Why Don’t You Steal?

Editor’s Pick. Written by Wendy McElroy. As a starting point, I assume readers do not engage in the initiation of force, including theft. You may refrain from doing so because of a moral code or from a respect for rights. But, at least for me, the admonition not to steal isn’t written in stone. I…

Disproving the State

Editor’s Pick. Written by Stefan Molyneux. Two objections constantly recur whenever the subject of dissolving the State arises. The first is that a free society is only possible if people are perfectly good or rational. In other words, citizens need a centralized State because there are evil people in the world. The first and most…

Superman and Freedom

Editor’s Pick. Written by Chris Brown in November 2008. If man is really free, how can we account for his inability to fly, to travel through time, to leap across the ocean, for not being omniscient or omnipotent? In short, wouldn’t man have to be more like Superman to actually be free? Man is constrained…

Anarchy and Lawlessness

Editor’s Pick. Written by James E. Miller. If a casual observer were ignorant, he may declare the needless murder of a mentally handicapped teenager proof of anarchy’s existence. But of course he would be wrong. Under the state, there is already a caste of individuals who act “without leaders” and without regard to the Law.…

You Are a Slave

Editor’s Pick. Written by Daniel Hawkins. To those unfamiliar with the libertarian-anarchist world, this is probably a jarring headline. I’m not a slave, you may think, I don’t have a master. I don’t work for free. I don’t get whipped. I own property. I am free. Libertarians and anarchists take heat for using the word…

Our Enemy, the State

Editor’s Pick. Written by Albert Jay Nock. There are two methods, or means, and only two, whereby man’s needs and desires can be satisfied. One is the production and exchange of wealth; this is the economic means. The other is the uncompensated appropriation of wealth produced by others; this is the political means. The primitive…

Does Anarchism Conflict with Human Nature?

Editor’s Pick. Written by Nathan Goodman. “I know enough about human nature to know that it’s [anarchism] a naively flawed concept.” “Anarchy’s a lovely idea, but it conflicts with human nature.” Anarchists are used to hearing objections like these incessantly. It seems everyone is certain that stateless society built around left-libertarian principles is incompatible with…

Authoritarian Sociopathy

Editor’s Pick. Written by Davi Barker. Many anarchists and libertarians eagerly study the psychology of tyrants in an effort to know their enemy in the battlefield of politics. Getting into the minds of our enemy is regarded as a strategy, a means to our political ends… which is an end to political means. However, I…