The short answer is "yes." Now I know there are a lot of freedom loving people active on Steemit, and believe me, I'm one of them. But most anarchist views here and elsewhere are noble in their aims and intentions, but lack a realistic understanding of freedom itself.
Anarchy Grunge Flag | by Free Grunge Textures - www.freestock.ca
source: Flickr
According to anarchist- or voluntarist ideology, and I'm going to be painting the picture with gigantic strokes, people should be free to do whatever they want, as long as others don't get hurt, and as long as all interaction between people is on a voluntary basis. Violence is not allowed, unless when it's in self-defense and the same goes for one's property; it is to be respected and not violated by others.
This is such a beautiful and totally reasonable way to look at life: it basically says that my freedom ends where your freedom get's limited or violated by mine. Fellow Steemian @eftnow made a beautiful post about this anarchist view, with a 10 minute video in which he explains exactly what I mean. Please take a look at it, as I think he perfectly captures why anarchism has gained so much popularity, and why it is in principle a good idea:
Please go to his post and upvote the hell out of that! Even if I'm not totally convinced by the case he makes, I'll repeat what he says and agree with him that these ideas are a huge step in the right direction! We should be free and we should not be coerced to do anything against our will by any ruling power. Period.
Let me show you anarchy in action and prove, in some small way, that human beings are perfectly able to live without rules:
- Amazing Traffic Without Traffic Light. source: YouTube
Did you notice how no one loses their temper? How there's a leader and a follower in all of us and we naturally seem to know when to act in which role? Did you notice some "natural leaders" perhaps? What you see here is live organic rule-making among ourselves. If these pictures worry or scare you, then maybe you're not yet ready for a truly free society. True freedom will demand from us a constant awareness of each other's presence as we navigate through the society of people we belong to, a constant applying of the Golden Rule every step of the way.
When in a Scandinavian country (I forget which) the traffic lights on a very busy intersection, where previously a lot of accidents happened, were turned off, there were suddenly a lot less to no accidents anymore. Also participants in traffic suddenly approached the intersection with much more care and consideration and acted a lot friendlier to one another.
- THE MOST INSANE TRAFFIC EVER IN HANOI, VIETNAM! source: YouTube
Rules and laws make us morally lazy. We do things because we're allowed and we don't because we're forbidden, instead of letting our own judgement, our own morals speak. The Scandinavian intersection is but one, and a very graphic example of this but we all know it's true in all walks of life; it's in my opinion the main reason why the white-collar criminals get away with their schemes every time. In our subconscious minds we're remembered that they acted within the law, so they must have been very smart individuals, not criminal. It's why I'm afraid the Jerry Banfields and Trevon James's of this world will always have a faithful following.
So Anarchists are on the right track. They just need to adjust their views on property, trade, individualism and the individualistic nature of their freedom. What they truly seek is the applying of the Golden Rule to all of society, which is actually a call for a true and working democracy as it is consensus on large scales. And democracy cannot work in a plutocracy, freedom is lost in a plutocracy. And a plutocracy is the final station in any system that's based on the "free and unhindered" accumulation of private property. Any system that separates us in "haves" and "have-nots" is bound to end in a plutocracy.
This is why anarchy or any other form of a truly free society will never work alongside capitalism. How could it? Pleas feel free to enlighten me in the comments section. Since I'm still buried in work off the blockchain I still can't make promises regarding an elaborate reaction from me, but I do promise to read all your ideas, objections or agreements, so I can incorporate them in my own opinions for it's never too late to learn something new :-)
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