order. For example, the classic flagpole dilemma, or what to do about the kids playing on your lawn. But that’s life. And in reality, these things just aren’t real problems at all most of the time. Not with sane people. And most people (save many politicians and other state thugs) are sane. This model is the closest I’ve found thus far to what the good folks in the world call “common sense.” And you know what? We prove it by our actions, too. Every sane person believes in property, whether they admit it or not. Just follow them into a store, and swipe whatever they bought on the way out. Nobody’s happy about being stolen from, not even the most “liberal,” left-leaning,” gov-loving, tax-paying Commie in the world.
Voluntary Japan 
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