Anarchy Or Archy: What Is An Anarchy?

Anarchy: depending on what side of the argument a person is on, there are many definitions. If the discussion is about roots, the ‘an’ of anarchy means without and archon or ‘archy’ means master or ruler, so the definition would be a society without rules. My definition would be a society with no established government and no person rules over another. One of the benefits of an anarchy is that there is complete freedom. There is no leadership, or government. Each person has jurisdiction over their own self. There are no government-run prisons or jails because there is no longer a controlling government. Without the government, laws like in the Constitution would be considered void. The people in the anarchy would be equal in rights, even
if they aren’t equal in talent or knowledge, because every person has the same rights. There would also be no entitlement, in the sense that if a man had been a senator, it is not expected for his son to become a senator too. The wealthy would have less favoritism because politicians and other government officials would no longer be in positions of power to be bought off, and all people would have the same rights.
The government can influence its citizens’ thoughts, but in an anarchy, there is more freedom to people to think for themselves because there isn’t a government to tell them what to believe. There would be no more taxes because there would be no one to collect them. In an anarchy, there would be more business opportunities. No one would be able to tell someone that they can’t open a business in a certain city because it isn’t allowed, so businesses forbidden to open because of prior laws would have no reason not to. There would be room for unlimited economic growth because of a lack of government regulation.
Another benefit to anarchy is that the people wouldn’t be held accountable to any task. In some definitions of anarchy it states that if a person is unable to help themselves, members of the community that reach out and help that person would be doing it voluntarily, not because it is their job or because it’s what is expected of them. Social services would be provided with voluntary funding as well. Also, there would be more privacy. The NSA can watch citizens through their cameras with a warrant, or easily look up a person’s search history and records of any electronic fingerprint they leave. In an anarchy, there would be no NSA so no one would be spying on the people.
As many benefits of an anarchy as there are, there are also many problems that could result for society as a whole.
Without a government, there would be no more government services like roads or bridges. There would be no commerce because roads would eventually wear out and become unusable, and no one would build a bridge to receive goods from across lakes and rivers. Without the government’s hand in airports and other international transportation, travel and trade to other countries would decrease. There would be no FDIC backing without a government, so if a bank was robbed, there would be no one to replace the money. People would no longer put their trust in banks because there is nothing stopping someone from robbing one. Nationally protected sites like forests and monuments wouldn’t be continued or started, so important historical land would become forgotten or built
around.
There would also be no more grants coming in to universities, especially to the art programs so the number of movies and plays produced would go down drastically because people would not have the experience required to make them. In addition to grants to universities being cut, public schools would no longer be funded either. There would be nothing keeping children in school, so only the wealthy would get educations in privately-run buildings, and so the amount of educated citizens would decrease, as well as the amount of people who could read or write. Society would make less progress within an anarchy because mass public-education would decrease.
Without a government and laws, there would be no judicial branch, courts or state-owned prisons and acts like mass-murder would go without consequences.
Laws instructing things like lifejackets and car seatbelts would go unchecked and could cause more deaths. Without laws, violence and violent behaviors would rise because there would be no guarantee people won’t kill, injure, kidnap, defraud or steal from others because of a lack of repercussions. There would also cease to be military protection, since funding for the military comes mostly from the government, so if another country decided to go to war with the United States, the average citizen would have no protection from any type of bomb or missile – guns can’t hold their own to a firebomb. In addition, without the government dictating borders, anyone would be able to come through and wreak havoc through the
country.
A few problems that could arise from anarchy for individuals would also be tied together with the lack of basic services like power and electric. The government controls what these services cost so without a government, only the wealthy would be able to afford them. There would also no longer be welfare, so those without jobs would have very limited, if any, opportunities to earn money to live off of. There would be no more government-funded hospitals or police, so when a person is injured or in a bad situation, there is no one for them to call for help.
My personal opinion on the usefulness of anarchy is that it could not work for an extended period of time. In any society, there will always be people who want power and will use any means to get it. In a society without a government, those people could more easily overpower the country and place themselves in power. There would be no protection from dangerous people inside the country any more than militaries outside of it. Anarchy would just invite countries to try and take over ours because of a lack of a military. Small governments, even if they wouldn’t be called that, would most likely still form and there would have to be an organization to keep those from taking power. Any kind of protection formed could very well turn and change the country. Anarchy would leave any country vulnerable in more ways than one.