Robert P. Murphy - Chaos Theory: Two Essays On Market Anarchy

So, Chaos Theory , huh? Yeah, its not actually about chaos theory, but it is a really cool title. And the book itselfmay be the most important to date on anarchist theory and its possible application to the real world.

When I first read the draft of Bobs book, I was blown away by the sheer simplicity of his arguments, something I think is lacking in much of the existing important anarchist literature. His simple explanations, a smart mixture of common sense and slimmed-down economic theory, provide a perfect starting point for the curious non-anarchist, or a fantastic finishing point for the committed anti-statist who has a few logistical doubts about the stateless society.

Ive known Bob for a while now, since way back when we were regular columnists on LewRockwell.com. In May 2001, he helped me set up anti-state.com, which has grown into the largest market anarchist site on the Internet (seriously!). He continues, with this book, his generous contribution to the next generation of anarchist evolution, which seems to have stagnated until recent months. The continued expansion of the philosophy of non-aggression and cooperation hinges on the ability of its supporters to bring high economic and moral theory down to the level of the common man.

Bob addresses the most common arguments against the abolition of the Stateand completely obliterates them. Who will protect the borders if theres no State? Nobody, moron. There are no borders, except for those of private property. And thats defended without the State the same way we do it now with the State.

I know. What about a psycho neighboring State that has it in for the stateless country that vastly outperforms it economically (and in every other area)? Well, just because there is no State, it does not follow that there is no defense . Its a common tactic of statists to accuse us of wanting to abolish, say, assistance for poor people, since they think that would be impossible without the State. But this isnt true at all: We dont want the State to steal our money and give it to those who dont deserve it. We want the right to our property, including all our money, and the right to help out whomever we deem deserves it. This is consistent with the only rule of libertarianism: the Non-Aggression Principle.

In the first section, Bob explains how a society without government would still have laws and regulations. There would be no (legal) violations of the rights of property owners. In market anarchy, justice would be based on restitution, not retribution, meaning that criminals would have to pay back their victims rather than be punished by the sadistic State.

In the second section, Bob brilliantly tackles the issue of private defense. I refuse to ruin it for youhurry up and read this intro then get to the first chapter.

To sum up my impression of the book, basically: intelligent; succinct; and most important of all, written in the language of the common person, without the haughty academic snobbery so present in the currently available body of work, which tends to be a major problem for those of us trying to popularize the movement.

This is sure to become a fixture in the personal libraries of countless libertarians and anarchists, and a classic in the realm of anarchist and Austrian economic theory.

Jeremy Sapienza, Editor anti-state.com

Chaos theory is the qualitative study of unstable aperiodic behavior in deterministic nonlinear dynamical systems. See http://www.duke.edu/~mjd/chaos/chaos.html.

The NAP states that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, nor to delegate its initiation. So simple, youd think it would catch on more widely. Oh, and having the State do your dirty work is delegating, so the State, by its very existence, violates the NAP.

Without question, the legal system is the one facet of society that supposedly requires State provision. Even such champions of laissez-faire as Milton Friedman and Ludwig von Mises believed a government must exist to protect private property and define the rules of the game.

However, their arguments focused on the necessity of law itself. They simply assumed that the market is incapable of defining and protecting property rights. They were wrong.

In this essay, I argue that the elimination of the State will not lead to lawless chaos. Voluntary institutions will emerge to effectively and peacefully resolve the disputes arising in everyday life. Not only will market law be more efficient , it will also be more equitable , than the government alternative.

Just as right-wing hawks embrace the Orwellian notion that War is Peace, left-wing egalitarians believe that Slavery is Freedom. The hawks wage endless war to end war, while the social democrats engage in massive theftor taxation as they call itto eliminate crime.