Anarchy

"Dogs and cats, living together. Mass hysteria!"
--Dr Peter Venkman (Ghostbusters)

Google word counts associated with 'anarchy' have probably increased recently. Liberal talking points appear to include labeling as anarchists those people who oppose agendas for larger government.

In its most straightforward sense, anarchy means self-rule. Rather than institutionalizing a government to rule people, individuals govern themselves.

This is certainly not the picture that today's liberals want to paint when they shout anarchy. After all, self-rule was a founding principle of America. The last thing liberals want to do is to awaken visions of self-rule in the heads of a slumbering populace.

Instead, liberals want to associate anarchy with conditions of lawlessness and chaos. Yes, lawlessness and chaos can be a consequence of anarchy. But these conditions can just as readily be associated with institutionalized governments--as history has repeatedly demonstrated.

But Leftists know the power of words, and they like to engage in the classic Liberal Mind Trick. Change the definition of the word and then repeat it in hopes that citizens will internalize the propaganda.

Proponents of the State want to portray anarchy as bad. Their hoped-for outcome is captured by Joseph Sobran at the end of this nice little essay:

"The measure of the state's success is that the word 'anarchy' frightens people, while the word 'state' does not."

Still, a fair question to ask is whether freedom is best realized under conditions of anarchy or under some form of limited government. We'll circle back to this question in a future post as it is one that I've been pondering lately.