Before I begin, let me start by suggesting that there are many variations on anarchism philosophy, but most share one common idea - absence of government or any enforced authority. Now, the basic assumption anarchists make is that they believe authoritative institutions are the problem, and that if we do away with certain institutions then society will be better off. However, my position is that there is nothing inherently wrong with institutions or even corporations for that matter, it is the people running them. Human nature is the problem. Moreover, without institutions, the same behaviors will emerge, only the power shift will be more local than national. For instance: In countries in the middle east without federal institutions, tribalism naturally takes root which is actually more brutal. Punishments for crime is decided by a small number of tribal leaders whom usually have less moral restraint than politicians or who are guided by outdated brutal religious texts. So it is human nature and natural to create hierarchies of power, but a wise person can be in power without abusing it, whereas an unwise person will cause mischief and havoc. Authority and hierarchy is necessary because in our modern civilization there is need for management. Any service or good needs management so a hierarchy will naturally take place. And where there is a hierarchy, there is authority, someone who you need to listen to. This system can work well in business if the manager has a decent character, meaning if they respect employees and do not abuse their power. Moreover, I tend to view governments and corporations very similar. Both are created by the people for the people. They are intended to provide the populous with goods and services, whereas government has the extra duty of regulating the activities of corporations and maintaining order within the society. And any developed country has a sophisticated legal system and internal auditor that helps to keep the behavior of government in check. It is not a perfect system, but is far superior to anything the anarchists advocate. An institution with authority is not a major problem if the proper regulations are in place. And of course, corruption and atrocities will take place, but that isn't a problem with government or corporations. Their intended function is to provide the populous with some vital good or service. Some anarchists advocate that every society should abandon government altogether, and simply allow private corporations to supply all the services and goods that the government currently does. The major problem with that arrangement is many services do very poorly when they are privatized such as a fire department or police force. Not to mention, some of these forces need to be universal, as you cannot have competing police forces fighting for the crime in the city, it just doesn’t make rational sense. And if you take away government, the regulations on corporations will no longer exist, and so corporations will naturally evolve to become a much more immoral and neurotic force. A corporation without regulations will naturally become less beneficial to the society, as they will cut corners to boost profits, pay less for wages, engage in corrupt and dishonest activities and all the rest of it. However, I can understand the anarchists desire to want a better society, but you cannot get there by eliminating government. The solution at present is more of the same in any liberal nation - a dualistic system of corporations under the supervision of government and law, and the government under the supervision of law and the populous. Basically a well regulated system for both government and corporations. However, if the majority of people were enlightened or valued wisdom more than anything else, corruption in government and corporations wouldn’t be as ramped anyway. This is true because a wise person isn’t tempted by the pleasures of power, so they do not become insecure when the threat of losing their position comes into play. And they will not be as greedy at the expense of the populous because their desire to serve the society and improve it will outweigh any short term reward greed provides. I will leave you with the primary problem of anarchists, they ignore human nature, and try to simply attack the superficial institutional structure, but such a strategy will only cause the same problem to manifest in another form. It is like playing the wack a mole game, you may hit one mole on the hit, only to see it resurface in another location. And that is the primary problem of the ideology of anarchism. The removal of institutions will simply cause humans to form power structures locally such as religious tribalism, community governess, and so on. And the same corruption will emerge at the local level as well, only with less oversight, and probably more brutality.
No comments:
Post a Comment