Anarchy, emergence of

New York Times, on Sunday, November 8, had an article on sentences addressed by a Federal judge to three members of the antigovernment Montana Freemen for conspiracy and fraud; the article stirred my memory and concern about this paper, as well as brought into play many of the dilemmas discussed in the Nature of Politics class. However, I do not wish to analyze this particular article or cult, but the emergence of anarchy. There have been theories and diagnosis of human nature: the Aristotelian, teleo- logical view of the political animal, the Platonic, metaphorical view of the chained caveman, the Hobbian, phobic view of savage life as inevitably ‘short’, and many notable others. Regardless of the differences found in these, there is a common denominator found in all. That is, human beings move from the animalistic, passive stage to the civilized stage in order to materialize their potential in full. In this domain, governments serve as expedients or facilitators of an anthropological movement. The mechanism may differ from one type of government to another, but its principal, common function is to lay and protect the foundations for a pro

It is worth noticing, that no matter what degree of legitimacy one government enjoys, or another lacks, they both eventually assume an hierarchical order which in turn inevitably assures a pragmatic i n e q u a l i t y. Nevertheless, although the articles of the social contract are met, justice is not served. Plato is aware, and so is his audience, of this omnipresent, blind control when he records the apology. Both the "retarded"tm and the "advanced"tm could function only once they are circumcised. Their collective conduct need not be all good or all bad for it is fairly right to say that all good things don"tmt go together, just as all bad things don"tmt. In this context, freedom is the absence of any external force. For example, a given sum transferred from rich to poor would enhance the welfare of the latter more than it would decrease the welfare of the former. If humans"tm end is the political life -in the original, Aristotelian sense - this does not assume or presuppose total anthropocentrism or contingent politicocentrism. The only safe outcome here is the supremacy and well being of the system at the expense of its "raison d"tmetat"tm. , when the Cynics saw the "civilized values"tm as being no true values. It seems far more possible that individuals in their selfishness would acquire a code for greater efficiency and familiarize themselves with accelerated power not found outside the social market. The complication, therefore, stems from the fact that any hierarchy fosters legal, pragmatic, social inequality among otherwise -legally- equal entities.