this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024
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[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 58 points 2 months ago (20 children)

It's not the police that keep us from killing each other, or even laws that do so. Check out law and authority sometime if you're able. It's very short and worth a read. We don't kill each other because we don't enjoy being killed or killing. We're social creatures, and don't want to be shunned. Crimes of passion don't really change based on laws, but the way we organize society may actually be increasing the number of murders, because some people are desperate enough to kill for food or shelter

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (7 children)

I read half of it. It seems to overidealize the pre-law era to a large degree. Before law we had mass slavery, constant raiding of nearby tribes and nothing to prevent anybody from taking everything from a person. There is definitely a case where laws can become draconian and force people to break them but I'd argue that in most countries law prevent more unwanted behavior than cause it.

This especially doesn't apply in modern times since you just need one person to create a private mercenary group to essentially create a mini kingdom within a loosely organised society. That person will very quickly be able to form a successful dictatorship by raiding, enslaving and demanding tribute from nearby settlements.

Even a laissez faire government with everything legal except violence will essentially make it legal to dump toxic waste on your front lawn everywhere without policing and laws. Toxic waste is currently being dumped with laws just under woefully loose law and I'd argue that we need more laws and regulation to prevent people from doing so.

I feel like anarchist theory quickly forgets that we had anarchy before law and people quickly formed kingdoms around settlements to defend themselves and aggressive kingdoms where more successful than passive ones.

[–] nforminvasion@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

When did we possibly have anarchy before law? Genuinely

[–] Allero 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Up to first civilizations, and practically also up to, like, XIX-XX centuries in many rural areas.

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