We Offer Them Anarchy

We offer them anarchy, thinking we are offering an orderly society without imposed government and with an opportunity to choose whatever type of governance suits them best — one size or type need not fit all.

They reject anarchy, thinking they are rejecting a world of chaos and violent disorder.

We could attempt to allay this confusion by simply offering them individual freedom, but they have been brainwashed to believe that the extortion and abuse by heavily armed gangs to which they are accustomed is freedom.

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Robert Higgs is Senior Fellow in Political Economy at the Independent Institute and Editor at Large of the Institute’s quarterly journal The Independent Review. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, and he has taught at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, Seattle University, the University of Economics, Prague, and George Mason University. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University and Stanford University, and a fellow at the Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation.