Anarcho-whatism?

I want to thank Brad and the other contributors for inviting me to join their revolution. It is my hope to co-opt their broadly-based revolution so that I can impose my vision of an anarchic paradise, kind of like Castro and the Ayatollah Khomeini, but without the murders, beatings and prison camps. Essentially, I seek to convince everyone that freedom is a good idea, and that central planning or coercive imposed monopolies are bad ones.

Often when I tell someone for the first time that I am an anarchist, they get this scared look. I routinely have to explain that I am not one of those anarchists who march down streets waving paper-mache puppets, smashing store front windows and throwing home-made bombs while demanding free health care.

So what is anarcho-capitalism? It is a form of extremism. Walter Block describes the heart of free-market anarchism as the principle of “free trade between consenting adults”. I actually prefer the term free-market anarchism because the word “capitalism” was coined by Marx to denigrate free trade. Essentially, the free-market anarchist believes that society should be organized such that the peaceful use of one’s property, and the peaceful interactions between people should not be interfered with.

Why is it anarchic? Because the state is, at its heart, incompatible with this principle. The tax collector gets his money not by persuading a person to give it to him of their own free will, but by threat of violence. The state also quashes competition callling it “invasion” or “vigilantism” depending on the character of the competition.

There is a large body of work available on the web which discusses and describes the various flavors free-market anarchism. I particularly recommend praxeology.net. In the coming months, will be discussing some of those essays, as well as the free-market anarchist’s perspective on current events.

As to myself, I am nearly 37 years old. I am married with two children who are 6 and 2 years old. I am a computer programmer who is trying to start his own consulting business. I live just west of Boston.

I have an unusual history: I was born in Turkey to an American mother and Turkish father. When I was 7 years old, my father sent the rest of our family to the U.S. while he worked to purge the Grey Wolves (a fascist paramilitary group) from his university.

I grew up a few miles away from Lexington green, steeped in the culture of the American Revolution. I was a computer and science nerd growing up, but had a classical education rammed down my throat, including 7 years of Latin. My teenage years were spent reading Heinlein, Niven, Livy, Julius Caesar, Horace, Pliny, Herodotus et al.

I spent 5 years in the U.S. Navy, most of them as an nuclear propulsion officer on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln.

I am an anarcho-capitalist living just west of Boston Massachussetts. I am married, have two children, and am trying to start my own computer consulting company.