How I Became an Anarchist
Friday, July 15, 2011 at 7:18PM I remember when I first stumbled upon libertarianism/anarchism/free-markets. For me it was like everything became clear in an instant after 33 years of living in a fog.
As background, I grew up in Canada. A fairly meager existence, really. I grew up in a place where -40C/F is common. That is actually where the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales meet - something on which I had plenty of time to ponder while I delivered newspapers at six in the morning in the pitch black streets where there was only two sounds, the wind howling and the deep crunching of snow beneath your feet.
I rarely went to school. After the age of about 12 I had already figured out it was prison for kids and I escaped whenever I could. I'd escape to my Apple II+ clone computer, called a Unitron, and hack away throughout the day or night.
My computer, really, was my best friend. Perhaps because I was a hacker/programmer, I had an innate feeling that there was a solution to everything. I learned through a lot of trial and error that if you have tried absolutely everything and can't do something on a computer then it isn't a fault with your programming, it is a fault with the system itself - something that usually was rectified with a hardware upgrade or a switch to a new computing system or operating system.
I'd look at the world, which in the early 80s, seemed like a dark and dangerous place. We seemed to always be worried about a pending nuclear attack from the Soviets - something which I now know to be 95% fairy tale by the same people creating all the bogeymen today - but at the time it seemed scary. As well, just coming off of the terribly inflationary 70s and the brutal economic environment, everything seemed to be headed downhill.
I looked at things like wars and very bad economic conditions and I thought there must be a way, somehow, to end wars and to end these bad economic times.
Being young and not having access to free-market style information, the only two choices that I thought were available were the typical "left/right" paradigm that still exists for many people today. I looked at the left and all their ideas about welfare and high taxes to "spread the wealth" and knew, instantly, that that wasn't for me. I then looked at the right - which in Canada, at the time, was the Progressive Conservative party. They talked about things like smaller government and free trade and things like that so I gravitated to them as those things seemed good to me.
The Prime Minister at the time was Brian Mulroney, a Progressive Conservative (PC), and I even signed up, at 14, to be a part of the PC party and even became penpals with Brian Mulroney's daughter. That was when I took this photo which, for me, as an adult anarchist that despises the nation state, is probably the most embarrassing photo I've ever taken of myself.
;)
Jeff Berwick for Prime MinisterI remember what I thought when I took that photo - when I am Prime Minister of Canada one day I'll show everyone this photo and show them that it had been my plan, since a young age, to be Prime Minister. As an aside, this is why I am never too angry with young people who get involved with the political process - because I understand because I did that too before I was enlightened.
Life went on and every year I learned a bit more about the world. I got fired from a government union job because I constantly tried to improve the processes in the mail room where I worked. I even pointed out that we probably only needed 3 people to do the job currently being done by 10. The union boss lady didn't like that one bit. I've never had anyone fire me with such a big grin before.
I bounced around for a while, really not having any idea of what I wanted to do until, really, the internet came out and that's when I knew that I had to do something on the internet.
That something took about 10 years of my life and finally, around 2003, I had some free time to really look into why we, as human kind, can never seem to rid ourselves of wars and poverty. I still had it in my mind that there must be an answer - that we just hadn't found it yet.
So, I decided to buy a sailboat and sail the world and figure out what is going on in the world.
By this point I had seen quite a bit of things and I knew the following. I knew that the internet was going to change everything - and for the better. And, after having worked in the military and for unions and for governments I knew that those places were where hope and happiness died. And, finally, after starting up a number of private businesses and trying to employ people and create wealth I knew that government had only one role in my life and that was to impede me at every step of the process.
One of the first people I came across who started to expand my mind greatly was Doug Casey. In fact, I still remember the first article I read of his. It wasn't anything grand, in fact, it was a basic little commentary that is still on the internet today called "A Short Course in Clearing Customs".
The article caught my eye because I had been traveling and had learned what a pain it was to clear customs in every country and everything that Doug said in that article was how I felt - but I didn't know it was okay to feel that way!
