Re: why "anarcho-capitalism" is an oxymoron

From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Fri Oct 18 2002 - 18:57:29 MDT


On Friday 18 October 2002 14:39, Alexander Sheppard wrote:
> How can there be such a thing as "anarcho-capitalism"?
>
> I mean, private property itself is the hugest state intervention in the
> natural order of things around. The state exists to protect private
> property... that's what it is, it is the thing which enforces the existance
> of private property. It's a common organization formed by those whom people
> are subservient to to protect thier wealth by force.
>...

Private property and "the state" both existed before the idea of capitalism
did. They have clear pre-human antecedants. For property read territory, as
in a hunting territory. For "the state" read the gang that clustered around
the dominant male. Baboons do this, Lions do this, chimpanzees do this,
people do this, dogs and wolves do this. Cats don't. They aren't social
enough to have needed the state.

Capitalism is probably a human invention. I'm not even sure how it could be
defined so that we could look around for non-human analogs.



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