The edges of everything are blurry. Including private property. We can all agree that if you worked for a wage at an honest company producing goods people need that your money is yours and taxing it would be theft.
But what about the land that you claim that wasn't owned? Surely someone had to claim it at some point if not you.
The uncomfortable truth for all anarchists is that there is no abolishing aggression. There is, at best, minimization of it. At the end of the day, some conflicting claims really are just best settled with violence. Preferably the swifter the better, and with the least collateral damage and impact to productive endeavors.
To quote Tony Soprano, 'when the guys are going to mattresses, they're not earning!'
The real problem with the state isn't that it uses violence. It's that it abstracts violence away from the situations which call for it, and through the repression, magnify it and increase the damage it does.
Left to our own devices, most of us will avoid unnecessary violence because if any alternative path exists that can provide an amenable outcome, we'll take it. The state thrives on our willingness to outsource the violence, and by the time the chickens come home to roost, we're left unable to get out from under its boot.
Tl;Dr celebrate violence. The fact that you're here is because your ancestors mastered it against their opponents.
Replies (4)
"Your ancestors mastered it against their opponents"
I think they mastered eating meat, but I wouldn't call prey opponents, and there's a long way to go to master violence against actual opponents
Just a small nitpick, sorry
Also, Brandon Lee's ancestors definitely did master violence against opponents, but then he died filming fictional violence
So like, violence is useful, but also problematic in human nature
No worries, but I meant more in prevailing amid the wars of history. I guess maybe its presumptive to assume everyone has a veteran of some war somewhere back in their family tree, but likely they at least have ancestors from peoples who were under threat from another people at some point, be it European colonial powers, the Romans, the Ottomans, the Samurai, the warring clans in China (to say nothing of the Mongols), etc.
Human history is a history of warfare. Those who remain are those who prevailed through it to pass on their lineage.
But I'm not trying to say everyone is like, an alpha warrior from an elite bloodline or anything haha. Just that most people can't point to a bloodline of pacifists they come from.
We're a a warlike race. We absolutely have the capacity to cooperate and use diplomacy and trade to enrich life for all of us, sometimes. We even can at times bury hatchets, setting aside ancient feuds to stem the tide of blood.
But usually, we remember where that hatchet is buried. Just in case.