It wasn't too long after that I had somehow found myself sitting at dinner with Doug Casey in Vancouver. He asked me a few things about myself and I told him how I felt, generally, about things, because of my past experience.
Doug sat back and said, "Oh, so you're a libertarian."
My response to him was, "What's a libertarian?"
I didn't even know there was a word for wanting to be free of government control! That's the way the government likes it, too. As long as they can keep people thinking there is only left or right - which are both just heavily statist views with only slight differences - then they can keep people from discovering that government is the problem, not the solution.
Armed with the new-found knowledge that I was a libertarian I headed straight home to my computer and looked up everything I could find to read on the subject. During dinner I had asked Doug many questions about how a world would work without government. All the usual questions that neophytes ask. How would the roads work? Firefighters? Police?
Doug was very patient with me but finally he mentioned that there was a book that had answers to all those questions. It's actually almost a pamphlet it is such a short book. And, it is available for free on the internet. It is called "The Market for Liberty".
I don't remember the exact date I read it but it was some time around 2004. On that date, after a long and circuitous path I finally answered the question I asked when I was young.
How can we end all wars? End government. How can we end poverty? End government. How can we, as humans, reach our full potential? Through peace, property rights and the non-aggression principle - something which is impossible with government.
As Stefan Molyneux explains in the video below, and as I knew from my days as a programmer, if you cannot find the solution to a problem then it is the system itself which is broken.
When trying to solve a problem if things get more and more and more complex, like they did when people thought the earth was the center of the solar system, it is usually a sign that it is the system - the whole basis of the theory - that is wrong. Look at government today and the gigantic mess it is in trying to rid the world of poverty and to improve the human condition through the coercive force of the government.
The way people felt the day they realized the sun was at the center of the solar system is how I felt the day I realized that the way towards peace and prosperity for humanity is in anarchism - living without a forceful ruler.
If you or someone you know hasn't yet figured this out please forward them this post and the video attached below.
Reader Comments (26)
Hey Jeff,
Great content. I'm still relatively young in my anarcho-capitalism journey. I was talking to a friend today about philosophy and politics and I mentioned anarchism.
He brought up something I didn't know how to respond to. Basically, we're always going to have governments because there's always someone with the biggest stick that is going to fill "the power vacuum".
Another thing he mentioned was that there has to be a central way to plan certain things (city planning, 911 dispatch, etc.)
Can you share your insights?
Thanks!
Hi Jeremy, all of those questions are answered in the book The Market for Liberty... its free and online, have a read through it... I believe it is also available as an audio book free online, just Google it. Cheers
Got the book and reading it. Thanks, man.
Jeff, I enjoy the way you share your personal stories. I think you should speak at FreedomFest; Doug Casey is here! That is if you could stand a trip to the States....
I really appreciate your thinking, great post! you were lucky to see the world and what goes in it, actually it is not luck it is just the way you had to follow . I almost took the same conclusions without the luck of move out , or I was fortunate to be able to see everything because of the Internet.
But I think human solutions are impossible. I heard something from someone I consider very smart...among others things he said: you talk about government, so, do you have something better to put in place? you take a "devil" and will put another one? even evil has its uses when you look at the full picture, is more or less: keeps the weeds to preserve the wheat. or not??
BRAVO TDV!!!
Cami: human solutions are possible, that was the whole point of what I wrote. If you read the book, The Market for Liberty, which is free online (or as an audio book) you will understand how a world would work without government and what a wonderful world it would be. The only reason we allow evil governments is because people don't realize there are alternatives.. and those alternatives are CONSTANTLY hidden from us and made to sound as if they are bad or scary (the way the media tries to say that anarchists are people with bombs who cause chaos).
Polly: thanks! I considered going to Freedom Fest but I've been traveling a lot lately and decided to take some time off this summer. Also, as you mentioned, I avoid going to the US whenever possible. Maybe next year. I am considering going to Libertopia in October in San Diego.
Kudos, and welcome! I'm an expat, too - in Colombia.
