Social Matter

Alrenous has graciously penned a rebuttal to my piece on anarcho-capitalism. Most of our differences of opinion arise from a misunderstanding of my original argument, for which I, as the original author, am of course responsible, so I hope here to clarify matters that I did not adequately express before. Some disagreements, however, are more substantive, going to the very heart of anarcho-capitalism; Alrenous’s understanding of anarcho-capitalism is quite unique and deserves special attention. First, let me address the misunderstanding. In my piece, I presented three potential Ancapistans: the United States of Ancapistan, the Free Town of Ancapistan, and a […]

Have you seen the steady stream of quotes and speeches by presidential candidates about one of our allies? This ally is in a far-flung region of the world. They have a vibrant democracy in an area unfriendly towards democracy. They deal with a Muslim threat, jihad next door, terrorists within their nation, and the threat of nuclear annihilation. They do have nuclear weapons of their own, and have a nationalist leader at the head of the government now. Let’s review the quotes. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “India is a vibrant democracy in a region dominated by autocracy, and it faces […]

Two weeks ago, I discussed state-society, the libertarian minarchists’ vision of a perfect society. What I did not discuss was libertarian anarchism or anarcho-capitalism and for obvious reasons: anarchism demands the abolishing, not the taming, of the state. Today I will address that oversight by analyzing Ancapistan, the goal of anarcho-capitalism, not strictly to criticize it, but to draw out nuances of anarcho-capitalist theory. My argument, put simply, is that anarcho-capitalists should become neoreactionaries. One advantage state-society has over Ancapistan is that it is much easier for us living today to conceptualize. State apparatus’ are so broad, so firmly entrenched, […]

Charging through the Middle East like Muhammad himself, the men of ISIS have quickly cut a swath of destruction and subsequent occupation across lines developed by Sykes and Picot. What was initially downplayed (Obama called them “the JV team”) has turned into a steady stream of horrors on television, in print, and with great showmanship, on the Internet. Big guns in the media have discussed what ISIS wants and the rise of ISIS, but as close as they get, the media holds back from taking things to their logical conclusion. There is something new to this that the media fears […]

There is a school of thought which states that the age of easily accessible and widely available energy will soon be peaking. Perhaps it has already peaked. Perhaps the end is 25 years away. Perhaps 50 or 100. Perhaps Elon Musk will save the world, or perhaps he will fail. The timelines differ, but what unites this school of thought is that this will spark the disintegration of Modern Industrial Civilization – we’ll call this MIC. MIC is defined by widespread if not total participation by society in an industrial – now digitized – lifestyle. It is usually accompanied by […]

Leftism is simultaneously associated with the Cathedral, the apparatus of elite control of public opinion, and with democracy, which is supposed to involve non-elites having a substantial say in major decisions. It can be quite a lot of fun to watch how quickly leftists start condemning ballot initiatives or popular legislative proposals, genuine expression of the popular will, when these moves threaten leftist causes. This looks, walks, and quacks like hypocrisy—leftists viewing democracy more as a means than an end in itself. There is, in fact, no hypocrisy involved. The Cathedral is democracy, and populism really is anti-democratic. Democracy has […]