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I don't understand the difference between Libertarian and Anarchist
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
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this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023
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libertarianism
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I'd consider libertarians to want a small government that does very little, while anarchists want none.
A small government would make and enforce laws, have a military, and maybe do some other public goods (though not many).
Anarchism is absolute chaos. Without any sort of government, anything goes. Probably the first thing to happen is a few people seize power, and technically you don't have anarchism anymore, you have warlords.
While a small government wouldn't enforce build codes and wouldn't provide free Healthcare, it's a far cry from no government.
People have the inherent ability to work together by choice without an authority creating rules, we see it every day. Seems like we could choose to work together to defend each other
Anarchy in greek means "non-rule". It means, in essence, that no one has any authority over you or your property. So there can be no state and no courts or anything like that, because otherwise you would have to cede power and authority to someone else. In an absolute anarchist society, you would have to protect everything yourself.
But this is practically impossible so most anarchists tend to give away some competences to private companies, collectives or small governments which in the end is nothing else than libertarianism.
In that case, libertarianism sounds a little more stable, one government that is harder for a warlord to take over and that a company couldn't just buy. Anarchy seems more prone to falling into totalitarianism than libertarianism.
Aside from that, it sounds less like libertarians are actually anarchists, and more like anarchists are actually libertarians.
That said, I guess they're both asking "what's the smallest amount if government possible?".
People have friends and family to work together with, that doesn't necessitate an authority creating rules
not necessarily in families but at some complexity you can't manage all yourself. You will have to rely on others to protect you or your property when you are working or away and so on. If you need a better seawage system or better roads you will definitely have to ask experts to help you. In the end you will have to create rules together to coordinate. Now you nned somebody to enforce this and so on. Anarchy is more like a reset but I think that human nature will eventually prganize in societies and states. In the best case they define the rules and these rules are as minimal as possible.