Re/ the power vacuum, that's circular reasoning. Right now, force is held centrally by, uh, force. Look at what happened when the Soviets fell. It didn't open a power vacuum as much as power dispersed to the member states. Under anarchy, power disperses to its rightful owners - you and me, respectively.
re/ central planning, maybe. So what, even a service that requires some centralization doesn't need to be run by force. It can be run voluntarily and non-exploitatively.
Anarchism is precisely about not replacing government. Evil has its place? Not in my life. Have it in yours, but don't force it on me. Make sense?
I'm all for ending government.
But how do you end government? Any sufficiently organized group of people will always be able to bully the others.
Stranger: Read the Market for Liberty, it is all in there
Jeff ahthough I appreciate your honest search for solutions, ending goverment isn't a solution. Goverment in all of its flawed forms is a necessary evil. A world without governance isn't a safe one. Most third world countries are countries that lack a governance creates a vacuum of law and order breeds chaos and lawlessness. I don't know where you live, but as flawed as America is it isn't because of the goverment; it is because of the people in the goverment that have used it for their benefit having ignored the constitutional founding principles.
Jeff,
Great product you have here Jeff. I want to get something off my chest though with regard to your promotion of anarchy.
Forgive me for sounding naive about anarchy. And you should know that I'm no fan of big government or any form or communisim or socialism and would peg myself as some version of libertarian.
But anarchy? Does Reason (post above) not make some valid points?
Let's look way back in time. Life was formed, began to evolve and eventually crawled out of the premordial soup, continued to evolve into mamals that eventually stood upright and evolved into humans. Cave men and women. The strongest, most violent ones survived. The rest - oh well, tough luck for them. Now there's some good old fashioned anarchy alright. No silly rules obstructing our "freedom". No government shoving us around. No police enforcing stupid rules. But do you actually believe that is an ideal way to live?
Fast forward to today - is society a utopian paradise? Well, no. We know that empires rise and fall throughout history - and are witnessing one falling today as you describe in "Escape from America." But - today's society - as nasty as it is - is LESS violent than at any other time in history. To give up all sense of civility and just refert to anarchy and violence - is that really the solution? To revert back to cave man behaviour?
I suspect my definition of anarchy must be wrong or at least different. But I do believe there is a need for some code of behaviour. And I don't believe in the absence of all rules and laws - that everyone is going to behave themselves. To believe they will I think is naive.
I must be missing something. I will read the Market for Liberty on my summer vacation and maybe become enlightened.
Cheers!
Louis Paquette
EGS
Look up "dual power." We build up free institutions until the power of government has been sucked out from under it.
So, Reason, if only good people like you were in charge, you could use the power of government for good, and not evil. Have you watched Lord of the Rings?
"The strongest, most violent ones survived" Where do you get this idea? Is it actually based in anything other than your imagination? People, like many other species in the animal kingdom, are capable of cooperation - and we often use cooperation instead of conflict to solve our problems. Government, OTOH, uses conflict to get what it wants.
Anarchy doesn't mean no police. Anarchy means that any authority will be legitimate authority, voluntary and non-exploitative.
Robert Murphy has some great ideas on how stateless law can work:
http://georgedonnelly.com/opinion/murphy-private-law-market-anarchy
"today's society - as nasty as it is - is LESS violent than at any other time in history." Do you have any evidence? When 3 modern wars are taking place and a police state is on the move, how can you say this?
Thanks George for fielding some of the questions/comments! All your comments are excellent and I agree.
Lou: read George's response and yes, read The Market for Liberty. Just remember, we've been brainwashed for generations into thinking we need authority... we don't. As for a "code of behaviour", yes, we already have that, its called society... it is the reason someone doesn't take a pee on your table at a restaurant... because that person would quickly be shunned by society and if he kept showing inappropriate behavior he would find very quickly he had no friends and no job. The next time you are somewhere, like waiting in line for tickets for a movie, think about why someone doesn't just go to the front of the line... there are no cops there to enforce this.. and in a society where people take care of themselves and don't look to a parent-type figure to scold them, people are much better behaved and much happier... which leads to less crime and less problems
Those wonderful places like Argentina and Mexico are poster children for income disparity and exploitation. I'm sure it's great to be a wealthy ex-pat gringo there but the folks on the bottom will eventually want to have three squares a day and drive a Camry.
