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From: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Found in a strange place...
Message-ID: <412@cybvax0.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 11-Mar-85 12:56:38 EST
Article-I.D.: cybvax0.412
Posted: Mon Mar 11 12:56:38 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 14-Mar-85 05:11:36 EST
References: <815@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA>
Reply-To: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Organization: Cybermation, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Lines: 66
Summary: 

In article <815@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> mwm@ucbtopaz.UUCP (Praiser of Bob) writes:
> The following was found hiding in an anarchist document. It is presented
> with very little comment. All errors can be assumed to be the transcribers.
> 
> ----------------------------------------
> 
> 		DEFINITIONS AND DISTINCTIONS

Wow.  This is a classic example of the dictum in 1984 that if you can
control the language, you can control thought.  I've long heard that
applied to Marxism, but it is entertaining to see it applied in an
anarchist/libertarian manner.

>     FREE MARKET: That condition of society in which all economic
> transactions result from voluntary choice without coercion.
> 
>     THE STATE: That institution which interferes with the Free Market
> through the direct exercise of coercion or the granting of privileges
> (backed by coercion).

Note that this definition of THE STATE applies equally well to your local
bully, gang, neighborhood association, town militia, and actually any
individual including yourself who tries anything with teeth in it.  It
is flexible enough to recognize a multiplicity of states at many levels.
The crucial point is that there is no line at which they say "state" ends
and legitimate enforcement of ownership or rights begins.  (I can only
think of one person who really advocated owning nothing, and practiced it:
a Greek philosopher whose name I can't remember.)  Nor do I see a suggestion
of a substitute for a state to prevent outsiders from this system from
ravaging it.

>     TAX: That form of coercion or interference with the Free Market in
> which the state collects tribute (the tax), allowing it to hire armed
> forces to practice coercion in defense of privilege, and also to engage in
> such wars, adventures, experiments, "reforms," etc., as it pleases, not at
> its own cost, but at the cost of "its" subjects.
> 
>     PRIVILEGE: From the Latin privi, private, and lege, law. An advantage
> granted by the State and protected by its powers of coercion. A law for
> private benefit.

Note that the term privilege is here defined as anything.  I suppose they
mean that privilege is anything one person has that another might want.
Such as land, wealth, food, organs....  The crucial point is that there is
no line at which they say privilege ends and right begins.

> USURY... LANDLORDISM... TARIFF... CAPITALISM... CONSERVATISM... LIBERALISM...
> SOCIALISM...

Interesting definitions.

>     ANARCHISM: That organization of society in which the Free Market
> operates freely, without taxes, usury, landlordism, tariffs, or other forms
> of coercion or privilege. RIGHT ANARCHISTS predict that in the Free Market
> people would voluntarily choose to compete more often than to cooperate.
> LEFT ANARCHISTS predict that in the Free Market people would voluntarily
> choose to cooperate more often than to compete.

Actually, these definitions fit some aspects of some American Indian
cultures fairly well.  Tribalism replaces statism, and many of the "ills"
defined above are nearly eliminated.  However, I would bet that those "ills"
are replaced by violent competition on the personal and tribal levels, to
reduce pressure on the resources in demand.
-- 

Mike Huybensz		...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh