Anarchy 2
Anarchy is the theory of life and conduct under which social interactions exist without government interference or assistance. It is not chaos, nor terrorism, and has no connection to senseless violence; anarchy is simply existing without being governed. Harmony in such a society would be obtained not by submission to laws, or by obedience to any form of authority, but by freely entered agreements between individuals. The United States has strong ties to anarchy, a rather paradoxical situation. It was conceived by, and is even to this day constantly being refined by anarchists; people who maintain the view that the highest attainment of humanity is the freedom of individuals to express themselves unhindered by any form of external repression. Men such as the likes of Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers, whose views can best be summarized in something he preached, "If you think people incapable of exercising their choices with wholesome discretion, the solution is not to take away their choices, but to inform their discretion." So where did the concept of anarchy come from? Could it be inherent in human nature, a hold over from adolescence perhaps? Could it be people are naturally opposed to being told what to do? Abraham Lincoln, during the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, said something that summarizes human view towards being governed, "No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent." The modern concept of anarchy as being a sort of ethical civil society came during the French Revolution, around 1848. A man named Pierre Joseph Pfoudhon envisioned a society in which people's ethical nature and sense of moral responsibility would be so highly developed that government would be unnecessary to regulate and protect society, and is thus credited with fathering modern anarchy. Anarchy requires a lot of commitment on the part of the individual. How does the old saying go With...
View Full Essay
