Anarchy, and confusion

[Tim May]

The confusion about anarchy and what it means is common. We see it here.

Perhaps some of us have not done enough to try to educate people. 
Mostly, I think we have already written enough and if people will not 
think deeply about the issues, will not read at least _some_ of the 
readily-searchable (with Google, even) archives, and will not read some 
of the basic articles and books, then further blathering from us will 
not help.

Anarchy is all around us. We write what we want, at least until 
Ashcroft and Bush get PATRIOT III passed by acclamation, and this is an 
anarchy ("without a top authority" -- "an arch"). We pick our 
restaurants by anarchic means. Anarchy doesn't mean "chaos, with people 
killing each other at will." Folks need to think about what "monarch" 
means ("one top"), about what oligarch means, etc.

Here's a very practical example: medical malpractice. Much in the news, 
debated daily. Bush Himself spoke out this morning (or, as he put it, 
"We gotta open a can of Texas whoop-ass on those trial attorney bad 
boys!").

This is a situation where an anarchic, voluntaristic, polycentric law 
solution is obvious: let people choose doctors and hospitals based on 
how much malpractice they will pay:

Hospital Alpha and its doctors have this policy: "If you have any 
complaints whatsoever, if you stub your toe going to the toilet, or if 
your baby dies in childbirth, we will pay you multiple millions of 
dollars for your mental anguish. Of course, we will charge you $65,000 
for a baby delivery, $750,000 for heart transplant, and we don't take 
VISA or Mastercard."

Hospital Beta and its doctors have this policy: "We use this group to 
adjudicate disputes about health care. If you choose to use us, you 
also choose them to adjudicate disputes. Our rates reflect our less 
outrageous payouts than the Hospital Alpha system. A baby delivery will 
cost you $3000, assuming no complications. A heart transplant is 
$63,500. You may die during the operation. Life is tough. You agree to 
the adjudication described above. We wish you well."

This is what a society based on _contracts_ would allow. Free choice.

Instead, contracts are toilet paper and free choice is a joke.

Anarchy means "an arch" means free choice means responsibility for 
choice means noncoercion.

But I don't expect most of you yahoos, those who have never read Hayek 
or Friedman or even Rand to grasp these points.

The connection with crypto is obvious. Crypto means never having to let 
Big Brother intervene in contractual negotiations. Which is where 
"crypto anarchy" comes from. (That, and the pun on "hidden," as with 
Vidal's denunciation of Buckley as a crypto-fascist.)

I read what some of you folks here write and all I can say is that I 
hope you are inside the fireballs when the freedom fighters take out 
the Great Satan.

--Tim May
"If I'm going to reach out to the the Democrats then I need a third 
hand.There's no way I'm letting go of my wallet or my gun while they're 
around." --attribution uncertain, possibly Gunner, on Usenet