The term “anarcho-capitalism” has, we might say, rather an arresting quality. But while the term itself may jolt the newcomer, the ideas it embodies are compelling and attractive, and represent the culmination of a long development of thought.
If I had to boil it down to a handful of insights, they would be these: (1) each human being, to use John Locke’s formulation, “has a property in his own person”; (2) there ought to be a single moral code binding all people, whether they are employed by the State or not; and (3) society can run itself without central direction.
From the original property one enjoys in his own person we can derive individual rights, including property rights. When taken to its proper Rothbardian conclusion, this insight actually invalidates the State, since the State functions and survives on the basis of systematic violation of individual rights. Were it not to do so, it would cease to be the State.
Against the State: An Anarcho-Capitalist Manifesto diagnoses what is wrong with the American political system, and tells us in no uncertain terms what is required to stop leviathan. Rockwell’s prescription is radical, calling for the wholesale realignment of society away from the state and toward voluntary order. As the book incontrovertibly shows, the overwhelming problems that confront us today are no accident. They stem from the nature of government itself. Only peaceful cooperation grounded in individuals, families, civil society, and markets can rescue us from our present plight.
The simple answer is “yes” … most of us behave well towards one another when the State is not watching and judging our every action.
A good companion read is the series of articles by John Hasnas. His current post is:
The Obviousness of Anarchy: Accessibility of Rules Of Law
Posted on November 12, 2014 by ts
Written by John Hasnas, Associate Professor, Georgetown University, J.D., Ph.D, LL.M.
Continued from The Obviousness of Anarchy: Uniformity of Rules Of Law
Supporters of government claim that government must make the law in order for it to be accessible to the citizens to be governed by it. The government promulgates its legislation in statute books that are available to all citizens. The unenacted rules of common law, they claim, are unintelligible to the lay person. Consisting of rules abstracted from cases over long periods of time, the common law is known only to the judges and lawyers who deal with it as part of their profession. A system of law that requires citizens to hire attorneys merely to find out what the law is is obviously unacceptable.
The proper response to this is: Are you serious? Look around. Please! Can any human being possibly be aware of the myriad of arcane government regulations to which he or she is subject? Have you ever seen the Code of Federal Regulations?
continued at
http://www.notbeinggoverned.com/obviousness-anarchy-accessibility-rules-law/
The answer is complex and frustrating: Yes, anarcho-capitalism can work…if 99% or more of the persons living in such a society are dedicated to the principles of anarcho-capitalism.
A sufficient unanimity of popular buy-in can make any political system (or none) work. But that degree of commitment can be exceedingly hard to arrange. The various socialist countries couldn’t get it for socialism; the fascist nations of mid-20th-century couldn’t get it for fascism; and the classical liberal nations of Enlightenment Christendom, including our own, appear to have lost it for classical liberalism.
I continue to think that every social system is unstable over a sufficiently long time span. Perhaps the time has come to try anarchism again…but don’t expect the transition to be bloodless, and don’t expect it to last forever. Indeed, it might prove to be shorter-lived than classical liberalism. There’s only one way to find out.