Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

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The s h 0 r t com i n g s 0 f wh a t S c h us t erap t I Y dubs t his "adolescent anarchism" are evident in the reply of Adin Ballou to the question "What are you going to do with the w0 1 v e sand t i g e r s 0 f h uma n kind ? " "I ha ve a righ t toe x p e c t, and I doc0 n f iden t 1Y ex Pe c t ," wrot e Ba 1 lou, "that in practi·cing the sublime virtue of non-resistance for the kingdom of heaven's sake, God will keep all that I commi t to him in perfect safety, even here on earth, as long as it is for my good to be exempted from loss and suffering. I do firmly believe that in acting out these principles steadily and consistently, I shall continue longer uninjured, longer in the enjoyment of life, longer safe from the depredations, assaults and murderous violence of wicked men, than with all the swords, guns, pistols, dirks, peace officers, sheriffs, judges, prisons and gallows in the world. If t his i s the fa i tho f a f 001, then I am will ing to be accounted a fool, till time shall test the merits of my posit ion • "( 11 ) C1ear 1y, s u c h ana r chi s m wasapp I i cab 1e only to a select few, living in small communities and capable of adher ing to an extremely high standard of individual behavior. Its plight was best summed up by Will i am Maccall: "Benevolence shows well on one of the C h r i s t i an graces , but it cuts a poor figure as apr i me social force."(12) But beginning in the second quarter of the ninetee nth c e n t u r y, the foe u s 0 fanarchism s h i f ted from religion to economics, from "benevolence" to "selfish interest." The thrust of anarchist thought likewise shifted from the merely negative critique of government tot h e d eve I 0 pm e n t 0 f posit i ve a 1 t erna t i ve s t hat co u 1d be implemented in the absence of the state and serve to insure harmonious action among individuals. 1. JOSIAH WARREN AND THE OUTL I NESFOR INDIVIDUAL SOVEREIGNTY After listening, in 1825, to a speech in Cincinnati, Ohio, by Robert Owen, Josiah Warren joined the socialist Owenite community at New Harmony, Indiana. Warren spent about a year there, after which he returned to Cincinnati to reflect upon the causes of the sudden collapse of the Owenite experiment. Warren's thought can be seen as a reaction to his experiences at New Harmony. The failure to recognize individual property rig h t s, War r en bel i eved, 1a y a t the heart 0 f the fa i lure. Communal ownership entailed the accumulation of 180
es p 0 n sib iii ties wh i c h rna d e i timp0 s sib I e ,t 0 t r ace the impact 0 fan yind i v i d ua I 's act ion s . Co nseq uen t 1y, a I 1 feelings of individual initiative and responsibility were lost. Furthermore, communal ownership was intended as a means to insure social cooperation. But, in Warren's view, a worse method could hardly have been found. When individual responsibilities and individual interests are accumulated, disagreements can be solved on I y bye 0 n f 1 i ct. " I f my i n t eres t we r e un i ted wit h yours," says Warren, "and we differ at any point in its management •• one must yield and the other must decide, or, we must leave the decision to a third party," viz., a government.(13) But disagreements, he held are an inevitable fact of nature. "There are no two obj e c t sin the un i v er s e wh i c h are pr e cisely alike ," a rgues Warren's follower, Stephen P. Andrews. "Each has its own constitution and peculiarities, which distinguish it from every other. Infinite diversity is the universal law."(·14) But if individuality is indeed an immutable law of nature it follows that the more interests are combined the larger and more intense the scope of conflict. And the larger the conflict, the greater the need for more and stronger government. But government cannot create social cooperation; it can only enforce conformity. Further, the more government, the less control each individual has over his own life and therefore the less free he is. The solution, thought Warren, lay in the opposite direction: the disconnection, rather than the aggregation, of interests. Since" infin·ite diversity is the universal law," harmony can only be attained by allowing each individual the greatest possible freedom to follow his own conscience and his own desires. Harmony, in other words, can preva i I only when every individual is his own sovereign. The "sovereignty of the individual" .clearly does not mean the power to attain any goal desired by the individual. Rather, it means the freedom from restraints imposed by others upon the use of one's own life and property. Only when society is broken down into its individual parts can the law of cause and effect operate and the consequences of each individual's actions be made to redound upon himself, alone. If A can shift the costs of his actions onto B, then B is not sovereign and, therefore, not free. He is a slave w0 r kin g for the ben e fit 0 fA. Thus, f r e e dom en t a i I s each individual "living and acting at his own cos t • " ( 1 5 ) Clear I y , such a s 0 ci e t y is cons i s ten t on 1y wi th the recogn it ion of private property. As Andrews writes, "The essential condition of freedom is discon- 181
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FREEDOM, SOCIETY AND THESTATE An In
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To Emmy iii
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V. Some Justification for the State
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FORWARD by William O. Reichert Prof
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o lie s 0 f we a I t h t hat h a v
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contrary, it would not be too stron
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1. THE EOONCNIC SPECTRUM OF ANARCHI
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will become practically indistingui
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Proudhon. And again, "Instead of la
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ished or expelled from the Union. A
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he sees no reason why government wo
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law" on non-monopolistic mechanisms
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logic of the Beairdian analysis, ev
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tal of nations, and of ages ••
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welfare state such as John Rawls. B
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ma j 0 r rep res en tat i v e fig u
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aut h 0 r 's Ene m i e s 0 f the Pe
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power s 0 f go ver nme n t can be r
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ish." Second, it is argued that "It
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natural law that develops the conce
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e it he r on his own proper ty or o
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FOOTNOTES {I )Alexander Berkman, AB
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Egalitarianism As A Revolt Against
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CHAPTER II I The Stale IS I Casle I
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con t r a s t toth0 searea s suehas
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tain a perpetual flux.(12) But rega
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latter is the embodiment of violenc
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individual liberty is subordinated
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that is so characteristic a feature
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qui tel 0 g i c a I I y con c Iuded
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I a t ion. T his ex p I a ins s u c
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5. WHO RULES THE STATE? It is clear
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6. COMMENTS AND EVALUATION Before e
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One must admit that it is an accura
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Responsiveness D ------------- W D'
