[Eric Revelin]

Because most people aren't ready to take full responsibility for themselves. And when they are, will government disappear? No. For society to exist there must be order. Even in order-by-choice Anarchy you have government, the difference is that there is no central entity and power is spread equally amongst all people.

Present that idea and listen to what people say against it. They'll talk about how religious conservatives will ruin things if they're given free reign. The religious conservatives talk about how immorality will run rampant. Those concerned about the underprivileged will talk about how they'll be trampled upon in a world without a central government.

Let's break it down:

1. People are afraid of each other.
2. People are afraid of the government, but the government places limits on the people that scare them more than it does.
3. People want to be protected from being screwed over, and they want a security blanket if they're put into a position where they cannot fend for themselves.

The permanent solution would be for us to grow up. That is to say, we'd need to start treating each other with respect. Religious conservatives and liberal non-believers (I know it's an oversimplification, but go with it) would have to be able to discuss their issues with each other without raising their voices or threatening to force their views on each other (while justifying it with, "they started it!"). We would have to be willing to share our resources instead of hording them, and we'd have to quell greed and deception as soon as they reared their ugly heads without resorting to force or fear. We'd also have to work together toward alleviating poverty and helping those who can't help themselves instead of relying on charities and government hand-outs.

This kind of world can exist but, due to the way we think, it can't happen right now. Government is the imperfect solution. It's the entity that does as much harm as it does good. It takes from the poor and gives to the rich, then it offers the poor welfare and food stamps. Without government we would risk chaos (at least in the short term).

The truth is that government is an illusion. By and large no one can really force us to do anything. Bosses have no power; if factory workers banded together, fired their employer and took over the operation themselves there's not much the company's CEO could do about it. Legally the owner could try to fight them, but if it started happening in other factories and occurred on a large enough scale the legal system wouldn't be able to stop it.

As an Anarchist at heart, I see it this way: we're living in an order-by-choice world. All government is illusory. Government is a psychological comfort or the shadowy menace that haunts our dreams, but either way it exists only because we think it does, and the illusion continues because we consent to it.

For this to change first we must imagine a world wherein the individual is intelligent and empowered, then we must enable these visionaries to snap their strings as we cut our own alongside them.

The average person would probably say they're smart, but more often than not they don't really believe they are. If they believe it, they still feel powerless overall. They don't know how to translate their gifts to action. They can dream but they can't paint the landscape of the real world with what they see in their minds. They're capable of it, but we're still in the dark ages. This is going to take time.

We've got our work cut out for us. I say look at government as the catalyst for change. Not because it'll change, because I don't think it will. If government were truly noble it would work toward the day when it wasn't needed anymore but it clearly desires its own survival. No, it's a catalyst for shaking people out of their apathy. If daddy government won't take care of us we're gonna have to stand on our own two feet eventually. If a miracle happens and it does do noble things, then it serves as a teacher and an inspiration.

The question isn't whether or not we should have government or whether we shouldn't, or whether we should vote for Obama or McCain as the next president. The real question is how we'll find and utilize the opportunities presented by whichever scenario occurs.