Opinion: Why I Write About Generational Anarchism

Colin Lloyd on Unsplash

At this point with my writings for NewsBreak, most people following me probably know that I spend time writing about practical anarchism. I write about dispelling the myth that anarchists all want no government whatsoever; since many anarchists & libertarians simply want a nightwatchman state - a government that exists to protect people's rights but does not have a monopoly on violence that can allow it to be turned into a tool against the very people the government is supposed to defend. I have also written about mutualism: a form of government with a blueprint for how people can own property and handle finances as well as their state of living without needing an overbearing hierarchical state. On top of all this, I want to point out why I spend so much time talking about anarchist & libertarian communities that existed longer than a generation and why I point out how many generations each of these communities have lasted.

One of the reasons people see libertarianism and anarchism as a joke - in addition to the previously mentioned myth that anarchists are all crazy people who want no government at all and have no plan for how things like the economy would work - is that so many libertarians and anarchists only give examples of communities that have lasted less than a generation. So many people talking about libertarianism talk about things like the Spanish syndicalists that only lasted two years or the Makhnovshchina anarchist society in 1910s/1920s Ukraine that was only around about three years or CHAZ in 2020 which existed for a single month!

While I understand why other libertarians might mention examples like this or similar examples like this in conversation, it kind of does not help your point when the only examples of your ideology 'working' are versions that cannot even exist for a single generation. When people are solely given proof of anarchism like this, it is no wonder that most people see it as a utopian ideology that only exists in the imagination of college students. However, the best way to show that anarchism is capable of working is to show examples of minarchist governments that last longer than 20 to 25 years ( this is the general length of time that is considered by one generation with the US Census Bureau officially designating a generation based on the 20-year timespan of the Baby Boomer Generation). That is why, from my perspective, it is best to mention communities like The Farm in Tennesse which has been around for 1973 or over two generations. This is why it is best to mention the mutualist & nightwatchman state-laden community of the Wild West that lasted eighty-two years according to long estimates (which is over four generations according to the US Census).

It makes sense for people to not be all on board with libertarianism and anarchism. I understand and I do not want to present these ideologies as perfect fixes for all of society's problems. However, generational anarchism shows that many libertarians are people with somewhat workable ideas that have practical proof that their beliefs can lead to a functional society without overbearing government control, not complete nutcases basing their hopes on something that has never been tested.