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u n b a I a needin f a v0 r 0 f a (
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able to the majority." Human Action
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III, "From Laissez-Faire to Zwangsw
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T. Armantano, The Myths of Antitrus
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tion for the phenomenon of imperial
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isks of competition and to institu'
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pIe and interest to the government
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question then becomes "why the majo
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Page 164 and 165: Imperialism in 1891, cd. T. Greene'
Page 166 and 167: u. S. T r a de," and Ge 0 f f r e y
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Page 171 and 172: i n t e r c han g e betweenthe t h
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Page 175 and 176: mands of the majority by including
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Page 180 and 181: Mulford Sibley pungently notes, thi
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Page 185: for prevent ing abuse) that large p
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Page 190 and 191: FOOTNOTES (l)Plato, "The Crito," Gr
Page 192: (29)Or should render. Spencer unfor
Page 195 and 196: CHAPTER VI Philos 0phicaI Anarc his
Page 197: in the ir personal struggle. They a
Page 201 and 202: another, thereby violating the latt
Page 203: produces poverty, and the fear of p
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Page 208 and 209: fit the creditors in three ways: [1
Page 210: No power granted to the government,
Page 214 and 215: forcing the less productive land in
Page 216 and 217: 4. BENJAMIN TUCKER, LYSANDER SPOONE
Page 222: the moral duty, of all other childr
Page 226 and 227: 5 • TUCKER AND HIS JOURNAL, "L I
Page 229 and 230: 6. CONCLUSION: THE DECLINE OF PHILO
Page 231 and 232: FOOTNOTES ( 1 ) F ran z 0 p pen h e
Page 233 and 234: American Heritage (February 1969),
Page 235 and 236: ( 4 0 ) I nib i d . ,... p. 1 1 2
Page 237: (73)Lysander Spooner, "No Treason,
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Page 242 and 243: A common criticism of this type of
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T h us, for two reasons, the e cono
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Wh i let her e is, a dm itt e d I y
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itself coerCive, but either may be
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only "negative" but, as Hayek point
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Second, SInce one can define a conc
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a I' ," Cha r I es Murray has noted
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dIe and upper class individuals beg
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wage the unskilled might find jobs.
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endeavoring to gain access to the l
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desire to represent the views of th
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ere d t t e x pan s ton ereate s rn
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accused the minarchists of inconsis
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The ·individualist anarchist appea
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wr itt en, " The consis ten c y 0 f
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creat ing deficIencies elsewhere. T
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here. First, the use of imprecise c
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west Political Science Convention,
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to carry out the wishes of others.
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. Eminent Domain. If the r e we r e
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The i n d i v i d u a I has the rig
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qUIckly find hImself with few custo
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3. For the natural rights advocate
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ment expert has no incentive to rea
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What of the other option of making
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hand, these delays have caused 21,0
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ter to indirect exchange when indiv
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In shor t, 1 i ber tar ians do not
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at any particular time. It is the d
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and therei s nor e a son the Uti li
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The foregoing is a highly imaginati
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a1 either market or non-market -- m
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less likely' to subscrIbe to a comp
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market, probably fewer services tha
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(49 )M. Friedman t "Playboy Intervi
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( 88 ) See, for e x amp Ie, Rob e r
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CHAPTER IX Controlling Aggression:
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king but was a completely novel phe
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ficiency of the common law as the s
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u n til r e c e n t I Y c I e a n a
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is also far greater long run stabil
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que s t ion w i I I permit us tog0
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f e ri s e- s e r vic e s bot h nee
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or collective communities. As Jerom
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"Secondly and similarly, the two pa
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themselves and their customers from
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mer c han t I a w • Mer c han t s
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a SOcIety, not in which no institut
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Phi losopher Robert Nozick, as we h
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large SIze is associated with lower
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"Coercive acts are destructive of v
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incredible. Between 1919, when they
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i s t h us an aut oma tic pr 0 tee
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that i tma k e s little difference
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This doe s I' a i sea n i n t ere s
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is rigorously limited to the indivi
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national defense agencies strike me
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of the Ruhr in 1923. Later examples
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in, even sacr i f i ce themselves f
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(38)Hayek, p. 35. (39)See Robert No
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Nozick is a natural rights advocate
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(102)Rothbard, "War, Peace and the
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desirable. Order is a necessary ele
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"free" education for children; much
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G i v e n 0 u r b r i e f 0 v e r v
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F Fisher, J. Greevz, 194 Flynn, Joh
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Renshaw, Edward, 295 Ricardo, David
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Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

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