Why I hate Anarcho-capitalism

The other day I was describing my philosophy of life, and someone had to say: "So, I assume you're an anarcho-capitalist?" And my legos completely dislodged from each other, causing me to be a very upset lego spaceman. You see, I hate anarcho-capitalism, but for some reason people keep wanting to compartmentalize me into what they perceive as the only things that they know. And that's what bothers me about this sort of response; people want so much to be able to explain you away without actually talking to you or addressing what you have to say.

If someone says he or she likes nationalized medicine, that person is a socialist. If that person wants government to take over all such social programs, that person is probably a communist (even though that's not really what a communist is, but don't get me started on that; the English book I have to teach at school describes "communism" as a description that would work just as well for any type of authoritarian government...try explaining that to a group of 13 year olds who barely speak English).

But what bothers me about anarcho-capitalism is more than just compartmentalization. It has more to do with the desire to equate any governmental system with an economical blueprint. In other words, there's so such thing as "just anarchy", the absence of government. Libertarianism can only be seen with a spread of capitalism. In order to understand a governmental system, you have to also understand its economic situation as well, even if there is no economic situation. Anarcho-barterism or anarcho-farming or anarcho-no money at all is unsustainable to these types of people.

Part of the problem the world is going through right now is that overly smart people have created bubble economics, which are all tied into some brand of capitalism, no matter how hard you try to spin it. What seems to have really happened is that EVERY theory that has been run before makes little sense to the world right now because the smartest guys in the room lost their fortunes alongside the stupidest people in the room. Or they're going to, unless they can convince a lot of the stupid people who are left with a little money (because they were too "stupid" to invest it in the bubble housing market) to invest further in their stupid ideas that were obviously built on false pretenses.

These same "smartest" people in the room are the ones that want to paint anarchists into a corner. Years ago, an anarchist was seen as some radical who wanted to throw Molotov cocktails into government buildings. Then that anarchist was seen as someone who wanted to overthrow capitalism and install communism. Now, the anarchist isn't even an anarchist anymore; he's been replaced by the anarcho-capitalist. In other words, capitalists aren't satisfied with realizing that there are people out there who don't believe in their brand of economics as government.

And that's what messes them up, forcing them to try to compartmentalize the people who never fit into their categories. Because to allow those people to exist outside their definitions would be, oh I don't know, anarchy? We wouldn't want to have that now, would we?

Stumble It!