As far as I know, anarcho-capitalism typically uses yellow and black as its color pattern.
But Lew Rockwell's website uses red/black. See it here:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/store/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/T-shirt-Black-2010.jpg
Did red and black at some point mean anarcho capitalism? Or is he being general? What's the deal?
Red and Black were originally the colors of anarcho-syndicalist unions, but have gone on to be a broader marker of Anarchism in general. To me, it looks like Lew is exploiting the connotations of an aesthetic that has nothing to do with his philosophy.
I really don't like Red and Black as the colors of anarchy. They're too aggressive, sinister, and have connotations to the satanical (which doesn't help the cause of anarchy, as the word itself has been destroyed enough).
Birthday Pony-
Socialism is antithetical to anarchism so booya fool.
Red-black is any anarchism. Gold-black is anarcho-capitalism specifically.
I think the OP and Birthday Pony are right. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchist_symbolism#Bisected_flags_and_stars .
And I too think it's a bad choice and bad taste for Lew to go with black and red for his apparel.
See also the anarcho-capitalistm symbolism wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalist_symbolism .
I thought colored symbols were a statist thing.
Porco Rosso,
Without getting into whether or not that's true, even if we assume it is true, red and black still originated as the colors of anarcho-syndicalist unions. So maybe these Anarchists (and all self-styled anarchists until the 50's for that matter) weren't logically consistent, but that doesn't change history.
Lets make this easy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchist_symbolism
Say what you will about wikipedia, and I can symapathize....but if you care THAT much about this specific issue to bitch and moan about it, you probably have too much time on your hands.
Birthday Pony is right on this to a degree. The only correction I can bring up is the flag seems to be before Lew Rockwell - the Lefevre era in 1963.
However the overall point still stands, the term and the flag of anarcho-syndicalism are older. This is an objective fact that can not be disputed. And if it can it is via easy verification/ falsification principles.
This does also rise a couple of other points/ question pertienent to the topic:
- What came 1st, the Black Flag (generic anarchaism), or the black and red flag?
- All different stripes of anarchism have a "black and something" flag color.
- Does individualst anarchism or mutualism have a flag?
- Anarcho capitalists simply have no historical case that capitalism by the nature of the term = anarchy. Franky I think "anarchy" is a shit word regardless, when used to indicate something postive - but still there is no historical precedent that anarchy = captilaism. But still, when thinking of ancapism on a very simple and naive anecdote, think about this - if that were the case we would simply call ourselves "anarchists" and not "anarcho-capitalists". And even after all that it doesn't match history or precedent of the term.
"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
I can answer some of the trite questions (and that wikipedia article can too). I find anarchist history pretty interesting.
1. Now I think the black flag came first, but they both popped up around the same time.
2. "Black and something" usually represents a differentiation of emphasis rather than school. And as far as flags "in the streets" go, black and red or black are the ones I see the most often. Classic black is still my favorite.
3. Mutualists were usually unionists, and so if they were waving a flag it was black and red (most likely). Mutualism in Europe was seen as a tactic, very close to syndicalism, and individualist anarchists in the US were pretty unlikely to be at a demonstration, so I don't see why they would make a different flag. Another interesting thing is that people who were "individualists" in the US tended to be so in the sense of economics, but "individualists" in Europe tended to be more akin to illegalists.