How Do We Get There?

by Matt Lancaster

Often enough, if you look on anti-state.com, you will find a whole boatload of excellent articles about how a particular aspect of a market anarchist society would [i] work. The anarcho-capitalist book set, displayed at the bottom of the page, and Bob Murphy’s Chaos Theory (both highly recommended purchases), deal with the mechanics and structure of a market anarchist society. Well, today I am going to surprise the lot of you. I am going to outline my vision of how we get from point A to point B. That is to say, how we will poison the great beast Leviathan and begin to build this social system that we always talk about. There are several points in this plan. In no particular order, we must: enter the academia, enter the professional ranks, write a deluge of books and articles, and oust the current trend in academic thought. First, however, I must talk about violence.

Market anarchists, by our very nature, deplore aggression. Anyone who wishes to build a great society must never use aggression in any way, shape or form. If there is one maxim that I live by, and that I believe everyone should live by, it is this: the means justify the ends. This is totally opposite from the current trend of thought. If we want a society without murder, theft, coercion, etc. we must not use any of these things. Some people (particularly after theft…err…tax season) have idiotic delusions of killing innocent and well meaning government agents. (Anarchists may do this, but about 90% of the population of the U.S. probably have the same fantasies.) If we want to convince people to stop murder and theft, it tends to follow that we should not murder or steal from anyone. It may take time, but if a statist is well meaning (and it helps a lot if they are religious), they will convert to our point of view without anything but honest and open conversation. It may alienate me from a fair amount of people, but I will go out on a limb and say that most government employees (and elected officials) are decent people. It is often said, however, that the road to hell is paved in good intentions. This is entirely true. I am quite sure Stalin and Hitler were well meaning in their own way too, but they believed that the ends justified the means…so one hundred million bodies later, they had to answer for their crimes. If we can convince people that evil begets evil (that you cannot steal from someone and create something good with what you have stolen), then the popular opinion will swing against taxation, and elected officials will also oppose taxation (or they will be booted out of office come election time). Don’t get me wrong, I am no big fan of democracy. Someone recently told me that I was to the right of God, and though I took it as a compliment, I am sure it was not intended as one. I agree completely with Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe about democracy. We can use its primary failing (populism instead of truth) to our eventual advantage.

This brings me to my next point quite nicely. It is absolutely essential, literally a first priority, that market anarchists and libertarians become professors, and school teachers (or homeschool their children, then send them off to a college with a good amount of libertarian professors). Some of us (myself included) are going to live up to this goal, but we need more [ii] . Educated people from every imaginable academic field should take up their mental weapons and do battle for the soul of civilization. Every field of study should be covered, economics, history, philosophy, sociology, psychology and many others. Hell, it’d even be nice if we could get some women’s studies people [iii] . The leftists dominate the academy, but they are old and tired. We are, for the most part, young and vibrant. The left was young and full of gusto when they began to take over the academy, however, many years ago. Now the stagnation that is apparent in their approach to knowledge has doomed them. They are producing an ever-increasing horde of college graduates that can barely tie their own shoelaces, let alone become professors. Back in the early part of the last century, the left was full of some of the most brilliant and gifted that the West had to offer. Now, it is full of tired old hacks that could barely convince a second grader of their ideas, let alone lead a revolution [iv] . Once they start to die from old age, we will fill their places, and the academy will be influenced by our ideas, and by the truth, which hasn’t been there for a while. Imagine the legions of well-equipped college graduates that will come out of an institution where they are taught by the best and brightest the human race has to offer. They will be influential, to say the least. 

Those of us who lack the patience, intelligence (though I would say there are very, very few market anarchists that I know that do), or inclination to become educators will most likely become professionals in one field or another. Above all, we need doctors and lawyers, the classic professionals. A legion of young anarchist attorneys and litigators can reverse a century of left wing domination of the practice of law. Socialist laws can be challenged in court and defeated. It may not happen at first, but with barrage after barrage of legal artillery, these immoral laws can be thrown on the scrap heap of history, where they belong. Doctors are very influential people. Whether in the arena of thought or while saving lives, they are among our most respected citizens. Why shouldn’t they be brothers in intellectual arms then? Many doctors are fighting evil organizations with state backed power like the American Medical Association, but they are few. We need more of them. Most doctors want to save lives, either out of pure good-hearted altruism or from the profit motive. These are courageous and honorable people, and if their ranks are joined by libertarians and anarcho-capitalists, so much the better. Any occupation needs us. The more anarchists of the free market loving variety, the better, anywhere. Anyone who has conversations at work knows that politics is just behind sports in topic frequency. Converts are everywhere, and we must be philosophical missionaries.

For any movement, a vast array of literature infused with its ideas is paramount. We need more people who are willing to devote their time to writing books, articles, screenplays, pamphlets, and essays. The more inundated the masses are with the truth, the more palatable it becomes to them. They have been fed arsenic from the left, so let us be the ones to feed them chocolate and steak (maybe even chocolate steak). Literature and art are our lifeblood in the war of ideas, so let us begin to make use of them. The more literature and visual artistry there is that bears a pro-freedom message, the more people that will read and watch it. The fact that many will be enamored with the ideas and want to learn more follows directly.

The current trend of thought in the academia is very close to outright nihilism. They claim they want multiculturalism and fairness, but they are only pushing an ideology. I am a proponent of western, middle eastern, and far eastern culture, but some of my friends (you know who you are) have been beating me over the head with good, sound arguments that other cultures have some greatly pro-liberty ideas inherent in them as well. I think that we should all be proud of who our ancestors are, regardless of race and nation of origin. Coming from a primarily (among other things) Dutch, English, and Nordic family, I love to celebrate my heritage, and all the libertarian leanings of each culture that I come from (and they are many). That doesn’t mean that someone with Native American or West African heritage should yell at me and tell me about the evils of my culture. Fuck them and the horse they rode in on. If they want to proudly claim their heritage and let me claim mine, then I'd be more than happy to listen to the great stories they might have of their ancestors. This cannot happen in today’s atmosphere. If you are White [v] or Asian then you are told that your culture is evil and always wrong. I think anarchists would reverse this trend, and everyone would be less depressed because of it. The philosophical leanings of the Left are no less nihilistic and unfair (not to mention evil) than their racist (yes racist) positions. They attempt to barrage us with pessimistic and ultimately laughable arguments. The sciences have been taken over by watermelon leftists. Green on the outside and red on the inside, these fools are so unabashedly ludditic that they proudly claim it.

Once all of this is done, there will be a gradual but noticeable trend towards smaller and smaller government. I have every reason to believe that as the amount of government diminishes, and the amount of liberty and civilization increases, that people will rid themselves of the institution altogether. It will not happen overnight and contrary to Marxist and Hegelian lies, history is not progress. We have no illusion of inevitability to guide and lure us into a sense of false security.  We, as intelligent people, know that we have a lot of work to do, and an uphill battle to fight. We have one deterministic thing to say. Truth is on our side, so it doesn’t matter if you think history is on yours. When our families and we prosper, others will want to emulate us. The battle is not lost, so get into the academic trenches, my brave friends. And always remember the Hippocratic oath; “First do no harm”. It holds true for us as well.

June 26, 2002