Rob Roy, Anarchist Hero

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January 24, 2007

As a student of films and a libertarian, I often think about the different methods of argumentation that exist in support of freedom. For instance, I am often asked for concrete examples of anarchy's historical superiority to the state, and need to point no further than the conversation I am having in which both myself and my opponent see the value in peaceful debate, in the ability of each other to reason in favor of his own position and recognize his status as a self-owner, which makes debate possible in the first place. Another far reaching example has come to mind lately, that of movies. Think of just about any good movie you've ever seen and all the genres these movies encompass. When we are attached to characters who grow over the course of a movie and have their lives enriched, it is almost always through some crisis, dilemma, and resolution. The seemingly spontaneous workings of relationships and difficulties which challenge film protagonists never involve the seemingly all-important state, which statists argue is necessary for the very existence of society itself.

The worst movies don't show humanity in its fullness, but merely reduce us to pawns to have some resolution fix everything, where characters aren't complex, villains are plainly bad and our heroes are plainly good, and manipulative music tells us exactly what we're supposed to feel. These stories do more than merely exemplify the workings of a market order. They provide insights into state villainy and the alternative to society itself that the state really is. I am thinking of 'Rob Roy,' based on a true story, starring Liam Neeson as the title character, Robert Roy MacGregor. It is a wonderful display of the individual and family versus the state in Rob Roy and his 18th Century Scottish clan against Archibald Cunningham and Killearn. Roy is deeply in love with his wife, Mary, and has two sons with her. He is a good fighter. He's crafty and intelligent, and a chieftan of his clan. He owns cattle and is an entrepreneur. His primary nemesis throughout the film is Archibald Cunningham, who is loyal to no one, and remains unattached to anyone, lest he actually care about someone who his enemies can hurt. From the very start of the movie, Roy is an anarchist hero. His loyalty is not to some collective, and not to the state, which enforced common ownership of cattle during his lifetime (a fact not mentioned in the film). He fills his life with those he loves, and demands and gives decency and civility.

It begins as he and several of his fellow clansmen are on the hunt for cattle thieves. Rather than trust any state to do the job of finding the thieves and hoping for some restitution (after the state exacts restitution for itself in the form of taxes from Roy and his clan), they investigate themselves. After all, they know best how to track cattle and follow the trail. A band of brigands is finally caught. Roy is strong enough to kill them all, but he is too honorable for that. He would rather get his cattle back and be on his way. After all, to try and kill them all would mean that he is risking his own life and that of his friends. They risk retaliation against themselves and their families. They can't simply employ soldiers, with whom they have no relation, while taking money from still more others in the form of taxes. And Roy would no longer be allied with friends and family, but a master of men who must be trusted to kill upon command and be in constant fear of each other so that they do not attempt a coup on Rob. As he responds to Montrose when asked what his servants do, Roy is "a master of none."

Roy is also a kind of libertarian economist. He tells his wife of his plan to borrow 1,000 Scottish pounds from Marquis of Montrose to expand his cattle farm, and she asks him why anyone would want to lend that much money to a relatively poor man like him. He gives a brilliant insight, which is still lost on many today who disparage money lenders--that such a creditor would give him money not because he cares about Roy , but because it's profitable for himself. Like all the workings of a voluntary society, when one person's interests are served, he serves those of others. Already there is a distinct contrast between how Roy sees the needs of others and in serving himself serves them, and in how Cunningham sees others as beings who can be exploited to his own gain. He acts like a state by defrauding, thieving, murdering, and raping. He's promiscuous, and comes from a broken home in which his mother wasn't sure of who his father was, and it is in his nature to live recklessly. He has never learned how to love or respect another person, and is full of conceit.

He actually sounds like a great deal of statesmen, from Bill Clinton to Kim Jong Il.

His hedonism and criminality represent what Hans-Hermann Hoppe calls that which democracy brings about, which is the infantilization of society.

Cunningham lives like a democratic ruler--like a temporary caretaker--of his own body, recklessly killing and thieving off the productive earnings of others. When Roy 's friend, MacDonald, goes to Killearn to sign for and pick up Roy 's 1,000 pounds, Killearn gives him the actual pounds instead of giving him the I.O.U. that Roy demanded. MacDonald grudgingly takes it, and on the way back to Roy, he is killed by Cunningham, who robs him and disposes of his body.

A weaker man than Roy may have been thrown into chaos by this. In fact, a state that was back-stabbed in such a fashion would be more prone to this, since they know what kind of people they have working for them.

Roy is worried if MacDonald simply stole the money and left on a ship for America . And while one of his more hot-headed friends, Alasdair, believes this, Roy holds faith in the integrity of his dead friend and is sure that Cunningham has been the cause of this.

Montrose holds Roy to his debt, and will negotiate a compromise with Roy on his debt only if, in an act of duplicity, Roy will testify against Montrose's rival, the Duke of Argyll, as being a Jacobite. Roy refuses, not because he cares for Argyll, but because of his own honor.

And already, we see how corruption begets corruption! Cunningham's manipulation and depredation is an aggressive and dynamic force. We can see a state in its infancy.

With that in mind, I will pause for a moment to quote the great anarchist Lysander Spooner on the nature of taxation.

12">'The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, say to a man: 'Your money, or your life.' And many, if not most, taxes are paid under the compulsion of that threat. The government does not, indeed, waylay a man in a lonely place, spring upon him from the roadside, and holding a pistol to his head, proceed to rifle his pockets. But the robbery is none the less a robbery on that account; and it is far more dastardly and shameful.'

12">Roy is about to be arrested but escapes and goes into hiding when the next escalation of violence occurs. Cunningham invades Roy 's clan with a group of soldiers to indiscriminately destroy his property, kill his cattle, and rape his wife while Killearn watches.

12">Mary makes Alasdair swear not to tell Roy about the rape since, in a fit of rage, he may attack Cunningham, who is expecting such an attack and will ambush Roy . After all, such a tactic is perfectly logical at this point. Like any statesman, in order to maintain his own well being after his crimes, he must expand his trail of destruction so as to turn innocent people against himself and each other. Alasdair wants to tell Roy ; Mary wants Alasdair to stay quiet; Roy deserves to know, but Mary is too ashamed and fearful for her husband's life.

12">As if Cunningham couldn't destroy enough, a girl from MacGregor's clan, Betty, works for Montrose. She is in love with Cunningham, who impregnates her. When she tells Montrose and Cunningham of this, they dismiss her without any concern, and Cunningham even tells her to abort the child if she can't handle it. He wants nothing more to do with her.

12">Betty seeks refuge with the MacGregors, and tells Mary that she knows of the plot against them because of her relationship with Cunningham. She can testify in court to Roy 's innocence. Before she can, however, she hangs herself out of grief. She is just another collateral victim in Cunningham's path.

12">I'll give away no more of the story. There's much more to the story, in which Roy is, like a true anarchist, clever, cunning, and finds a way to make peace. Rather than brute force, he uses his wits.

12">How appropriate, though on its face seemingly odd, that Rob Murphy's book on anarcho-capitalism, Chaos Theory, should begin with a quote from Liam Neeson as Rob Roy: 'All men with honor are kings. But not all kings have honor.'