Here at The Mint, we have learned to embrace the anarchy in which we live as an ultimate given.  Anarchy is the primary state of being for all humans, whether we recognize it or not.  The sooner one realizes that they live in a state of Anarchy, the better able they will be to operate within it.

We also recognize that centralized control, when exercised without consent, is bad.  Fortunately, anarchic systems have a way of dealing with centralized control by forcing the disbandment of any form of control that is not obtained by assent.  Not by assent of the majority, as democratic thought would have us believe, but assent by each individual.  As such, if one is involuntarily subject to a form of centralized control, there is an easy escape for those who are not physically detained.  The escape hatch is in the mind, as all centralized control mechanisms can be escaped by changing one’s mind about the power it wields over them.

As both anarchy and its antithesis, centralized control, coexist to some extent all around us in various forms of ultimately voluntary capitalist and socialist systems which are constantly interacting with each other,  it is often difficult, if not impossible, to understand why Anarchy is superior to centralized control.

We recently came across a post on Zerohedge.com, Why Centralization Leads to Collapse, which articulates what we believe to be the primary reason the for the superiority of Anarchy:

Dissent is information

The author of the post, in a concise, well written fashion, recognizes that centralized control, which is an natural outgrowth of the desire for efficiency, leads to the rejection and ultimate termination of viewpoints that do not agree with the ideology or methods of the central authority.  Dissent is ignored, hindered, or terminated.

However, is terminating dissent, the centralized authority has removed perhaps the most important means by which a system can transmit information from the margins.

This information is important as well as the activities that dissenters carry out, for the diverse and seemingly contrary activities serve to make the entire system in which people live “anti-fragile.”  This means, for practical purposes, that an anarchic system is better prepared to deal with changes in data and the natural environment because it is constantly dealing with it by default, while a centralized system labors under the delusion that’s contingency plans are adequate to stave off any event that would threaten the supposedly superior system.

The rejection of dissent, then, ensures the collapse of the centralized system, while the toleration of the Anarchic system ensures its resilience.  It may be said that the chief virtue of Anarchy, then, is that it prevents centralized control by definition.

God recognized this and intervened famously on the Tower of Babel to ensure the earth which had rejected Him would remain resilient.  Mankind is dangerously close to constructing any number of similar towers today.

Will we recognize the error in time?