Objection #12

Because of the length of this Objection to Anarchism and the several points raised here, I felt it was necessary to divide the objection into parts--each of which has been assigned a number. In responding to the objection these numbers will be used as reference points.

the editor

OBJECTION: Enclosed is a page from the Chicago Tribune in which John Gardner expresses that his new enemy is "apathy." This, of course, is a symptom of what you were talking about when 40 percent (or 60 percent) of the people don't vote. Gardner says "they don't care enough--that they should get involved and improve things." You say, "Oh, they care all right. It's just that they don't wish to actively impose their idea of social justice onto others and wish that others would leave them alone."
1) I say "Gardner's wrong" and that "I wish you were right," I believe that many of the "non-actives" would like to boss everyone else around, would like to be a supreme being. If a God Job opened up, many of us (me first) would apply. Most people, however, are like the guy sent to drain the swamp. At the end of the day, we've been so busy fighting alligators that we forgot to pull the plug. We have our own daily problems to worry about and leave world-saving to the others. The solution, of course, is to get the "others" so busy watching out for their own hides that we develop a society without world saviors.
2) Which leads me to the philosophy of limited government. With big government we have a system that permits and even encourages the existence of a class of people with enough power and money to start imposing their will (no matter how benign their intent) on the rest. With a truly limited government, one which has barely enough money, manpower and authority to do the expressly delegated tasks of protection from foreign armies and minimal policing of internal disputes, those entrusted with the power won't have the time or resources to expand their influence.
The flaw in my concept, of course, is keeping the government "limited." I haven't really figured out how that might be done.
3) In Vol. 2, No. 5 of the dandelion there was an article that said that the State must justify itself. Since it can't, then the "No State" concept wins by default. Anarchists, I'm told, do not need to defend their concept that the state has proved itself to be an evil and that those who oppose it do not need to say what might fill the vacuum.
3a) First, I ask--what is the "state"? We must define the term.
3b) If we say that no man can impose his will on another, then what do we do with a situation, for example, when one man, through sheer force of will power, is able to dominate a less strong person? A domineering husband--a meek wife. A father who orders his children to eat their food. These, I propose, are natural and any philosophy which ignores them is utopian and not defendable.
4) Suppose there was a man whose neighbor was a nuisance; e.g., played his stereo so loud the first man could not sleep. Does not the first man have the right to use reasonable force to stop the bad neighbor? Won't he do so anyway? If he does, isn't it imposing his will on the second? In doing so, does he not become, in a limited way, the state?
4a) Is it OK if he enlists several of his neighbors to do so? If one man doesn't have the right to do so, how can several individuals acquire that right? Frederic Bastiat builds a good case for the argument that if one doesn't have the right (e.g., to set up tariffs) then the many do not either. A corollary: if the one person does have the right, then the many also do have a right, collectively, to do so. Why cannot two people (or 100,000) who have the right individually also have the right to pool their resources to do what they want as a group?
5) Your view seems to be that if one person imposes, by force, his will on another, then he is a despot...If enough do it, so many that there is no power strong enough to stop them, then they become unaccountable (and uncontrollable) and become "the state."
6) In a sense, I agree. The "state" is a group powerful enough that their actions are not controllable. But, I say, that the "state" becomes evil only when what the group does is evil and that the "state" is OK when the group only does what they, as individuals, have the right to do. The problem, of course, is identifying what is OK and what isn't.
7) Second, assume I am wrong. Assume that there should be no "state." Say we, in the USA, dissolve our government and its armies, judges, police, etc. The dandelion said I do not have the right to demand to know what will fill the vacuum. OK, but then you tell me what am I to do when the Russians land their troops and take over? I do not choose to be a martyr. I will not voluntarily submit to the Russians. Yet, as an individual I don't think I can stop them.
In essence, I do not believe in the inherent good will of my fellow man. The Russians themselves cannot overcome their police state. How can I (we?) when they land? If you say they won't come merely because we don't want them, then go convince Czechoslovakians that they are free!

ANSWER: 1) You are most correct. There are always going to be volunteers for the God Job. But more than that, we are also going to find people who want to create God Jobs where there were none before. These are people we have to be every bit as watchful for as for those who vie for already existing power positions.
The great mass of people, however, spend their lives minding their own business, not only because they don't have the time to devote to interfering in other people's lives, but, more importantly, because they just don't have an interest in doing so.
Among the power-hungry, you are quite correct, we will always find ready volunteers for God Jobs. Our purpose shouldn't be to find those who will be efficient Gods or benevolent Gods, but to keep the God Job from ever existing. If we will learn that there is no place for subservience, no need to bow and scrape before others, we will have taken a first and most important step toward freeing ourselves of government. We will have liberated ourselves from the black magic idea that human society needs government to exist. And if we don't believe we need rulers, rulers will have a most difficult chore forcing themselves on us. Most of us just don't want to get involved in politics--and tha