Core value - anarchy is order

Hobbes & the state

• Based on pessimistic view of HN

  • Greedy

  • Selfish

  • Aggressive

• Stateless society = civil war

  • Need a sovereign state to guarantee social order (impossible without)

    • Social contract needed to govern people with their permission

Godwin & the state

• HN: rational

  • We tend to live in accordance with moral laws

  • We are predisposed to organise our lives harmoniously

• State = creator of injustice and aggression

  • Govt ≠ solution to problem of order

  • Govt = cause of problem of order

Proudhon quote

“Liberty is the mother, not daughter, of order”

1st explanation for how social order can be created and maintained without a state

• Human potential

  • We have the capacity for sociable and cooperative behaviour (collectivist) and reason (individualist)

• Because HN is not fixed, changing our environment would bring out these qualities in us

  • HN is also biased in favour of natural order

    • Bookchin - notion of ecology

2nd explanation for how social order can be created and maintained without a state

• Social institutions that promote positive human potential

  • Plasticity of HN means these can lead to the exploitation (in a positive way) of natural human characteristics 

• Examples of these social institutions

  • Collectivist: mutualist institutions and common ownership

  • Individualist: market mechanism

Justification for the ruling elite challenged by anarchists

• Ruling elite’s power relies on human belief of the essentiality of the state

  • We don’t consider removing it and therefore cannot rid ourselves of inequality

• Anarchists would remove this with the state

Anarchism - all strands - HN

• HN cooperative and open-minded

  • Worse aspects encouraged by the corrupt world

    • Behaving rightly and for the common good = disadvantageous

Berkman

“Maybe I can show you that we can be decent and live as decent folk, even without growing wings”

Collectivist - creation of order

• HN undermined by capitalism

  • Due to intensification of selfishness

• Bakunin

  • Community, with all having a say in how society is run, will promote natural order

Individualist

• Human liberty hindered by laws and ‘moral code’

  • Stirner - moral code seen as just another part of society, but actually works to control citizens

Individualist - anarcho-capitalist - creation of order

• Order will be created by the free market

  • FM allows rational, selfish individuals to organise their own lives

ldeal society

• Conflict resolved by reason

• Voluntary cooperation to ensure society fits eachs’ needs

• Order: natural, stable, peaceful

Post-removal of state

• Short period of instability and disorder

  • All will be well as HN seeks to develop an ordered society