Oodles of Anarchists

Glenn Beck has had an interesting set of shows this last week where he has been explaining how the "Thugocracy" (his word) that began to grow under the Bush administration is now being topped-off by the Obama administration with assistance from the Democrat-controlled Congress. It is indeed a very unreasonable time we live in and Mr. Beck has had some very interesting and reasonable questions that all Americans should be asking of their benevolent government officials. But on Thursday's show Mr. Beck made one of those sweeping remarks that turn some people off to his message by saying that Anarchists want to do away with the U.S. Constitution and destroy the country. With my being an Anarchist - a proponent of Anarchism - I must raise a point of contention and ask for clarification.

Just as there many religions, and differing sects and denominations within those religions, there are many forms of Anarchism and different people who follow one school of thought or the other. There is the one group that most people are familiar with since they declare themselves to be Anarchists, and the powers-that-be label them as such, who strongly disagree with the Natural Right to own property. They propose that everything everywhere that anyone might want to own belongs to everyone and no one should be allowed to claim anything as one's own property. When they break some one's window, they consider themselves to have had as much right to do so as the actual creator and owner of the window had the right to prevent them from doing so because the window, by belonging to everyone, belonged to all parties involved in the incident.

In the Natural order of things they are partly correct in that the only things that people own are those things which they are willing to use force to maintain control over. These Anarchists call for the abolition of government because they believe most governments have been set up as an aid to property owners to help them maintain control over their property which these types of Anarchists are under the impression was unfairly gained or acquired. They call for a law banning the private ownership of property so that they and their friends and families can have access to other people's property. The irony is to have a law that bans anything requires a body to write and enforce such a law and we normally call that legislative body government. Since these folks believe that everything within the reach of a certain society should belong to every member of that society in a collective sense then they should more correctly be referred to as "Socialists" and "Revolutionists."

I belong to the other popular group of Anarchists which some have taken to calling "Anarcho-libertarians" or "Anarcho-capitalists" to distinguish us from these more violent persons. Many of us have worked in government occupations at one level or another and, like someone who has watched sausage being made for the first time, have had our eyes opened to the white-collar organized criminal operation that government really is. We've studied the history of government (which is what most historians seem to concentrate on) and have found it wanting - excessively. Those contracts between the governed and the governing written to constrain the growth and abuses (i.e. Constitution) usually associated with government require the highest, if not heavenly, aspects of a man's character to have any effect which means that in most cases even a libertarian government will denigrate into an oppressive and despotic regime catering to the basest elements of Man's nature. As President George Washington put it, "Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

Like some gun-control advocates, we consider government to be a dangerous weapon that no one should be allowed to use against others, but unlike these same advocates we do not attempt to stop anyone from submitting themselves to any government of any form that they might choose. We just choose not to be ruled by anyone and don't remove ourselves from society but simply secede from government control. The problem we have is there are so many tyrants - Lincoln, Lenin, Hitler, Mao, Obama - and their minions - Blue-coats, Brown-shirts, Black-shirts, Red Scarves, Purple-shirts - that strive to force us and others to live under their control and at times like those we can become a little testy. We are not wolves prowling in packs looking for something to kill but are instead more like porcupines; you'll get hurt if you press down on us.

We abhor aggressive violent force though we are not pacifists and are quite willing and able to use violent force to protect ourselves, our families, our homes, and our local communities. We disagree with government's indiscriminate use of violent force against people, particularly in War, and we protest the government's use of violent force to enforce it's monopoly over the use of violent force within the jurisdiction it chooses to use violent force to control and expands at will sometimes by the use of violent force. Also in opposition to those other "Anarchists" we respect the Right of people to own property and to use that property in any manner the owner chooses as long as no direct and measurable harm is caused to another party. We consider the government with its insatiable hunger for other people's wealth as the greatest threat to the free exercise of this Right. We also protest the government charging fees for licenses that allow people to engage in activities they already have a Natural right to do.

So Mr. Beck when you said that Anarchists are out to destroy the Constitution and the country, were you referring to peace-loving Anarchists like myself who choose to be no man's slave but allow others to live as they see fit or to those Socialist Revolutionists dressed in Anarchists' clothing who intend to use the remnants of the Constitutionally-created Federal Government of these United States to enslave every man, women, and child on the North American continent if not the World? Enquiring minds want to know and this is a reasonable question for unreasonable times...