philosophy-obooko-mind0016

preferences on others, or because their adherents and
followers believe that rewarding their leaders will
maximize their own welfare (aggression and self-interest
are the cornerstone of all social organizations).
It is this primary asymmetry that anarchism must address.
Anarchy (as Organizing Principle)
The recent spate of accounting fraud scandals signals the
end of an era. Disillusionment and disenchantment with
American capitalism may yet lead to a tectonic
ideological shift from laissez faire and self regulation to
state intervention and regulation. This would be the
reversal of a trend dating back to Thatcher in Britain and
Reagan in the USA. It would also cast some fundamental -
and way more ancient - tenets of free-marketry in grave
doubt.
Markets are perceived as self-organizing, self-assembling,
exchanges of information, goods, and services. Adam
Smith's "invisible hand" is the sum of all the mechanisms
whose interaction gives rise to the optimal allocation of
economic resources. The market's great advantages over
central planning are precisely its randomness and its lack
of self-awareness.
Market participants go about their egoistic business,
trying to maximize their utility, oblivious of the interests
and action of all, bar those they interact with directly.
Somehow, out of the chaos and clamor, a structure
emerges of order and efficiency unmatched. Man is
incapable of intentionally producing better outcomes.
Thus, any intervention and interference are deemed to be
detrimental to the proper functioning of the economy.