This is another excerpt from my episode with Dr. Gerard Casey in which we discuss his book Libertarian Anarchy. Enjoy. -P
Penjammin: How would you define anarchy in itself? Not anarcho-capitalism, but just anarchy.
Gerard Casey: Well, that's very simple. Anarchy simply rejects the idea completely that it's in the nature of things that somehow some people are destined by virtue of some quality (I don't quite know what that'd be) to rule over others. There there may be anarchists whose idea of the good life is to live in the woods and eat squirrels. it's not mine.
Penjammin: Alright. Yeah.
Gerard Casey: You don't reject community. You don't reject organization. You don't reject order or any of these things. You simply say that these are things that come about through the voluntary interactions of human beings, and not through the imposition of order top down. Now, obviously, there are exceptions to this. So clearly, in the family, if you're two year old says, “Hey, dad, I've been reading your libertarian anarchy books, and I'm going to stroll across the road by myself across six lanes of traffic.” To which your reply is “Like hell you will.” Right? …because you have a responsibility here and you have, actually, an authority, a natural authority (which must, must seem so strange for me to talk about that). But the point there is that authority is to be exercised not for your good, but for the good of those who have been given into your care. And of course, you have to relinquish that as they grow older and are in a position to accept responsibility for what they do themselves. So leaving aside those kind of exceptions, no one has any authority . . . if you're walking down the street and you see a total stranger and you give them an order, say, to tie their shoelaces or button up their jacket or something, they're going to look at you really funny.
Penjammin: Yeah,
Gerard Casey: That's. If they don't clock you one. Right?
Penjammin: Right.
Gerard Casey: …because nobody has any obligation to do anything you tell them. They're just walking along, minding their own business. This whole idea of which, to us, seems incredibly natural because we're so used to it. And one of the things I try to get my students to see was just how odd it is that some people, simply because of some arrangement with which most people have had nothing to do, namely a constitution, for example, and because somebody else voted for them, they went into a booth and put a mark in a piece of paper… suddenly these people collected in a building somewhere, get to determine what you can and can't do and what you must and mustn't do. Right. Well, it might be that what they what they want you to do and what they don't want you to do is great and so on. That's fine. But on the other hand, where do they get where do they get this authority from? …
Penjammin: Samuel, you know, at one point he anointed Dave with oil, but now is he using voting boxes? I don't think so.
Gerard Casey: Remember, you're talking to a Catholic here. We don't read Bibles, you know. [laughs]
Penjammin: I'm going to leave that one right there. You go ahead and say that. [laughs]
For more Gerard Casey, check out The Liberty Classroom.
Penjammin grew up in a labyrinthine cavern. Later he ran with the wolves, enjoying life in the sweet scent of his game, until pirates landed and… (see “About” above).
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