The term Anarchy has been used since the French Revolution to describe a society with no government. This is the most basic definition of Anarchy. The word, however, is much misunderstood, as most individuals seem to equate it with violence and chaos. Real Anarchists (not the kind you see in movies, but the ones that exist in the real world) are actually opposed to violence and chaos. This, in fact, is where their resistance to the state actually stems from, as they believe that governments are amongst the worst perpetuators of violence, oppression, and chaos in the world.

One specific place that Anarchists often see fault in government is through their oppression of the people they rule over. In fact, the Declaration of Independence of the United States declares that, “…to secure these rights, government are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Anarchists, however, will argue that there is never true consent of the governed. In any form of government there will always be a percentage of the population, no matter how small, that disagrees with the actions of the government, and those individuals will always be oppressed.

Individualist Anarchists also believe in the absolute sovereignty of the individual. This means that every person should have complete and unlimited control over his or her own self. If a person wants to use a drug, they should be allowed to. If a person wants to speak their mind, then they should be allowed to. The individual is king over himself. Anarchists believe that any restraint on this sovereignty is evil, but if a government places that restraint, then it is an absolute evil. This is because governments can act under the veil of legitimacy. This line of thinking leads Anarchists to the conclusion that individualism and the state are utterly irreconcilable.

Anarchists also favor economic freedom meaning that the state should not have any influence in the economy. This is because they see political power and wealth as inseparable. When a government is formed, much of the countries wealth is funneled to the political elite and their direct supporters and influences. Anarchists believe that when there is a state apparatus in place a majority of the people, likely the middle-class and lower-class, are exploited. There is also a minority of people that both exploit and are exploited. There is, however, one class of people that are the rich political elites that do nothing but exploit the rest of the population. The elite status and the wealth were obtained through politics and the government, which therefore makes the state evil in their inherent oppression of the majority of the population.

Anarchists are not inherently violent individuals, despite their reputation, and they do not aim to bring chaos to the world. The end goal of Anarchism is the abolishment of the state, but supporters of the philosophy do not believe that this will lead to chaos. On the contrary, they believe that governments all over the world create violence, oppression, exploitation, and chaos everywhere they are formed. This, according to Anarchists, is achieved through wars, taxes, suppression of personal freedoms, suppression of economic freedoms, and many other immoral acts of the state. Therefore, a society without the influence of governing bodies that have a “legal monopoly over the use force,” as Anarcho-Capitalist Murray Rothbard puts it, could not have a worse outcome than what already exists.

For more information on the subject written by yours truly check out Rational Anarchy:  A Brief Definition

Anarchy, especially when referred to by pop-culture, is often seen as synonymous with chaos. In the popular movie V for Vendetta, for example, a character who is robbing a convenience store at gunpoint can be seen yelling, “Anarchy in the U.K.!” Movies like SLC Punk and The Anarchist Cookbook also seem to exemplify this erroneous definition. Anarchy in its true form, however, is not a synonym for chaos – it is an antonym.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines Anarchy as, put simply, an “absence of government.” To truly understand the concept, however, one must expound upon this definition. First, it must be understood that there are many schools of thought when it comes to Anarchy. For example, there are Communist-Anarchists and Collectivist-Anarchists, both of which believe that the means of production should be mutually owned by the people. This situation, however, seems to be incongruent with Anarchist principles as involuntary coercive force would need to be placed upon an individual in order to achieve it. Why should someone who owns a factory, one where people have the ability to leave if they do not like their working conditions, be forced to give up their business to the collective? Force is the key word and a true Anarchist should believe that coercive force, unless in self-defense, should never be tolerated, hence their denial of the legitimacy of government which is nothing more than a legalized monopoly on the use of force.

A true Anarchist is not opposed to the government per se, but opposed to all forms of legalized aggression. Murray Rothbard, a leading Anarchist theorist, in his book Society and State, defines an Anarchist society as one “where there is no legal possibility for coercive aggression against the person or property of any individual.” The Anarchist opposes, not the state, but the inherently immoral actions of the state i.e. property theft via involuntary taxation. In the eyes of an Anarchist, this is a legalized form of aggressive force and should not be allowed in a civilized society.

Therefore, an Anarchist society is based in the voluntary trade of property (such as money, goods, or land) and services in order to maximize individual liberty and prosperity. Though Rothbardian Anarchists tend to believe in private property rights (as opposed to Communist or Collectivist Anarchists), it is still possible for non-state common property to exist based on voluntary agreements. For example, a group of people, possibly a non-profit organization, could own a park in which they allow the public to visit. Private property rights are essential to a functioning Anarchist society even though they are often dismissed as evil by some Collectivist or Communist Anarchists.

With Anarchy, property rights are vital in keeping an orderly society. Each and every property owner is king on his or her own land and is free to make whatever rules they choose. If a person does not want to follow those rules then they are free to avoid that property. As soon as a person steps foot onto a person’s property, however, they are consenting to agree to the property owners rules. Private communities and homeowners’ associations are examples of this concept working in today’s world, albeit in a restricted form. A private community in present day America, for example, would not be allowed to make its own rules with regard to drug use or polygamy.

Ave Maria, Florida, a town created and owned by Domino’s Pizza founder and Roman Catholic philanthropist Tom Monaghan, is a more specific example of this concept. It is a planned community that is currently under development in Collier County. The new community will have a five thousand student Roman Catholic university, coined Ave Maria University, and will contain upwards of eight thousand residential units. Since Mr. Monaghan owns all of the land he has made specific rules, consistent with the Roman Catholic faith, which people must obey if they wish to obtain a lease for any of the property. For example, if a person wishes to obtain a commercial lease on the land, then they must obey strict rules prohibiting the sale of contraceptives and pornography and the performance of abortions. If a person does not agree to these provisions, then they do not have to open a business or live in Ave Maria.

America was founded on the principle that a government can only obtain legitimacy from the consent of the people. The Declaration of Independence, in fact, states “… to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Consent is the key word in that phrase and is one that the founders should have paid more attention to; they came up short when deciding to form a representative Democracy.

In a Democracy, there is never one hundred percent consent; there is always a minority, no matter how small, that does not agree with a given action performed by the government and that minority will always be suppressed. In contrast, Anarchy allows a person to choose the rules that they will follow and hence how they will be governed, if at all. This leads to the sublime realization that inside an Anarchist society Communists, Collectivist-Anarchists, Democracies, Communist-Anarchists, and even Authoritarian governments can all coexist. Anyone who wanted to live under any of these forms of government would simply need to buy or homestead land and make the corresponding stipulations. Or they could join such a community if it already existed. Freedom of choice is an underlying principle in Anarchy and it is consistent with the principles that the United States of America was founded on.

Henry David Thoreau said it best and it would be a miscarriage of logic to rewrite what has already been said so well, “I heartily accept the motto,—‘That government is best which governs least’ and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe,—‘That government is best which governs not at all;’ and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.”

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