It is the mark of an inferior soul to harass and pester those who are diligently striving towards lifting humanity out of the Dark Ages by creating wealth for all to partake in and by inventing new technological innovations that further provide us the comfort that would be the envy of monarchs, emperors, and Sapa Incas of the past. Such curmudgeons may be entertained for a while, however to spend precious time and energy on dissecting their meaningless sophistry would significantly undermine one’s noble path and would result in the genuine loss of wealth for future generations. If you have nothing significant to add to a conversation then please step aside and stop hindering progress. It takes elephantine efforts over a substantial period of time to build a glorious structure or business. It only takes the mindless actions of a fool for it to come crashing down. It is monumentally difficult to create a thing of beauty and amazingly easy to callously destroy it. This is the nature of the creative process. It is wondrous in its fragility and delicacy. This is simultaneously its greatest strength and exact point of weakness.
Please enjoy my recent interview with Susanne Tarkowski Tempelhof, the founder of Bitnation. Herein we discussed how she became an Anarchist, how her experiences in Libya and Afghanistan have shaped her understanding of a stateless society, what is a terrorist, how does surrounding another country with military bases affect their perception of the US, the subject of her TED talk, the idiocy of democracy, how technology breaks down physical barriers, the Social Contract, vote first and take orders later, Anarcho hyphens simplified, you’re over-generalizing, how easy is it to expatriate, let’s go to Antarctica, does the federal government own the piece of dirt called the United States of America, the contradiction that government protects my property rights, what is Bitnation, private arbitration agencies, the importance of reputation in eBay, Craig’s List and in a stateless society, anarchy is order and the violence of Statism is chaos, the elegant anarchist, attacking Uncle Sam, the stupidity of “government” agents, fighting for peace is like having sex for virginity, USPS monopoly on delivering pieces of paper and much more!
Let’s examine this. If you believe the state is harmful rather than benevolent; if you believe that the state threatens individual rights and property rights, rather than protects them; if you believe that the state decreases our chances for peace and prosperity; if you believe, in sum, that the state is an overwhelming force for ill in our society, a force that makes all of us far worse off, why in the world is it unrealistic to work toward its elimination?
One of the main arguments against a Stateless society is, “But how can you prevent monopolies from forming without government there to stop them?” The problems with this unjustified fear are manifold. First in our Statist society monopolies, in the sense that we all understand them, are only possible when they are artificially supported by taxpayer money and fiat currency and protected through regulatory capture, rent seeking, and legal immunity derived by protectionist laws. Second, in a free society, monopolies would never form due to diversity of wants, substitutions, and competition. For the same reasons cartels, or collusion between various companies for monopolistic purposes, are equally as unrealistic.
Modern monopolies as we know them began in the monarchies of Europe. Back then it was known as Mercantilism and it reached its zenith in the 17th and 18th centuries. This was just another name for what we know of today as Corporate Fascism, the merger of corporate and State power to the mutual benefit of both. According to Rothbard, Mercantilism was “a system of statism which employed economic fallacy to build up a structure of imperial state power, as well as special subsidy and monopolistic privilege to individuals or groups favored by the state.” It is amusing that when debating the impracticality of Anarchy, one will claim the formation of monopolies yet historically it is demonstrated that they have only come about through the blessing and protection of the State.
In a free society, coerced monopolies as we understand them would never form. It is important to distinguish between coerced and non-coerced monopolies. The former comes about through special interest status, lobbying/bribery, and protectionist laws. The latter comes about through the offering of a superior product at an affordable price that drives inefficient competitors out of business. This latter situation is a monopoly that is at once quite favorable to society and impels other entrepreneurs to innovate and create a better product to compete. Even if such awkwardly large non-coerced monopoly were to come about, their existence would be short-lived as their upkeep would become costly and inefficient. If, in their monopolistic state they decide to artificially raise prices on their customers a few things could happen; another small business could appear to undercut its prices thereby siphoning away its customer base, customers could substitute their product for another or simply rearrange their lifestyle to accommodate for the absence of said product.
Therefore we must conclude this Statist fear to not only be unwarranted but also abundantly reflective of the genuine lack of understanding of the nature of “government” and its relation to the mutant businesses that arise from Corporate Fascism. Thinking “government” can solve any problem is an open admission that such a person is willing to use violence to solve problems in his daily life. Only an insane sociopath would admit to such a notion.
“The very term “public utility” … is an absurd one. Every good is useful “to the public,” and almost every good … may be considered “necessary.” Any designation of a few industries as “public utilities” is completely arbitrary and unjustified.” — Murray Rothbard, Power and Market
While it is important to understand the power the individual possesses in effecting meaningful change around him through his pursuit of liberty, excellence, virtue, and truth, occasionally it’s helpful to understand our relative insignificance in this farcical tragedy we call life. We humans are the accidental evolutionary result of a long series of fortuitous events; 13.7 billion years since the Big Bang, 4.5 billion years since the formation of Earth, orbiting in the Goldilocks Zone of an inconsequential middle aged star which lies on the Orion Arm 2/3 of the 25,000 light years away from the massive black hole core of our Milky Way galaxy. Our beloved Sun is only one star of about 300 billion in our galaxy, all of which are undiscovered and unexplored. Our galaxy is one of a constellation of about 300 billion galaxies in our universe, all of which are undiscovered and unexplored. Indeed our universe may even be only one of an immense number of multiverses that appear and disappear, integrate and disintegrate, expand and contract in seemingly chaotic manner much in the way that bubbles come and go as froth on the surface of the ocean current.
