The Founding Fathers and Anarchism
From my Anarcho-Capitalism MySpace group:
Beethoven’s 10th (Ⓐ$) wrote:Something I wonder is, why weren't the founders of the U.S. Anarchists? They seemed to be pretty opposed to the concept of government, & you'd think that such intelligent & educated people would be able to see through the gaping paradoxes in Statism. So, why didn't they found an Anarchy, instead of a Republic?
Consider the opening sections of the Declaration of Independence:When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them...
[...]
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Who knows what the founders would have thought about modern-day AnCap ideas...but given the words above and given that they took on one of the most powerful nations in the world, I bet they wouldn't be as reflexively against it as so many people are today.
Comments
Interesting topic. I actually think that most of the Founding Fathers, like Paine, Jefferson and Washington, were actually anarchists at heart. I think they would have absolved themselves of all forms of government if they'd had their wishes.
But when you consider the time frame and situation of the time, they probably took the minarchist position. Afterall, government by and for the people was a fairly radical concept at that time, when there were nothing but monarchies and empires up to that point.
Add to that the fact that they were breaking loose from a very powerful central government, Britain, and that others like Spain and France were lurking out there too. As a result, I imagine that they might have seen pure anarchy as impractical, since there were all of those major powers with huge standing armies that they thought may be able to threaten a totally decentralized society.
Add to that the fact that they may have also thought people would not be able to make such a sudden drastic change from monarchy to anarchy so soon.
I think the Founding Fathers set up their monarchistic republic as a first stepping stone and actually intended for us to eventually "throw off" all government and some later point.
Just think of how they constantly criticized government and called it "evil," like when Washington said "Government is not eloquence. It is force; like fire a dangerous servant and fearful master." Note that they never differentiated between "good" or "bad" government or "monarchy" or "republican" government. They just said "government" is bad.
Posted by: Clay Rains | July 2, 2009 11:40 AM