What is Anarchism?
Freedom from authority
The Problems
The reader of this will, hopefully, find that I'm sympathetic with the ideals of anarchism, but that I have identified a number of problems with it that prevent it from being a consistent and realistic theory. Some of these problems are not specific to anarchism, but are more general to any political theory that advocates revolutionary change. Some of these problems are only applicable to specific flavours of anarchism. I only provided tentative solutions to some of these problems, I hope to address these problems more fully in future essays.
Society would breakdown without law
If society is to continue functioning without anyone in authority then everyone must get on in a reasonable manner. This might be fine for small groups of people who share common beliefs, but to apply this to a whole region or country appears ridiculous. There will always be individuals or groups that will take advantage of weaker individuals and groups. This is what we have laws and the mechanisms to enforce them for. If there are no rules and no police to enforce them then society will break down and people will end up fighting each other. To assume otherwise is to believe that all people are good and that freed from the choke of Law everyone will suddenly realise their goodness.
The left interpretation of anarchy is incompatible with capitalism
To some this might not be a problem, but capitalism in it's most general interpretation has brought Western society so much over the last couple of hundred years. Arguably, without the transfer of capital from those that have it to those that need it we wouldn't have had the industrial revolutions that have shaped modern society. Taking a recent example, the microprocessor would never have been developed and mass produced without the massive amount of money invested. Anyone that argues for the replacement of capitalism needs to explain how such large and risky investments can take place without it coming from individuals with excess money, or they need to accept that they are arguing for a massive change in the organisation of society that most people are unlikely to agree to.
Those on the radical left (not just anarchists) argue that capitalism is the cause of the unequal distribution of wealth seen in society and that only through its dismantling can this inequality be addressed.