I’m turned off to libertarianism, including left-styled libertarianism, mainly because of the claim that non-coercion is a necessary and sufficient condition for freedom. I’d describe it as a bare minimum criterion for a barely acceptable level of freedom. This leaves open the possibility that there are higher levels of freedom for us all to aspire to, hopefully together. Perhaps we can progress from mere liberty to thick liberty. Perhaps we can evolve from the merely voluntary to the thickly voluntary (or the “euvoluntary”). Once theft is eliminated, perhaps we will be able to attack minor variants, exploitation and manipulation. Even if government can be abolished, there would be many additional steps on the way to a reasonably non-dystopian existence for humans. This begs the question of whether market anarchism makes sense as an intermediate stage between non-anarchism and freedom, and the related question of whether anagorists should ally with the nominally left-wing faction of market anarchism, or even market anarchists (i.e. anarcho-capitalists) in general. Two important questions must be addressed:
- Is there no way from the status quo to a significantly less dystopian existence that doesn’t pass through market anarchism?
- Would market anarchism be stable enough (remember, the market itself is extremely effective at equilibrium-finding) to have “end of history” properties and therefore be change-resistant enough to make advancements of freedom beyond mere economic freedom nearly impossible?
If the answer to both questions is yes, then the prospects for human happiness are indeed grim, and the best thing I can say about myself is that I am child-free.
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