Oh No! I "Libeled" an Anarchist!

Image credit: http://replycandy.com 

The Israeli anarchist I have mentioned a few posts ago, Eyal Lior, is really angry. He writes, on the preview of his Internet radio show ("the only show dedicated to freedom", link in Hebrew but you can go from there to the English part of his web site), that I wrote a "hate letter" about him on this blog.

Well, what can he do against my "libel"? Sue me? Nope; that would require using the evil government's court system. Threaten my ISP? With what? With a lawsuit? Same problem. With a customer boycott, say? Not if I am a better customer, or he isn't one. He could, theoretically, bribe them into deleting my account, or hire hitmen to threaten me to stop the libel. But what if I am richer and offer the ISP more money, or can hire better "muscle" than he can hire?

So I don't see why, in Lior's anarchy, with no government, I should give a damn if I libel him or not. All I should care about is to be stronger than him. Then I could libel him with impunity, since, in his anarchy, there is nothing and nobody to stop the rich and powerful from doing what they like, while the poor and weak suffer what they must.

The whole point of having a state at all is, as Hobbes points out, that it is far better to suffer even tyranny from one person, the sovereign - let alone suffer the annoyances or bureaucracy of a modern democracy - than to be contantly at the mercy of anybody and everybody who happens to be stronger. Gee, perhaps there's something to this whole "state" thingy after all.

More on the Actual Effect of FMOTL Acts

Image Credit: here.

If one wishes to know the dangers of acting on absurd "freemen on the land" (FMOTL) beliefs, look no further than this Facebook group.

They believe for some reason that article 61 of the Magna Carta (1215), allowing the Barons to elect 25 of their number to petition or perhaps replace the king, somehow is (a) in force today, and (b) allows anybody, or at least any 25 people, to declare themselves not subject to the laws and, therefore, they need not pay taxes.

The result is as expected. They get notices to pay the council tax or the vehicle insurance; they refuse; they get another notice; they declare themselves lords and masters of the evil corrupt courts; they get fined and/or arrested and/or get their car or license taken away.

Ah well.