It has always been clear to me that a free society would develop a system of security forces unimaginable to someone who has spent his life in a world dominated by governments. I have no reason to think it wouldn’t work, but what’s less debatable is simply that what would emerge is currently unimaginable. Many have hypothesized over what could emerge, which I think is instructive if not necessary, but there is another type of defense which has been completely overlooked in the sources I’ve studied. It would have prevented primitive, pre-government, free societies from falling for the persuasive power-grabbers’ tricks. It would have prevented one of the smallest, freest states in human history from growing into the largest.
It is defense against the growing state. More accurately, it is defense against the disguise of legitimacy placed on a crime.
I always get the feeling that ponderers of a free society assume that once government is gone entirely, it’s gone for good. It’s as if all members of the free society are experts in Austrian economics and libertarian ethics, and they’re all smart enough to dismiss any statist sophistry they may encounter.
If such a libertopian free society were ever to occur, how could it possibly stay that way? Will it require an eternal fight against statist ideologies? Chances are, there won’t be shrines to Murray Rothbard in every household, as division of labor and productivity would explode, and no one will have the time or incentive to read up on this stuff. Forced education is obviously out of the question. Perhaps humans are incapable of achieving permanent freedom in a society.
The eternal fight sounds most likely. I’m in.