Anarchy (was Re: Down with Democracy!)
Seth David Schoen (schoen@uclink4.Berkeley.EDU)
16 Dec 1997 12:02:56 GMT
But If people are still interested in minarchist (or even larger) states,
because they seem to work pretty well, or in communes (because they seem to
appeal to some people's ideals), then they're quite welcome to do that.
But I share the very optimistic view that, with this cultural change
accomplished, there will be a gradual social change in which social
institutions and eventually the most popular political institutions will
evolve toward those which are most conducive to freedom. This is a sort of
change which ideally goes beyond politics; in addition to respecting one
another's rights in a formal sense, I hope that people will experience a
shift in their expectations and goals toward greater freedom in general.
If that very remote hope were attained, the outcome would be something
quite unpredictable to us now, which I think is a good thing.
So while political freedom is an end in itself, I hope that the same spirit
which motivates people to seek political freedom, in a climate of actual
political freedom, could lead people in directions not yet visible toward
other additional things which are also ends in themselves.
In other words, I think anarchism in general is very much different than
a hope for a single particular "form of society". But then, of course,
there are many different approaches to it.
--
Seth David Schoen L&S '01 (undeclared) / schoen@uclink4.berkeley.edu
Magna dis immortalibus habenda est atque huic ipsi Iovi Statori, antiquissimo
custodi huius urbis, gratia, quod hanc tam taetram, tam horribilem tamque
infestam rei publicae pestem totiens iam effugimus. -- Cicero, in Catilinam I