Monday 4 October 2010

"Might Makes Right"

A lot of people equate certain concepts I stand for with the slogan 'might makes right'. This is a common misconception about libertarianism, anarchism, any aristocratic system of a natural elite, capitalism, private law, or - mainly - social Darwinism. Entire volumes could be written about ethics of power, but for me the main theme that 'might makes right' value systems share is the right of the 'mighty' individual or group to use force against weaker opponents in order to eliminate them. This is not true in any of the aforementioned systems. I find it especially distasteful when people confuse Social Darwinism (I understand this term in a strictly Spencerist way - the survival of the fittest within a system of social cooperation) with the natural theory of Darwinism among animals and other primitive organisms. No direct aggressive force is ever used within the framework of a anarcho-libertarian society, which evolves through the social Darwinist process by means of capitalism and creates a world where the natural elite (aristocracy) has the best conditions for survival while eliminating non-social components. 'Non-social' components are not necessarily those too weak to survive. Rather, they are those unsuited for life within a system of social cooperation - for example thieves, murderers, and other criminals. Until someone can prove to me that in libertarian society aggression is present (despite the non-aggression axiom being one of the two pillars of libertarianism) I will find all such views mistaken or plainly fraudulent. It saddens me that even geniuses in the field of the economic sciences like Ludwig von Mises were pulled into this fallacy. In Human Action Mises treats Social Darwinism with bitter contempt, but only because he defines it wrongly. To be precise, he defines it as most people define it - by making a comparison with the animal world. I would like this perception to change because it creates an aura of immorality (use of force or something such) around the social Darwinist agenda. And this agenda is supreme justice.

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