I Sometimes Have Doubts

JL Wilson has a point when he argues that the monopolization of the legitimate use of force by the state would be preferable to the situation in which individuals ran amok and imposed their will on others by force. Norbert Elias referred to the monopolization of violence by states as the “civilizing process”. Another part of this was the diffusion of bourgeois values to the lower orders of society. The murder rate, if you don’t count murders by states, has fallen over the last 800 years or so coincidental with state formation.

I prefer to think of this process as “domestication” rather than civilization because it involves making us both more governable and self governing. This leaves us less exposed to the predations of our neighbors but more exposed to the predations of our rulers.

I like to think of my fellow human beings as basically cooperative and kind, and my desire for anarchy is based to some degree on my conviction that most people don’t need to be governed. On the other hand, if I am wrong and most people are bad, then I wouldn’t want to be governed by bad people. So I get right back to anarchy as my preference.

I understand how some people might be frightened of the prospect and would fear that anarchy would mean chaos and unfettered violence. I frequently hear arguments to the effect that we would all have to be armed to the teeth and constantly at war if we had no government. I reckon the ax murderers and thugs get so much press and attention that we forget the thousands of acts of kindness and solicitude that enable us to get through the day. We live relatively atomistic, isolated lives and don’t really know our neighbors. They might be murderous bastards for all we know, and the police are all that stands between us and their depravity. And what about those urban gangs? They’d come upstate and vandalize our homes and rape our women if it weren’t for East Fishkill’s finest.

I confess that I have some reservations and doubts about my vision of a free society. Would the “private defense agency” that I subscribed to be more like a feudal warlord than a business sensitive to my demands as a consumer? And what about all the reliance on insurance contracts in the free society? Have you ever dealt with an insurance company? They are regulated out the wazoo now, and they still don’t pay claims as they are supposed to.

I have been totally steeped in bourgeois values, but I try to see things from the perspective of working class or lower class people and to recognize their different values and norms as resistance to the dominant culture. But I just can’t embrace so much of it. Dogfighting, cockfighting, bearbaiting, blood sports, demeaning of women in rap and popular culture, child beating, domestic abuse and a host of other aspects of life among the riff raff frighten or disgust me. All the guests on Jerry Springer or the folks who make guest appearances on Cops undermine my regard for my fellow human beings. That people spend gazillions of dollars on the WWE causes me to question the sanity of many. Seriously, there are still people who think that the fights on the WWE are real.

I have to keep reminding myself that these folks with the scary or repugnant tastes are a small proportion of the population and that most working class or lower class people really are the salt of the earth. They love their families and their dogs, and they are just trying to get by in a world that is stacked against them. I’d take my chances living among them in a free society.