Given the enormity of all this it would be hubris of the highest order to believe that, in the grand scheme of things, our actions, though important they may seem to us, will change anything that would have inevitably happened to the stars, planets, and galaxies around us. With this portrayal of our infinitesimality I am not advocating to go out and act like lunatics by indiscriminately assaulting, stealing, raping, and killing in the name of insignificance. Rather I am urging everyone to spend more time doing the things you love with all people you love given the limited eye blink of a lifespan we all have been given. For in the end when you are decrepit and laying on your death bed, what will you be thinking about? What regrets will you have in your life that you wished you had done? That girl who you were too shy to approach will never have known you! That book you always wanted to write will never be written! That painting you always wanted to paint will never come into existence! That book you always wanted to read will never get read! That stand up comedy skill you always wanted to develop will never be acquired!
Nobody asked where, when, or how to be born. We all appear here thoroughly by happenstance. However through our actions, morality, and magnanimity we can increase the quality of our respective lives and, for the most part, the environment in which we die. Our destiny is not discovered, it is made! Therefore success is not a matter of coincidence, but a matter of habit. Get busy living your life in such a way that you will be proud to recount stories of your adventures with your grandchildren. For what will you tell them when they ask you, “What did you do when the insolvent, murderous, imperialistic US regime was in its death throes?” Will you tell them you stood quiet, paid your taxes, and obeyed the “laws” of tyrants? I hope you will have a better answer than that.
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
Voluntaryism is a philosophy that advocates for complete individual freedom through recognition of self-ownership, property rights, and by adhering to the Non-Aggression principle. Self-ownership is the principle that you, and not the State, 100% own your own body and are the sole decider of what you put into your body, how you treat yourself, or if you want to end your own life if you so choose. Property Rights is the principle that you, and no the State, 100% own the fruits of your labor which includes justly acquired income and possessions. You are free to do with your property as you choose which includes destroying it, passing it down to future generations, selling it, or giving it away. Non-Aggression is the principle that you will not use force to infringe on the freedoms of another individual and expect the same treatment for yourself. The only exception to this would be if someone is using force against you then using force via self-defense is completely justified. We are not complete pacifists. Every animal recognizes the need for self-defense to ensure survival, hence the existence of claws, fangs, venom, and poison in the natural world.
We all live in three temporal planes, past, present, and future. These are signified by property, liberty, and life. The past is signified by property as this is the representation of your past labor and time spent, AKA the fruits of your labor. Violation of justly acquired property would be theft. The present is signified by your liberty or the ability to move freely and do as you please so long as it doesn’t infringe on the basic freedoms of another individual. Violation of liberty would be assault, rape, slavery or involuntary servitude. The future is signified as the ability to live out your life to the fullest possible lifespan. Violation of life would be murder.
Voluntaryism dictates that all interactions between peaceful individuals should be voluntary and consensual. There is never a reason for the curtailment of the aforementioned natural freedoms. If such a person attempts to do so then you must resist him/her to the extent that it is humanly possible. This is regardless if such a person is a family member, friend, stranger, or “government” agent.
There are two basic lines of questioning to determine if you are in line with the Voluntaryist philosophy. Here is the first:
1) Do you use violence to solve problems in your daily life?
2) Do you advocate others use violence to solve problems for you?
3) Do you think the laws of morality (the immorality of initiating force) change based on the number of people in a group?
If you answered no to each of these then you are a Voluntaryist. If you answered yes to any of them then you may be a sociopath or psychopath.
The second line of questioning is:
1) Is it ok for you to steal, assault, rape, and murder others to achieve your goals?
2) Is it ok for a small or large group to do so?
3) Is it ok for people to advocate for a “government” to do so on their behalf?
If you answered no to each of these then you are a Voluntaryist. If you answered yes to any of them then you may be a sociopath or psychopath.
When the immutable Laws of Morality/Natural Law/Common Law/Golden Rule are applied to family and friends we become decent, compassionate, and virtuous. When they are applied universally to the whole of humanity we become Voluntaryists. In order for principles to be useful and practical, they must have universal application, like the laws of physics, chemistry, thermodynamics, or mathematics. Just as there are no exceptions to these laws, there are likewise no exceptions to the laws of morality.
Anarchists did not try to carry out genocide against the Armenians in Turkey; they did not deliberately starve millions of Ukrainians; they did not create a system of death camps to kill Jews, gypsies, and Slavs in Europe; they did not fire-bomb scores of large German and Japanese cities and drop nuclear bombs on two of them; they did not carry out a ‘Great Leap Forward’ that killed scores of millions of Chinese; they did not attempt to kill everybody with any appreciable education in Cambodia; they did not launch one aggressive war after another; they did not implement trade sanctions that killed perhaps 500,000 Iraqi children. In debates between anarchists and statists, the burden of proof clearly should rest on those who place their trust in the state. Anarchy’s mayhem is wholly conjectural; the state’s mayhem is undeniably, factually horrendous.