I bet they'll figure out where those wealthy gringos live. Social injustice always makes a great place for the well-to-do to live.
Steve: You've obviously never been to Argentina if that is what you think. Northern Argentina is mainly all white people who are all very happy and well-enough off that they don't worry about things... most probably eat better (steak and wine at every meal) and live better than your average American. Not to mention everyone in Argentina is a foreigner. It is all people of Italian, German and other European descent.
There is massive income disparity in the US too, btw... one of the biggest in the world. The top 1% own something like 70% of the assets. After the collapse of the US dollar there will be tens if not hundreds of millions of destitute in the US... with guns. I'd rather be in Mexico. Everything is fine here in Mexico... plus they are used to currency collapse.. if the Peso collapses people here will just shrug their shoulders and say, "again"? Same in Argentina.
As for exploitation, who is exploiting people exactly? I can assure you that the dozens of people I indirectly employ in both Argentina and Mexico do not feel exploited by me providing capital and jobs.
Besides, most of the Mexicans I know here in Acapulco are all billionaires... if anything I'll get kicked out of here because I am too poor.
btw, I don't know of ANYONE in Mexico or Argentina who doesn't have 3 squares a day, doesn't have a cellphone and who doesn't drive a Camry... I'm sure there are some.. but not many. Keep watching the US news.
My compliments, Jeff.
Your site, the Dollar Vigilante, makes much sense. I too an somewhat of an anarchist, although that word implies action. I'm probably a philosophical anarchist or, more correctly, simply a libertarian. Just want to be left alone. That's difficult, living in the big welfare/warfare state.
I stopped voting in political elections many years ago because it's obvious that democracy is the major problem. Now, with my wife saying, "Let's go", I am considering fleeing to more free climes. Uruguay is top on my list.
With socialistic trends seeming to have passed their apex, it appears that more people are actively considering individual freedom. Being older than most, I guess that it won't be timely for me to wait for any major change here. The best that can be hoped for is a breakup of the union. - And that's not going to be fun and games!
The content available at the Introduction to a Statelesss Society completed my journey. Make sure to check out Hasnas' piece. End the state!!!
Well said. We are in a monumental shift here as the old way of doing things, top-down,is giving way to a balancing process of bottom-up power within the age of information. We have been supply driven since "the apple was shoved in our faces". Just follow "the script"
You cannot pour new wine into old wineskins ...... so true.
Nowhere in the secular manifestations of good ole planet Earth does this show itself better than in the currency system where gold is just entering a real-time trading paradigm as a store of value with instant global liquidity. The USD may be a currency within the fiat paradigm, but it's more powerful (and newer) role is as a real-time measure for gold-as-money .... floating in real-time. The economy, after all, is a real-time event. Some evils have been necessary in the process of this new money development. It's a tough job .... but someone had to/has to "carry the stick".
You write: "if you cannot find the solution to a problem then it is the system itself which is broken."
The system's broken. No doubt about that.
But a more realistic insight would be, methinks: "if you cannot find the solution to a problem then there may well not be a solution."
Here is my main beef with Anarchism - Warlords.
What do we do about Warlords? You must realize that there will always be powerful people, and they will also most likely be well-armed and well-supplied. What happens when they decide they want to tax the next town's crop production? If a group of 60 armed men approach a farming village demanding 1/3 of their grain, I'd guess the village pays up. Every year. Soon the warlord is taxing 20 different villages and we essentially have a government. A shitty government. A government that takes what it wants - similar to today, but likely much more cruel.
Please let me know what you think. Thanks.
Based on the comments above, I think I'll read market for liberty
Hi Ram, yes, that is all covered in The Market for Liberty. There are free market solutions for everything... tyranny is not a given... some people think just because that is the way it has been for the last few hundred years that it will be that way forever. They, though, are mostly just brainwashed into believing they need the state.. thats what 12 years of government indoctrination will do!