Rules Without Rulers

[WasatchMan]

“Rules without rulers” is a typical anarchist rebuttal to the statist argument “there is no way anarchism could work because people are inherently bad and without government everyone would rob, rape, murder, and throw burning Molotov cocktails into store front windows”.  To the “rules without rulers” argument, the statist will make some statement about “how this sounds good in principle, but in the real world there is no way to put into practice.”

 

In other words, there is this general conception that people are generally nasty little things, and without a gun prodding their center right rib blade, they will try to get away with anything and everything.  To these people, there is no concept of non-coercive mechanisms that could hold together society and keep people from “selfishly benefiting at the expense of others”.  Their universe is only win lose.

 

At this point in the conversation, I think having some good examples may help to start prying open their preconceived notions.

 

Whatever your opinion is on tipping, I believe it one of the best examples of a rule without a ruler.  In the U.S., through social normalization and general human good will, tipping 15-20 percent is considered part of the cost of dining out [1].  This is a substantial cost added to your experience, is completely voluntarily, and 99.5% of customers are reported to tip their waiter [2]. The Waitbutwhy.com article that this statistic comes from also says “If you don’t tip [waiters] you’re.... The worst” and goes onto say “Even if service sucks, never go below 15%...”  This implies tipping is not even a bonus for good service, but a mandatory, not forced, part of the exchange.

 

Furthermore, if tipping were to become a forced part of the dining experience, not tipping would be equivalent to shoplifting.  Currently in the U.S., 9% of people are reported to shoplift per year [3]. This shows that an enforced rule, with the threat of the loss of freedom, fines, and a criminal record is more likely to be broken than one that is completely voluntarily and is only enforced by social normalization/ostracization.

 

If anyone has any thoughts on this, or other examples of how “Rules without Rulers” is already being practice, it would be greatly appreciated. Even though I am usually not a pragmatist, I think being able to provide practical examples of ways anarchy is already working in society is useful in breaking through someone’s preconceived notions.  Most people will never be convinced, but we are here, and as they say “the more the merrier”.

 

• http://www.tripadvisor.com
• http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/04/everything-dont-know-tipping.html.
• http://www.shopliftingprevention.org/whatnaspoffers/nrc/publiceducstats.htm

[Pelafina]

I remember in a video, Stef gave the example that politicians promise crony capitalists favors in return for getting them elected, and once they are elected they don't have to return the favor, but they do anyway. 

[endostate]

“Rules without rulers” is a typical anarchist rebuttal to the statist argument “there is no way anarchism could work because people are inherently bad and without government everyone would rob, rape, murder, and throw burning Molotov cocktails into store front windows”.  To the “rules without rulers” argument, the statist will make some statement about “how this sounds good in principle, but in the real world there is no way to put into practice.”

 

Since government is made up of the same people, the statist's argument doesn't seem to be logical:“There is no way anarchism could work because people are inherently bad and without some of these inherently bad people having a monopoly on violence, everyone would rob, rape, murder, and throw burning Molotov cocktails into store front windows.”

 

Also consider government employees' rampant use of theft (taxes), rape (prison), murder (cops/military), and molotovs (regulations) to get what they want. With over 262,000,000 democides in the past century, excluding war, I'll take my chances without it.

 

If anyone has any thoughts on this, or other examples of how “Rules without Rulers” is already being practice, it would be greatly appreciated. Even though I am usually not a pragmatist, I think being able to provide practical examples of ways anarchy is already working in society is useful in breaking through someone’s preconceived notions.  Most people will never be convinced, but we are here, and as they say “the more the merrier”.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_traditional_children%27s_gameshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-aggression_Principlehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_board_gameshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_card_gameshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dice_gameshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sportshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_gamehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendshiphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtshiphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etiquettehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property

[JohnH.]

I remember in a video, Stef gave the example that politicians promise crony capitalists favors in return for getting them elected, and once they are elected they don't have to return the favor, but they do anyway. 

 

I remember that video.  He mentions how the contracts can't be written down, they must be kept secret, etc., etc. yet they are upheld.  Something like that anyway.

 

Here's the video:

 

[Phillip Brix]

although i think a sudden and dramatic cut off from the state would lead to violence, if we could somehow organize into a voluntary society people would be better off.

 

as for examples of anarchy in practice, most games are such an example. for example in baduk, i rarely find a case of someone cheating to win, even though its hard to detect. i once used a computer to get a good result without telling my opponent, which is cheating, but i vastly enjoy playing a ligitamate game.