Anarchism

From Kelefa Sanneh in the New Yorker.

Rothbard was an anarchist, but also a capitalist. “True anarchism will be capitalism, and true capitalism will be anarchism,” he once said, and he sometimes referred to himself by means of a seven-syllable honorific: “anarcho-capitalist.” Graeber thinks that governments treat their citizens “like children,” and that, when governments disappear, people will behave differently. Anarcho-capitalists, on the contrary, believe that, without government, people will behave more or less the same: we will be just as creative or greedy or competent as we are now, only freer. Instead of imagining a world without drastic inequality, anarcho-capitalists imagine a world where people and their property are secured by private defense agencies, which are paid to keep the peace. Graeber doesn’t consider anarcho-capitalists to be true anarchists; no doubt the feeling is mutual.

The article is a profile of David Graeber, an anthropologist who got involved with the Occupy movement.

1 thought on “Anarchism

  1. I have read a little of Graeber and a little more of Rothbard and I happen to agree with both of them some of the time. I don’t think that Rothbard’s theoretical anarchy precluded co-ops of the type Graeber prefers. The author also fails to admit that Graebers anarchy would also require private defense.

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