God Is an Anarchist, Part 6: 'A Is A' in Asia

Okay then, Mikey. Without the government, who takes care of people who can’t pay for healthcare?

He had flown into Narita two weeks ago, this was his last day in Japan. We'd stayed in Tokyo three days, and then taken the bullet train up to my small apartment in Niigata City, on the other side of the country, right next to the Sea of Japan.

Well, first, people ALREADY can’t pay for that shit under YOUR current paradigm, you stupid fuck! He indulged himself an involuntary eruption of laughter here, then continued. And second, the Supreme Court ruled police have no legal obligation to protect you anyway.

He seemed kind of loopy right now. I never said I supported the current paradigm, either.

I picked up a rice cracker from the tatami floor and crunched into it. I was on a cushion and Mikey was sitting in the brown chair in the corner. 

Seriously, though, look at that school shooting that just happened. No help from the pigs. The parents were even trying to save their own kids and the cops were fucking arresting and tasing the parents. Fuck these piece of shit cowards, man. Jesus Christ. Privatize this shit, then there would be some accountability at least.

So no cops. Private security firms, right? (We’d been over this a million times) I polished off another soy sauce flavored rice cracker and took a gulp of iced mugi tea. 

Yeah, why not? And your question about helping: If nobody is willing to help the person in need that’s next to them — with food, or healthcare or bills or whatever — then why would a government made of the exact same kind of unhelpful people do it? And if they're not the same kind of people, what are they? Gods?

He had a point. I crunched on.

Most people are generally good when their needs are met, man.

Well, I never said people were bad. I don't think they are in general, actually. But people are usually stupid. Insufferably so. And so that often leads them to do evil things and become practically evil by default. 

Mikey agreed with me there. 

Mikey said if individuals can organize and make governments, why can’t they make other, alternative systems of order.

People can't imagine doing things any other way.

Exactly. It's like telling a caveman about the internet. Or a slaver about other ways to pick cotton. Or that owning people is fucking wrong. You think you're not owned by the IRS? Test it out!

Well, that might be a little extreme.

How? If I wanna leave the states for good now and come here to stay in Japan as a citizen with you, and I don't want to pay American taxes anymore, you know I have to apply to revoke my U.S. citizenship, right? And they can literally force me to remain there by not approving me. When did I grant them this authority over my body? Well, people tell me democracy decided. Okay then. A bunch of other people I don't even fucking know decided for me. Apply that same thinking to any area of private life and people would call it out for what it is: insanity, violence, and sociopathic abuse.

Who’s going to pay for your private services?

If you need something now, you're willing to pay for it.

Yeah, well.

Well, there you go.

Yeah, but some folks are freeloaders.

Yeah, and the biggest freeloaders are governments. Everyone last night was totally fine paying for karaoke, right? And if someone would have tried to pay much less than their share, or none at all, there would have been problems.

Well, yeah, maybe. 

No, not maybe. Repeatedly not chipping in would result in no longer being invited out, eventually.

Maybe, unless that person threatens the others. 

Now you're getting it. 

Well, what about the poor person who can't pay for karaoke — or, I mean, private healthcare services?

We already covered this, dude. Fucking time and again. Nobody in their community will help them?

Maybe not. 

Then so what if that community fails? They sound like scumbags, anyway. 

He had a point.

But to answer your question more directly. Doctors want to stay in business, right?

It was too obvious to answer. 

So imagine you're this doctor in a community and some poor guy can't get the life-saving operation he needs, that you can do. Even if you are a completely shit person, everyone in the town is going to know you refused the poor guy, and you've just made the worst fuck up of your life, and the best possible advertisement for your competition.

You'll be out of business in no time flat, and you won’t be able to get what you need from others, either. Imagine it. There's no violent licensing racket protecting you anymore, and the other businesses in the community are free to refuse service to this bitch doctor based on whatever criteria they want. You want to buy groceries here? Sorry, we don't serve shitty doctors. Go somewhere else. 

So unlike the police, or boards of education, or hospitals of today, You're gonna be accountable. In a quite elegant way. Do you get it? While all the while none of your rights are violated. 

A is A.

I followed. But I was starting to get restless. 

And all those buildings we saw from the Yurikamome line when I got here! How in the fuck is any of that even possible!? You know!? 

I laughed. I knew exactly what he meant. I got goosebumps.

Humans did all that. Call it government. Call it private sector. It's mind-blowing. And yet you tell me nothing can work without a systematically-violence-based model of governance? It makes no sense. If we can do all that with a shitty model of governance, imagine what could be done if humanity was set free.

Michael was beaming now.

Let me tell you man, these fucking amazing arrangements and agreements don't all work because a state is overseeing them. They work because they serve the interests of the parties involved! For example, who, pray tell, is governing the very top of government? Those international governmental bodies and central banks and global think tanks and such. Who watches them? And if it's just a system of checks and balances and accountability, that means anyone can do it. And so can we. In a much better way.

He didn't wait for me to answer. 

They prove anarchy works, because they still get all their agendas done even breaking all the laws they make for us peons. Backroom deals. Secret arrangements. Family heirs. Massive lobbying.

Self-interested people naturally contract to improve their positions, big or small. Always. They do this in dark and dishonest ways, but we can do it in good and healthy ways. Most people already live in life-affirming anarchy every day and don't even realize it, man.

What do you mean?

Your barber. That Japanese barber you told me about in Osaka. You said you got an old fashioned shave there with a straight razor, right? And that guy gave you a head massage and said your eyes were super tired and tense from stress.

Yeah. It was fucking awesome.

Well, why didn't he shove that fucking razor straight into your goddamn throat? Was it because he's afraid of what the cops would do to him?

I laughed. 

It's just that he's not a psychopath and he doesn't want to hurt other people. And also, he wants to stay in business. But those are all kind of the same reason in a way.

Okay...

You completely trusted him, a total fucking stranger, with an insanely sharp tool right at your jugular. Do you suppose if the police and government had stopped existing right at that moment, he'd have suddenly plunged that thing into your neck, laughing maniacally and dancing around in your spurting blood? Would he have taken your wallet with its measly wad of whatever paltry yen in it that you had? Violence has a heavy cost, man. Most people avoid it if they can.

Most people don’t want to be violent in the first place if they are basically happy and secure. And if people are intrinsically bad, what fucking sense does it make to give these same exact INTRINSICALLY BAD PEOPLE massive positions of power in a government anyway? See you can decentralize this shit and mitigate abuse by making the INDIVIDUAL the foundation of all rights. You own yourself. And violence is NOT the same as SELF-DEFENSE —

He did have a point about the bad people thing. He was making lots of points. And to be honest I cared, but it was becoming overwhelming. Mikey was on another roll and was starting to do his over-explaining thing he did and it grated on my nerves and made my chest feel tight and my temples tense up. The clock on the wall was ticking loudly. As interested as I had been, I started looking for an out. 

Oh yeah, that naturally occurring plant? Don't touch it! —

Mikey. It's your last day. Let’s go for a beer somewhere. I can't handle the whole schematic of your worldview being force-fucked into my brain again right now in one sitting.

He looked embarrassed for a split-second. I hadn't meant to say it like that. There was the clear color of contempt in my voice. But I was hungry. Finally he hoisted himself up from the chair in exaggerated swings of his limbs, pointed his index finger to the ceiling as if to make a royal decree, and said:

The silly statist bitch needs a beer! 

We headed out.