My Anarcho-Economic Problem
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I've been thinking about the possibility of an Anarchist community, I keep thinking about how it would be run. Then I stumble upon the economy of the community, and I thought maybe someone here could help me.
How would an Anarchist economy run?
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Anarcho- Greek meaning "without leaders"
Just because there are no leaders dosent mean there cant be any laws or law enforcement. I find that most people are deluded about the true meaning of anarchism.
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Indeed, but in practice, where there is no government to enforce law as in Iraq and southern Lebanon, militias take its place. And they like to fight each other. They are in fact pseudo-governments in themselves.
Think of it in terms of subsidiarity - the principle that all powers should be devolved to the lowest practical level. Most decisions should stay with individuals, so we have primary control over our own lives. But if we take things like education, society benefits if all children go to school, so it is useful to have a government to make a law requiring parents to send their children to school, and taxes to subsidise education as the free market will under provide and it is important for the economy that people are literate. However, this doesn't have to be the central
government of a nation-state, these functions can be done by local governments, say the local Town Council.If on the other hand, when it comes to defence against armed gangs, the local town council isn't enough. Weapons are expensive, as is training professional soldiers. But if you don't have professional soldiers, then any mega rich businessman would be able to hire his own militia, and conquer and enslave the people of your town. Hence the need for central government, national-states, standing armies and democratic control of the military.
When there's no government to do this, militias take there place. Hezbollah provides education, social security, doctors and policing to south Lebanon. Why don't individuals do this themselves, why do they accept help from the militia? Obviously, because on their own they won't be able to afford to send their children to school, and when Israel bombs them, Hezbollah gives them money to rebuild their homes. Of course, you can say it's Hezbollah's fault Israel attacks, but if it weren't Hezbollah that provoked Israel, some other militia would - in the 1980s Israel invaded to fight the PLO. And if Israel didn't exist, it would be some other country or militia stirring up trouble. Because it is basic flaws in human nature that cause us to fight each other. We evolved to sometimes be selfish and greedy, it's not the governments fault. Government is both necessary and desirable as a means to protect us from the malicious instincts of others.
This is also why, to solve the problem of Nation-States fighting each other and failing to co-operate, we have supra-national governments, like the European Union, and International governments, like the United Nation. The world finds peace in unity.