Organizing Society

by Mark Davis

“My political opinions lean more and more to anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control, not whiskered men with bombs).”  ~ J.R.R. Tolkien, in Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Anarchy is the natural order of human existence that arises from the desire to survive and associate as free individuals.  Time is on the side of society, and we should be optimistic that the state form of organizing society will diminish over time because it infects human nature and must eventually be rejected.  Anarchy is the only method of organizing society that is compatible with human nature, and the state is a parasite on society.  The great difficulty for statists is how to suck more and more life out of a society without killing the host.  The great difficulty for anarchists is how to kill the parasite without committing suicide in the process.  The advantage that anarchists have over statists is that the state needs society, while society doesn’t need the state.  For anarchy to survive and eventually prevail over the state, all we need to do is stop voting and supporting state institutions as much as possible without going to jail, build relationships and associations with other free thinking people, thus supporting peaceful society, and enjoy life.

It is important to recognize that a civilized society is a precondition for the organization of a state.  Many believe that a state must be organized first in order for a society to formulate.  This then leads further to the misconception that the state is necessary for society to survive human nature.  Civilized society was infected by the state so long ago that no one alive today knows what it is like to live in a society without state controls.  This chronic problem has become perceived as normal because truly healthy societies free of state parasites are extinct.  This condition is then offered as proof that host societies require parasitic states to survive.  This can not be so if society was organized before states.

Organizing society requires voluntary agreement by individuals to join (including the ability to secede from the organization) to be peaceful.  Before we can reorganize the society we live in, it is useful to consider how humans have organized societies in the past and why those attempts have become infected by states.  The most common terms framing the debate seeking an understanding of and describing how order in society is created and maintained are statism vs. anarchy, with order vs. chaos simply superimposed right over the top of them.  Statism is thus construed as synonymous with order and anarchy synonymous with chaos.  Those promoting a free society should challenge this commonly accepted view. 

Liberty , peace and freedom require mitigating institutions in society not controlled by the state.  Institutions like the Boy Scouts, trade associations, churches, little league, bowling leagues, chess clubs, Strike The Root and internet blogs.  New networks of human interaction not yet controlled by the state are being created every day.  The communication network that the internet allows among so many people is something that the state is not equipped to deal with.  It is the pill swallowed by society that will detach the parasite to be passed out the bowels of society.  The abolition of control begins with examining and exposing that parasitic control and contrasting it to free associations.  The strength of America is that we still have a lot of freedom to associate in organizations outside of state control.  This is how we fight control by the state without violence even when the state by its nature is violent.  

Anarchy is the name given to the theory that society is conceived without submission to a forceful authority.  Voluntary agreements are made between various individuals and groups for the sake of production, trade and consumption.  The cumulative result of the growing number of agreements between individuals is to create a civilized society.  Civilization is not created out of obedience to authority.  The credibility of individuals who are given authority is based on the respect-worthiness of their actions by others.  Respect for anarchical authority is thus voluntarily given by other individuals who seek to join that society.  Anarchy is also known as the Natural Order, which doesn’t have the amount of negative baggage that anarchy carries in common usage.  

The threat of chaos in the absence of state controls (or state authority) is a fearful myth spread by the wizards who control the levers of statecraft in their effort to bind a society to its dictates.  This myth is belied by the obvious deteriorating respect for the authority of the state as it relies on more and more force and deception to maintain its power, further sickening the host society.  The state is thus self-defeating, and inherently its authority becomes respected and accepted less and less by individuals over time because it is built on the use or threat of force (and violence) to establish its authority.  Credibility is replaced by fear and civilized society deteriorates.   

A coherent organization of society that becomes more accepted and respected by individuals over time must have a foundation of peace, not force and violence.  A Natural Order in society supposes that order must be spontaneous if general agreement is to be reached between a collective and the individuals within that collective peacefully.  This means that organizing a group of people into a society where peace is to be a central principle must allow order to be established between individuals first before it is then possible to expand those relationships to include other individuals.  Order based on a growing network of peaceful individual exchanges is thus derived from the bottom up.  The philosophy of anarchy is based upon the belief that humans prefer to seek peaceful relationships and avoid being coerced.  In short, if people are allowed to do what they want, then most individuals will choose to live in peace with their neighbors in order to cooperate for their mutual benefit.  Freedom begets peaceful order.  This is the Natural Order or Anarchy.  

Statism upsets the Natural Order of collective organization (society) because it is a contrived order that dictates the actions of individuals.  The statist type of order is built upon the threat of force prior to any arrangement (posing as an agreement) that can be made between a collective and individuals.  Order based on the threat of the use of force is thus derived from the top down.  This philosophy is based on the belief that humans avoid peaceful relationships yet seek order to be imposed by an elite.  In short, if people are forced to do what the individuals with state authority want, then most people will submit to this coercion, resulting in a condition of general order.  Force begets violent order.  This is the State.  

Parasites are organisms that place demands or restraints on other organisms in order for it to survive.  Free society or anarchy fights daily for survival from the state parasite that has attached its head to the inner lining of society’s intestines with its claws and teeth in a small, almost invisible way.  Once the state head penetrates the inner body of society, it begins growing additional cells, appropriating food at an increasing rate, and of course, reproducing.  Patriots can’t give up on liberty without a fight.  Society swallowing a bomb to blow up the state inside is suicide.  Suicide is not fighting, surviving is.  

Fighting implies doing whatever it takes to prevail.  Still, that does not mean that surviving, fighting, and prevailing require the use of violence.  Initiating violence has proven to be counterproductive to many a cause, but most certainly to that of anarchy.  The words, “There is no path to peace, peace is the path,” shall be the salvation of humankind.  The human race has survived thus far not because of our skill at organizing states to initiate violent actions, but because men stop to reason before initiating death and/or destruction upon life and property, and can also organize peaceful institutions.  Reasonable men cannot be held hostage to the threat of violence initiated by unreasonable men if society is to survive.  So go out and teach your kids or neighbor kids to play chess or softball; or go bowling with your friends; or organize merchants/trades/professions in your area; or go sing at church or whatever helps you survive the state and expand liberty through free association.   

Supporting Strike The Root is a great way to fight the state peacefully and efficiently.  And next time Rob suggests getting a bunch of Root Strikers together in Atlanta or anywhere, let’s organize for some favorite beverage drinking, music and fun to poke a finger in the eye of the state.  Organize a party for society’s sake in your neighborhood.  Peaceful parties that is, not political parties.