A: You know, this whole system of “ordered anarchy” and “voluntary society” leaves much to be desired. We have homeless in the streets, some people have access to much better healthcare that others, charities can only do so much to help, there are occassional gang fights going on, etc. I was thinking that perhaps it…
Tag: rulers
The State Versus an “Anarchist Society”
Written by Mark Stovel for On the Mark. The State asserts a “coerced monopoly of the provision of defense service (police and courts) over a given territorial area” which is said to give the State the “right” to have the monopoly on all legitimate use of force in the given territorial area. This leads to…
Try This On Your Friends
Written by F. A. Harper, as published in The Voluntaryist, February 1991. The elections are over and the campaign dirt has settled a bit. Do you enjoy riddles? This one challenges many students of liberty. Once we see the problem, lack of a solution will bedevil us until we can solve it logically to the…
The Case Against Democracy: The More Things Change, The More They Remain the Same
Written by Carl Watner for The Voluntaryist, August 1990. Democracy. For many, the word sums up what is desirable in human affairs. Democracy, and agitation for it, occurs all over the world: the Pro-Democracy movement in China during 1989; the democratic reform movements taking place in Eastern Europe and the U.S.S.R. resulting in the breakup…
A Short History of Liberty
Written by Dean Russell for The Freeman in 1955. From biblical times onward, the history of liberty and progress among various peoples seems to have followed a remarkably similar pattern. There are exceptions, of course—and the time element varies widely—but the pattern may be generally described by ten key ideas in sequence:1. Bondage. At some…
Robert Higgs
“Toward Freedom” is an Everything-Voluntary.com series sharing personal stories about the journey toward freedom. Archived stories can be found here. Submit your story to the editor. Originally published at BadQuaker.com. In college in the 1960’s I was not a political person. Although I took a keen interest in politics, especially in the war that was…
The Power of Non-Violent Resistance
Guest post by Jerry M. Tinker. Originally published in The Voluntaryist, August 1987. As many writers have noted, the basic thesis, or strategy, upon which Gandhi’s satyagraha and all non-violent resistance rests is that all structures of power – government and social organizations – always depend upon the voluntary cooperation of great numbers of people…
The Fundamentals of Nonvoting
Our rulers know they are illegitimate. Voluntaryists know they are illegitimate for a myriad of other reasons, but what I wanted to examine here is the voluntaryist’s position to abstain from electoral politics. The following arguments are the fundamentals of the nonvoting position.
Is Religion Compatible With a Free Society?
Guest post by Alex Perales. It seems to me that many of those interested in pursuing the knowledge of a free society have also come to other conclusions outside of our actual acting world. Not all of us have reached these conclusions because ultimately there is no logical deduction to be made to get there…
Why Democracy is Irresponsible
Guest post by Strangering. Originally posted at /r/anarcho_capitalism. Let’s define what it means to be responsible. One is considered responsible for his actions if the consequences of the actions are owned by him. For example, if one drives drunk and crashes into a tree, the damage to the car and his body is his to bear.…