Given that the Libertarian parties in both the U.S.A. and Canada are increasingly non libertarian, has anyone ever toyed with the idea of forming an anarcho-capitalist party? It seems to me that running political campaigns can be a powerful educational tool.
... just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own - Albert Jay Nock
"Given that the Libertarian parties in both the U.S.A. and Canada are increasingly non libertarian,"
Why do you say this?
In 2008 out of all the candidates for president, as far as I could tell, Mary Ruwart was the only libertarian running. In Ontario, where I reside, the operative opinion seems to be that anarcho-capitalists should be banned from the libertarian party. Even Murray Rothbard was ran out of the Libertarian Party in the states, for crying out loud. Perhaps I'm mistaken?
can a ancap party even be formed? the platform is to abolish government, so joining something to fire yourself . it could be done, not sure how far it gets to get into politics to get out of politics.
Exactly. to seize power simply to relinquish that power. to acquire the ring simply to throw it into the fires of mount doom. why not? I think it would be effective advertising for the cause.
It could be an interesting turn of events and it could inject some of the ideas into the mainstream so they don't appear as boogeymanish, but in reality, it ignores all of the incremental steps to make it more palatable to the population. This isn't to say that the Libertarian Party is doing a good job whatsoever, just that the more people can rally around a figure like Ron Paul or make the Republican Party less statist, the better our future odds.
The have been anarchist parties before (not anarcho-capitalist obviously) but regardless I don't see any problem with it.
it ignores all of the incremental steps to make it more palatable to the population.
I think incrementalism is only useful if it is not a rejection of the end goal itself. It's fine to say "we want a 30% cut in the income tax" but only if you also say "on the way to eliminating the income tax". Also I think the population is more likely to buy anarcho-capitalism than they are to buy limited government, for all the reasons why bought into AC. It's logically consistent. It contains important moral statements. I mean either way you are fighting a tremendous uphill battle against an extremely impressive brainwashing campaign.
(From here)
I think it may be best to think of "anarcho-capitalism" as a form of education / sociological tool rather than an actual political movement that can exist within any modern structure or "radical" academic political theory dreamt up by some academician (who promises this time his view is not a utopia).
Perhaps (?) this can go with the words of Hoppe to be an "anti-intellectual intellectual" mixed with the words of Stirner to show how "half egoists" are, in fact "egoists" who worship their own mind and are ignoring the consequences of the imperatives implied by any intelligible action and uniquness of any given situation.
"As in a kaleidoscope, the constellation of forces operating in the system as a whole is ever changing." - Ludwig Lachmann
"When A Man Dies A World Goes Out of Existence" - GLS Shackle
You can run for office to minmize government. That's what Ron Paul wanted to do as president. I wish libertarians of all flavors would do this and support those with this goal in mind.
Meistro: Exactly. to seize power simply to relinquish that power. to acquire the ring simply to throw it into the fires of mount doom. why not? I think it would be effective advertising for the cause.
I think that's a rather ironic analogy, since the point of Tolkien was that nobody can hold on to the ring for a long time and then give it up willingly. Wisdom is recognizing this fact.
I think anarcho-capitalism stems from the idea that at some point it becomes economically irrational to seek political power.
It's the point where the running costs of establishing machines that mobilize violence to accomplish goals are higher than the projected benefits of doing so.
Thus people engage in voluntary exchange because that's what's more beneficial to them.
We are not at this point. Many forms of politically organized violence are considered to pay out and that's why there are parties to begin with.
Perhaps one day we reach such a point, but the proposition of an anarcho-capitalist political campaign seems quite stupid.
And that's because any political campaign will be successful insofar as violence is still a viable economic resource. And anarco-capitalism will be a reality insofar as violence is no longer a viable economic resource.
You can perhaps speculate on the possibility of designing an ultimately self-defeating political strategy that manages to defeat all other strategies too, but that seems quite irrealistic to me.
Successful political strategies, even when they wipe out their competetition, tend to eventually create room for new exploits.
It's the double-edged nature of technology. Things like vaccines or the internet, may be conceived as liberators, but can be converted into effective tools of oppression, and that's life.
I've given suggestions in other threads. Ancaps should run as Rs and Ds (wherever you can get elected) then play dumb and clutzy when in office. Make all the promises you are expected to make, but don't follow through.
"Sure! I will absolutely be the crutch vote for taxitude and a bag of chips. I will be there I promise. I will be vote 61 for you guys (in the Senate)."
Meanwhile on the day of the vote;
"Oh, man I'm so sorry that I missed the vote and the bill didn't pass. oooohhhh I'm so mad [ ;) ]. I got stuck in traffic, then thought I could get here faster by taking a detour, next thing I knew I was in Atlantic City. I'll support it the next time round though; I will be there 100%; I'm behind your secret bombing circus and credit program; why am I calling it 'yours'? I'm sponsoring it! I'll be there. Voting for it. Duh. Sorry i missed it this time those "opposite party" bastards won't get away with this!"
haha It would be hilarious.
"I've given suggestions in other threads. Ancaps should run as Rs and Ds (wherever you can get elected) then play dumb and clutzy when in office."
Vermin Supreme, although a likely contender, is a little too obvious. You have to look the part. A necessary condition for my suggestion would be that you are taken seriously by the news and stuff. And while it looked a little as if those people were taking Vermin seriously, i meant like John Kerry or Lindsey Graham seriously.