Anarchy: An Apology
Governments Cause Oppression; Let’s Stop Oppression!
By Raphael Verelst (News Editor)
Social justice activists, as well as activists in general, often tend to point out how an injustice is caused because of a certain law or a certain legal procedure that most often oppresses people. They’ll most often work through the government to have those laws revoked or pass more beneficial laws.
However, when they fail, they’ll most often either blame the state for opposing its actions or try again and again until they get what they want.
The problem with this line of thought is that it assumes that all problems can be solved by transmuting the same entity (the State) which oppressed them in the first place. If they fail in doing so instead of looking at themselves, they’ll keep trying, eventually oppressing other people. There hasn’t been one documented instance where everyone wasn’t “oppressed” in some way, directly or indirectly. How do we fix this?
Simple: abolish the same organization which mandates everything.
This is exactly what will stop problems. Humans on an individual level have distinct desires that often concur or even totally overlap with other humans’ needs. They will form groups. What if we had 7 billion different groups which interact freely? A gay man will no longer face the death penalty because there’s no justice system to administer it. A woman will no longer face pay inequality because of corporations who administer her salary.
This is hard, I agree, but it works. How, you ask? By looking at small, tribal groups. Their leaders often have very limited power and often only work by suggesting courses of action rather than imposing them, along the lines of “You should do this” rather than “Do this or I’ll chop your head off”. If the tribe fails when they didn’t listen to the chief, they’ll just trust him more in the future. Working along the lines of trust rather than force will do much more good than a majority of people making decisions for all, oppressing the small minority which deserves to have its interests respected. Need an example? If half plus one of the population is homophobic and the governing body of the nation represents that (which it generally does if the nation is democratic), the minority of homosexuals will have their rights removed. Simple as that.
One could ask, if we were to abolish the state, will social and political groups form? Of course they will; albeit far smaller than the ones we have now. If you notice, most small tribes are often completely homogenous in terms of racial composition, interests, food requirements, etc. Only when large nations are formed do we get more groups which conflict with one another.
Most readers will be able to point out that no one really wants to go through with this plan. However, if one wants to truly be free, it’s a necessary sacrifice, albeit one that not many people wish to make.