I am definitely going to check this out...


| Individualist Anarchism |

All libertarians would agree with the old Jeffersonian motto, "That government is best which governs least."

And many would also agree with Henry David Thoreau when he wrote that "I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe -- 'That government is best which governs not at all'."

Although a majority of libertarians do believe that a limited government is probably necessary to carry out certain essential functions such as criminal justice and national defense, individualist anarchists (or "anarcho-capitalists") believe there is nothing that cannot be done (or even done better) voluntarily.

That doesn't mean anarcho-capitalists are necessarily pacificists. Most agree that force will always be necessary to defend people and their property, but they argue that defense and security services can be provided in a free market.

One of the most prominent anarcho-capitalist intellectuals is economist David Friedman (son of Nobel laureate Milton Friedman). He has spent years describing the institutions a society without government might use to secure peace and justice; he calls these institutions the "machinery of freedom."

It should be noted that most libertarian anarchists qualify their anarchist label with an adjective like "individualist" or a neologism like "anarcho-capitalist" to differentiate themselves from bomb-throwing radicals and left-wing, anti-property anarchists like Mikhail Bakunin and Noam Chomsky. For more background on the anarchist ideological differences, consult the excellent Anarchist Theory FAQ, by George Mason University economics professor Bryan Caplan.

For obvious reasons, libertarian anarchists don't tend to be very active in politics. They tend to see themselves in a long-term battle of ideas. The hearts and minds of people need to be won over, they reason, before society will change.

Some libertarian anarchists (and other libertarians) are interested in alternative, individualistic, even "anti-political" ways of pursuing freedom, such as micronations, offshore investments, and spirituality.