Though I am in favor of a fully unregulated economic system (which is really an impossibility even without a working government), I am not an anarchist.
The main issue I take with anarchism is that they have a weird set of moral principles that are related to consequentialism and have nothing to do with actual morality. This is because most anarchists tend to be agnostic or atheist and thus have no moral center to build their philosophy from.
I am not a libertarian. Libertarianism has become a generic term that sweeps a broad political spectrum. It is basically the default political ideology if you’re not conservative or progressive these days. Think government should stay out of socials issues but believe in corporate regulations? Well, you’re a libertarian. Think that pot should be legal but guns should not? Libertarian.
In many cases you could argue that both libertarian and anarchist beliefs systems come from a foundation that doesn’t include a religious moral code. The non-aggression principle is, after all, half of the second greatest commandment which God gave us through his prophet Moses (Love your neighbor as yourself).
The trouble with these belief systems is that most people are incapable of truly loving their neighbor if they don’t love God first. The anarchist will see the Jew on the side of the street dying and simply tell him that he should’ve had a gun.
That’s not fair. I’m sure the would help him.
The problem is, both anarchism and libertarianism tend to think in terms of true equality and thus fail to understand human nature. Human beings desire to be led by people they perceive as better than them because it is easier to outsource moral responsibility to a higher authority than it is to think for yourself.
And believe me, no amount of effort on your part will help them to think for themselves. People need a leader of some kind because without one, they tend to lose their car keys. Or their morning coffee money.
Seriously though, as social creatures, human beings have always required leadership of some kind. The trouble is, most leaders are simply leaders because they want power, not because they desire to rule over us out of some higher purpose. Hell, even King David behaved like a mafia boss from time to time.
To truly understand humanity, you have to understand the nature of evil, why it exists, and what it truly is. Once you understand that, you’ll understand that it is not power that corrupts but the kind of person who desires power to begin with.
And thus we see that all leaders tend to be corrupt from the beginning. Power just brought out the worst of it.
The point of all this incoherent rambling is that libertarianism and anarchism are Utopian ideologies which lack a true understanding of human nature. That is why I can’t support them.