eKourier July 2014

NEV’S NOTES

Nevs Notes... SWEET ANARCHY

Nev enjoyed expressing his ideas in this section of the Kourier. These little gems have been appreciated by many in KSS. We will continue to publish his ideas that we have in stock. Enjoy!

“I am more than a libertarian; I don’t believe in the right of the state to exist. The state is unnecessary for society to exist. Everything that needs to be done can be done by the market.” ~ Doug Casey Anarchy, the Dictionary tells us, means “chaos and disorder”; or, “without a king or ruler”. The popular press uses it in its pejorative sense of chaos and confusion. To say therefore, sweet anarchy, peaceful anarchy, gentle anarchy… ah, where do we go with this? Anarchy means literally “without a ruler”. In our present-day context of civilisation as we know it, anarchy means without a coercive, over-arching government. It rests on the belief that people are mostly good, mostly honest, mostly co-operative and can work things out for themselves. Anarchy is not utopian. It is realistic, appreciating the nature and the shortcomings of human beings, including (perhaps especially) politicians and bureaucrats. I call myself an anarchist, or more precisely, an anarchocapitalist, to distinguish it from the mob who called themselves “anarchosyndicalists”, who were really communists, they are the ones who coined the expression “property is theft” — stupid expression, as how do you define “theft” except as “the unlawful taking of property”? Thus, “property is the unlawful taking of property”. A dumb and meaningless expression. But I digress. Anarchy is not utopian; other systems of national or societal organisation are utopian. Communism is a utopian dream of an egalitarian, centrally-planned society where the government owns and runs everything. Under Communism The State is supreme and everything functions for the glory of The State. The Nazis under Hitler had their National Socialism utopian dream of a Master Race running things in a very racial and fascist way.

“ The anarchocapitalist idea simply takes what exists anyway, absent the over-arching authority of The State. ” and redistribution. To those who have experienced or witnessed the failure of Socialism, but who still like the idea of a fair bit of central-planning think that if you combine that with the popular idea of Democracy, it will be the best of both worlds. Another Utopian dream. The State under social democracy is big and powerful. Democracy is the cult of the century and it is the New Utopia. The utopian ideal of democracy is that with popularly governments you can kick the bad bastards out at election time, and kick the good bastards in. Democracies operate, in theory, under a Constitution, and the parliaments are constrained by some rules and conventions. Under democratic rule the party (or coalition) in power calls the shots, deciding the tax rates, the property rights, the regulations. They also decide the wars they want the country to fight and how free they will let their citizens be with their lives and money. Under democracy the party in power tries to stay in power and get re-elected, and the party not in power wants desperately to get into power, and stay in power. Apparently, opposed groups are really government does not own everything, allowing nominal private ownership of the means of production and distribution, but with centrally planned control over the functions of business and companies. Under Fascism and Nazism utopias, The State is again supreme. Social democracy is a mix of Socialism and Democracy; it allows a popularly elected government to govern a welfare state, lots of taxes and regulation

fairly similar and are comprised mostly of professional politicians whose sole purpose is to gain the perks of office. They gain the perks of office by promising things to the voters. The party who offers the most, and the most credible plan, gets the most votes. Typically the politician promises things that he or she does not have, but that he or she plans to take from someone else and give it back the voters. “Democracy” promises freedom of speech, rule of law, separation of church and state, “free” education, “free” healthcare, and so on. When combined with a good degree of capitalism, democracies work for quite a long time, and people get used to the illusion of being free even if up to half their money is taken away in taxes and what they can do with their lives and property becomes severely circumscribed. After time under democracy The State becomes Leviathan and rules for its own sake and benefit. So if not “Democracy” - what? “What will you replace it with?” they ask. Try Nothing! Anarchy - the gentle, non-coercive way that people mostly behave towards each other most of the time and do business with each other most of the time. And what about law and order in such a society? Prof Hans-Hermann Hoppe discusses and explains the idea of private law in several works, books, papers and a YouTube video. The anarchocapitalist idea simply takes what exists anyway, absent the over-arching authority of The State. It takes people for what they are, mostly self-organising, mostly pleasant, mostly responsible, and allows for voluntary organisation and behaviour to handle the shortcomings we humans are capable of.

July 29th, 2011

Nev Kennard

Fascism is a form of Socialism where the

19 Kennards Kourier July 2014