Anarchy An Overview Essay Research Paper Anarchy

Anarchy: An Overview Essay, Research Paper

Anarchy—the overthrow or abolition of a government or ruling power, to be replaced by the peoples or nations previously subject under this power.

“Anarchy is not chaos – but order without control”

“I love my country; I hate my government.”

“There’s no government like no government!”

‘Leave the people to their own devices, and they will blossom.”

Anarchy, or the potential for anarchy, was essentially created during the era of the French Enlightenment, a time when radical French writers and philosophers gave birth to original ideas which would instigate well-rounded thinking by the common masses of society. The philosopher Ren. Descartes, for example, affirmed the values of individuality and psychological freedom when he stated, “I think, therefore I am.”

The most popular (and thought-provoking) conflict during the period of the Enlightenment centered around the composition of the basic core of humanity and human nature versus that of society. The two most common ideologies, pitted against each other in polar opposition, were as follows:

1.) Man is basically evil, and needs society to keep him good (civilization, government and the strict enforcement of laws keep man in check, preventing him from acting out on the malicious and sadistic desires of his given nature. This theory places man at the every bottom of the chart in terms of being capable to make decisions and act out on impulses while still maintaining a self-governing and fully functional existence).

2.) Man is basically good, and is corrupted by society (Locke’s concept of “tabula rasa”: each man is born essentially good, with his mind a “blank slate” [literally, “clear table”] to be filled and shaped by the ideas with which he is presented in infancy. During the fundamental and developmental stage of childhood, man is, of course, encompassed by the corrupted ways and mores of society, and the vicious cycles of capitalism, pressure to conform and mindlessly thrive on soulless consumerism warp his ideals, leading him to the consideration, and sometimes even the execution, of heinous crimes prompted by modern decrees, values and restrictions).

Anarchy is, of course, an idea founded on belief in the second theory. Before even examining the evidence, one must consider this: a huge question often raised in discussions of the merits of anarchy is, “But what about the criminals. Who will control the jails and institutions where we keep the rapists, the murderers, the insane, and the child molesters. Are these people simply going to be let loose into society.”

The response to this concern is very simple, yet amazingly difficult for many people to comprehend. These people will not exist. The men and women who fill our prisons now are victims, just as are those who have suffered under their attacks. The children in these prisons and detention centers are victims. These humans have been led to betray their fellow people, to behave in a way which will attract notice in society. These people have been told that in order to exist, they must behave as they have. They want a free ride in the comfort and luxury of our nation’s prisons; they want a closer relationship with their daughters, their sons, or strangers on the street; they want their spouse to show them the respect the feel that they, as the superiors in their respective relationships, deserve; they want to get revenge, to lash out at those who have hurt them. Repressed anger, harbored, fostered and encouraged by society, is at the root of an amazingly large number of criminal actions committed by confused, victimized individuals in our midst. Anarchy is not going to release them back among us as savage, dangerous criminals bent on the utter destruction and desecration of the human race. Anarchy is going to release these people, yes, but their freedom will be much more symbolic than literal; back among “people”, or “their kind”, they will find that the reasons they were motivated to commit their crimes are no longer present in the world. Under the system of anarchy, the world will be unified by the common class and financial standing and language of every people. Nations will be united. Borders will become more porous as nationality becomes less important; after a time these borders will not serve any practical function at all, and so will be abolished. As in the past, where throughout history people have “given according to ability and taken according to need”, the society in which the entire world will live will be run by those who desire to help and build upon the achievements of humans; with the amassing of capital no longer the goal of every citizen everywhere in the world, station will no longer be an issue. Each man will do as he desires, simply because he desires it.

Education will experience similar reforms. From the taxpayer-bolstered sheepherding school systems of today’s world, the system of instruction will revert to its former benevolent simplicity: mentoring will replace the bovine treatment of thousands upon thousands of repressed, angry youths in the world today. Each person will be measured individually and valued for what he or she can do on his/her own, rather than being graded as to how he or she stands up against the masses.

Primitive cultures were led in a very similar way. Were not these early-modern