Anarchy has been the natural state of the world since God gave free will to Adam. That cannot be changed. Ever. By anyone. You can give away your free will, and people can force consequences on you for exercising it, but that’s it.
All that is necessary to make anarchy the practical political state of the world is for enough people to “Just say NO.” No. I do not recognize your imposed authority, and I never will. Hit me, jail me, shoot me, torture me. My free will remains MY FREE WILL, and there’s nothing you can do about it, except accept it, and join me in a world where everybody lives by the Zero Aggression Principle, or the natural consequences could be dire.
Zero Aggression Principle:
A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being for any reason whatever; nor will a libertarian advocate the initiation of force, or delegate it to anyone else.
Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim.
— L. Neil Smith
Anarchist actually has many meanings, depending on who is using the word. Those who have lived by the Zero Aggression Principle (ZAP) for a while know that it is incompatible with government. Show me a state with no taxes that criminalizes only intentional aggression against person or property, and it will be a state that respects ZAP. I have never seen one. So, when I say “anarchist”, I mean Zero Aggression Principle.
Anarchists did not try to carry out genocide against the Armenians in Turkey; they did not deliberately starve millions of Ukrainians; they did not create a system of death camps to kill Jews, gypsies, and Slavs in Europe; they did not fire-bomb scores of large German and Japanese cities and drop nuclear bombs on two of them; they did not carry out a ‘Great Leap Forward’ that killed scores of millions of Chinese; they did not attempt to kill everybody with any appreciable education in Cambodia; they did not launch one aggressive war after another; they did not implement trade sanctions that killed perhaps 500,000 Iraqi children.
In debates between anarchists and statists, the burden of proof clearly should rest on those who place their trust in the state. Anarchy’s mayhem is wholly conjectural; the state’s mayhem is undeniably, factually horrendous.
— Robert Higgs
Contrary to popular opinion about anarchy, as a violent and chaotic system, ZAP is very peaceful. If everyone follows it, there will be very little violence. It is not, however, a pacifist philosophy. Self defense is not only allowed, but encouraged, since an anarchist society will have no official authorities, hence no police who can arrest anyone at will.
Anarchy is also not a system. It is simply the absence of a state. Localities will choose to organize differently around this absence, the only common rule being unanimous consent.
Non-anarchists make a lot of noise about living in a world without police. It is a valid issue. In a fully anarchist world, each person will decide for herself how to provide security. There are numerous possibilities:
You’ve got to do right-here security yourself. There is no alternative.
When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
If somebody attacks you, you will have very little time to defend or die. Sometimes you can run away. Often that is not possible. You must be prepared to defend yourself, unless you’re a pacifist and prefer death to harming another being (and that’s a valid decision, as long as you’ve thought about it). Many people carry a handgun. Some learn a martial art. Some do both. Consider what works for you, and do it.
The need for right-here security does not disappear just because there’s a state and a police department. The police will arrive in time to drag away your corpse, or your attacker’s. Your actions will decide which.
(there’s a classic book about security by insurance. Find it and reference it here)
There’s a popular quote about self defense. It has three components: mindset, skillset, and toolset. Their importance is in that order. Tools are not useful unless you have the skills to use them. Skills are not useful unless you have the mindset to use them. Probably the best book I’ve read about the anarchist mindset is The Most Dangerous Superstition, by Larken Rose. The most dangerous superstition is the belief in the validity of imposed authority. Don’t do it. Don’t encourage it. If it’s in your rightful power (no initiation of force, remember?), don’t allow it.