Tag Archives: freedom

Anarchy is Good

voluntarizmI have to admit that my first understanding of anarchy was in line with the definition that most people use these days – chaos!

But if we look at the definition and root of this word, we find that chaos is not really part of it. It comes from the Greek an- + archos meaning no ruler. It is certainly true that the removal of an established ruler can easily lead to chaos.

Take, for example, a kid that is strictly controlled. Take this control away suddenly and you will most likely had a child that goes wild. But does that mean that the child will remain wild? With most sane kids – and most of them are sane – they will soon find a balance and become accustomed to the lack of control and will be as productive or unproductive as their inherent make-up is. This has been demonstrated in an experiment of un-schooling, where a group of kids were not forced to do anything. Certainly they first slacked off, but after a rather short time of turbulence they started to better themselves voluntarily. If you have ever experienced the difference between forced and voluntary learning you know how much more efficient learning is that you actually want.

But this is an experiment that needs to be run to its end result. A system that would want control could easily subvert the experiment by first taking away control, let the kids go wild and then, when chaos is at it’s best, step in, proclaim that freedom does not work, and put the control back on.

This is the same principle used to convince us that anarchy is not working. Governments want to keep their control because this is what they live on. Any instance where control slips for a while, for example after a revolution or war, is them used to rationalize that chaos ensued and that government has to be established again as soon as possible.

Let me give you another picture that demonstrated that perfectly and which you will have in mind from now on whenever you hear about anarchy. Think of cooking pea soup in a pressure cooker. All the ingredients go in the pot, the lid is closed (control) and heat is turned up. Soon boiling starts, steam develops, and pressure builds in the pot. Nothing dramatic happens. The valve in the lid of the pot will let off some of the steam occasionally in order to keep the pot from exploding.

Now, suddenly open the pressure relief valve and see what happens.

You will have pea soup allĀ  over the kitchen. Yes, I tried that and this is the reason I used pea soup for my example. All the pressure trapped within the peas suddenly has no opposition any more and goes everywhere and takes pieces of the peas with it. The conclusion could now be to never relief the pressure – which would be equivalent to the politician telling us that we need police and military and prisons and laws regulating everything from commerce to farting.

But there is also another solution, because, after all, we want to get to the delicious pea soup. That solution is to release the pressure gradually, or – in the more dirty alternative – don’t care about the mess in the kitchen. Either way, we can enjoy the pea soup.

The sweet taste of liberty and lack of legalized violence where personal interactions occur on a voluntary basis.

Back to the idea of anarchy, a society of ‘no ruler.’ To get there will require a total revamping of the up-bringing of the next generations. Right now, kids, that have a disagreement or fight, are taught to go to an authority who will decide for them who is wrong and who is right. That will have to change to teach them to solve their problems and disagreements amongst themselves. Certainly this will not happen in schools that are sponsored by those who want the status quo.

I see this state of mind appreciating a society based on voluntary interactions spreading and getting more and more into the main stream, Ron Paul being one of the examples for that. He had to fail because the bigger part of the people is still too afraid of pea soup all over the kitchen, but it appears to me that we are at this time in state two of the three stages of truth as described by Arthur Schopenhauer:

  1. It is ridiculed.
  2. It is violently opposed.
  3. It is accepted as being self-evident.

I just wonder when we finally get to stage three.

 

 

The Idea of Freedom is definitely not new

I always equated Charlie Chaplin with comedy, but when I look back, the most memorable scene I remember, is a bitter-sweet scene from City Lights. In fact, beside some shorter clips on TV I did not actually see much of his work.

But after seeing his speech in The Great Dictator I have to change that. I was surprised that this movie is actually not available on Netflix.

Rick Mercer Explans Canada

Rick Mercer from the Rick Mercer Report at the Canadian Broadcast Corporation CBC explains all you wanted to know about Canada, but were afraid to ask.

I would love to embed the video here but the CBC does not allow this so you only get a picture of the video you will see and when you click you will see a new window or tab and watch the video there. Then you either get lost on Rick Mercer’s pages (which is OK) or you come back here – this is the freedom of the internet, yes?

I just wished somebody would create a lecture like this about the US – it could not be any more difficult as we don’t even have a queen, and once we have this all laid out, there would never be a confusion again.

Anyway, here is Rick Mercer…

Rick Mercer Explains Canada

The End of America – Naomi Wolf

Here is a film with and about Naomi Wolf, author of “The End of America: Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot,” I think every American should watch.

She starts out her story that, in a conversation, a friend repeatedly says “They did this in German” – “They did this in Germany” referring to the current events in the US.

In the film that intersperses her talk with footage, driving home the points she makes, she then demonstrated how the ten points common to all totalitarien regimes, can today be observed in the good old US of A.

It’s a long film, so get a beer, get some chips, lean back and enjoy – Oh well, don’t know if you can really ‘enjoy’ it, but it’s not all doom and gloom, because once you know and understand what’s going on, then and only then can you start to do something about it.

The End of America – Naomi Wolf

I noticed that this link does not go to the film any more, so here’s a YouTube video where she conveys her story in a different setting…

and here she is in an interview…