The Case Against Anarchism
In this post, I will make the case against anarchism, or to put it another way, the case for the state. To make the case against anarchism, I need to explain what society is, what it is for, and how it works. So, this essay is not just the case against anarchism, it is also the outline of my social theory. Any social theory must be consistent with biology and physics, so I will begin from fundamental principles of life derived from physics and biology, and then build a theory of society on that foundation. Life is Competitive Life is a type of emergent order. It must extract (potential) energy from the environment to survive and reproduce. The energy could come from the Sun, other living beings, or chemical energy (such as deep-sea vents). Ultimately, all the energy in the biosphere comes from nuclear fusion in the Sun or from nuclear fission in the Earth’s core. Every ecosystem has finite resources: a finite stock of matter and a finite flow of energy from the Sun. Life has...