Doth Protest Too Much: No True Anarchist

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One of the arguments I see as an anarcho-capitalist (which attempts to debunk and refute the entire school of thought) consists of “That’s not real anarchy.”

This is mostly levelled at me by anarcho-communists who have a bone to pick with us.

Pushing and prodding a communist for an argument of substance will most likely devolve to “B-but, it has, y’know, like, a hierarchy, man”.

Well, my scraggly, long-haired hippy friend, sit down and let me explain to you that every society will still be driven by hierarchies, even the least rigid and most socially liberal communities will still bolster many different forms of hierarchical structure.

Religion, for example is innately purposed around the idea of a greater power, which implies some kind of relationship between a superior force with a bunch of contractual demands – this is clearly representative of a form of hierarchy.

This principle, of people voluntarily being a part of hierarchies which aren’t government enforced, nor offered through a corporation, is something which will inevitably exist within many facets on every continent.

Be it a BDSM relationship in the bedroom, religion, or even just the way in which a family takes on different responsibilities and freedoms.

It should be noted that hierarchies are necessary, even in anarchistic societies. I posit to you that the father should have the role of deciding how to renovate the house and deciding which whisky he will drink in the afternoon, rather than the six year old son.

The way in which an employee interacts with a business is on a purely voluntary basis and the only way in which a deal is made is if said deal positively impacts both parties.

The concept behind dismissing anarcho-capitalism on the basis of hierarchies is to not only dismiss the notion of voluntary agreement, but also set forth the idea that the purported anarchist communes will be free from these things; to which I ask, who will enforce the destruction of order?

Will families be torn apart and forced to act on par with one another? Will people that are sexually liberated enough to engage in acts of dominance be forced to cease their behaviour?

Not only is Stalinism dismissed as “not real communism” by those on the left, but so too is anarcho-capitalism dismissed as “not real anarchism”, which eventually bleeds into a growing pattern in left-wing thought; the “No True Scotsman” fallacy.

As laid out by Hans-Hermann Hoppe in this brief video, communism will never be held accountable, as this fallacious reasoning is used to dismiss the constant failures of the ideology in its application.

In the sphere of leftist ideology, history is nothing more for a purity test for communism; a series of mistakes rotten to its Marxist core.

Perhaps anarchists really are left, perhaps they’re right or perhaps I doth protest too much.

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David McManus

David McManus has an extensive background in youth politics and of advocacy with regards to the libertarian and anarcho-capitalist movements. David draws his values from the works of Stirner, Hoppe and Rothbard. He is currently a student in Australia with a passion for writing, which carries into a healthy zest for liberty-based activism. Despite an aspiring career in politics, he considers himself a writer at heart with a steady niche for freelance work.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Okay, so you posit a straw-man, and the proceed to mow it down. Now you have proved that anarcho-capitalism, in fact, is not propertarianism, but is True Libertarianism. Malatesta would be proud of you (?)

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