Freedom scales up quite well

Freedom scales up quite well

Most people acknowledge that anarchy is fine for daily life. Once they think about it, they realize that they live almost their entire lives in a condition of anarchy- where they do not seek government approval for the hundreds of decisions they make each day, nor do they look to government to choreograph their interactions with all the people they come in contact with. Most of their lives are lived on a "is this good for me, and will it have any bad consequences?" basis. This is natural and peaceful. Normally the only non-free moments are when they are forced to jump through some governmental hoops to avoid being kidnapped or killed for not dotting an "i" or crossing a "t" as the state's thugs demand.

That being said, a lot of those people don't think freedom can truly "scale up" to fit the world. One recent comment I got can be paraphrased as "anarchy is fine between individuals, but not when you have to deal with a whole nation". Might that be true? Does it matter?

I don't know about you, but I have never had to deal with an entire "nation" at one time. Only individuals, and not usually more than I could count on my fingers. Normally, no matter how many people may be near, I am only truly interacting with one or two at a time. Almost everyone I meet, even the most blustery, loud-mouthed statists, still behave themselves as though they wish to get along right now. This shows that anarchy is a powerful force for peace and cooperation in the real world.

This fact only breaks down when you add government to the mix. Those in government insanely try to deal with everyone as a collective. They invariably try to brainwash people into thinking and dealing with "society" in the same way. Even under the most extreme circumstances, such as when a government tries to make "one size fits all" rules, there are still only many individuals simultaneously being harmed. When presidents and prime ministers meet, they have only their individual interests at heart, regardless of their lies to the contrary. When wars are declared (or simply engaged in) it is individual politicians trying to advance their agendas by using individual pawns against the agenda of the opposing individual politicians and their individual pawns. Somehow it seems the only individuals to not pay dearly are those who start the war. Let governments and their willing complicit statists fight it out and leave the rest of us, the sane people, out of it.

I can get along just fine, individual to individual.


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