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by Francois Tremblay


'''Market''': The process of ''freely trading'' for a certain commodity (as opposed to state control). The sum total of such ''trades''.

'''Anarchy''': The absence of a ''state''. Any form of ''social'' organization which does not include a ''state''.

'''Market Anarchy''': A form of ''social'' organization where individuals are ''free'' to ''trade'' for any commodity, including those usually reserved to the ''state''. In short, a form of ''social'' organization where individuals are politically ''free''. The ''Non-Aggression Principle'' is a fundamental principle of Market Anarchy.

*'''Freedom''': Capacity to fulfill one's ''values''. To be free means to be able to fulfill one's ''values'' to the best of one's abilities, without interference. There are four areas of freedom: personal freedom, relational freedom, ''social'' freedom and political freedom.
*'''Trade''': The exchange or sharing of resources.
*'''The Non-Aggression Principle (NAP)''': No one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, nor to delegate its initiation. --L. Neil Smith

'''Society''': The sum total of all voluntary interrelations between individuals.

'''State''' and '''ruling class''': A ''parasitic'' organization ''monopolizing order'' on a given territory, using the process of ''legitimized coercion'' (mainly through the imposition of a singular ''value system''). Provides some services ''coercively'' and in a ''monopolistic'' fashion (such as police, military, law, courts, roads, currencies, charity, and so on). ''Statists'' point to these services as proof of ''legitimacy'', even though these services would be provided far more efficiently and morally without ''monopoly'' or ''coercion''. The individuals populating the ''state'' are globally known as the ruling class.

*'''Monopoly''': Exclusive control over the production of a commodity by one organization. Monopolies lead to higher prices, lower service, and lowered ''incentives'' for progress. The ''state'' is the clearest and most widespread example of a monopoly, on many different and vital commodities.
*'''Order''': The ''social'' result of an apparatus by which actions are evaluated and judged. Necessarily implies ''legitimacy'' on the part of the apparatus.
*'''Legitimacy''': General belief that someone's power or authority is justified. Such a belief can be manufactured by ''propaganda''. Legitimacy explains why a serial killer is jailed, while a soldier who kills "the enemy" is rewarded.
*'''Coercion''': Using force against, or threatening the use of force against, an individual to make him act against his will or agreement.
*'''Parasite''': An organism that obtains nourishment from a host without benefiting or killing the host.

'''Statism''': ''Utopian'' belief system having as fundamental principle that the ''state'' is the best (or only acceptable) form of ''social'' organization. As for most belief systems, it is mostly transmitted through constant ''propaganda'' by the ''ruling class'' and the'' exploitative class'', as well as the reinforcement provided by peer pressure and ostracism. Its morality is uniformly of the type ''"might makes right"''.

*'''Utopian''': A form of ''social'' organization which goes against basic facts of human nature. Statism is utopian because its imposition of a singular value system on the whole of society goes against the fact that most human beings have different ''value systems''. This creates the endemic ''social warfare'' typical of most ''democracies''.
*'''Propaganda''': A coherent structure of psychological entrapment, having the aim of manipulating people's ''value systems'' into serving those who control the structure. In a ''democratic state'', this is achieved by control over money (e.g. through subsidies), education, the media, science and art.
*'''"Might makes right"''': The belief that the need for moral justification can be mitigated or eliminated by the use of force. ''Statism'' is a "might makes right" belief system because it claims that the sheer power of the ''state'' overrides moral concerns regarding the use of force. The ''state'', in this view, transcends morality in a way that private individuals cannot (e.g. a murderer vs a soldier).

'''Value system''': Hierarchy of ''values'' that all moral agents possess, and is demonstrated by their choices. Most people's value systems differ, making the imposition of a singular value system by the state a source of constant ''social warfare''. This is an ''individualistic'' concept. One's value system is molded by one's ''virtues'' or vices.

*'''Value''': A class of things that one seeks to gain or keep. In a rational ''value system'', a value is necessary for the expression of all others, forming a self-sustaining system. For example, the value of ''freedom''- ''freedom'' is necessary for the expression of all other values.
*'''Individualism''': The basic moral premise that only individuals can act, benefit and suffer. The opposite of collectivism, which holds that abstract groups or transcendent entities can act, benefit or suffer, necessitating an abstract structure (such as the ''state'') to support these groups or entities.
*'''Virtue''': A mental habit conductive to moral behaviour. The opposite of vice. Example: the [http://goosetheantithesis.blogspot.com/2005/09/virtue-of-non-coercion.html virtue of non-coercion].

'''Accountability''': A feedback system by which we can select the changes we desire and help eliminate the ones we don't. In the market, this is called profit. There is no ''statist'' analogue, although ''voting'' is sometimes invoked. Accountability is the product of a healthy'' incentive system''.

'''Incentive''' and '''incentive system''': An incentive is a path of preferred behaviour induced by a feature of a system. An incentive system is the sum total of all such paths for a given system. Incentives are an important feature of any form of ''social'' organization because they hold true regardless of who is in power or a specific culture, and as such they tell us how desirable this or that form is in general.
For example, ''statist'' systems have a strong incentive towards ''war'' because ''states'' can raise the resources needed by ''taxation'' and force people to become killers through draft, while ''market'' organizations cannot do the same. Therefore we should expect ''statist'' systems in general to be more warlike, and perhaps a correlation between ''state'' power and ''war'', a tendancy which we observe in history.

'''Class''': A social stratum whose members share certain political characteristics. In ''statism'', we can differentiate between four general classes: the ''ruling class'', the ''exploitative class'', the ''working class,'' and the ''welfare class''.

*'''The ruling class''' is the group of individuals who are part of the ''state''.
*'''The exploitative class '''is the group of individuals who are ''exploiters'' but not part of the ''state''.
*'''The working class''' is the group of individuals who receive neither the dubious benefit of welfare, nor the morally corrupt benefits of being an ''exploiter''. This represents the largest segment of the population.
*'''The welfare class''' is the group of individuals who are entrapped by the ''state'' in a cycle of poverty, and unwittingly repay the ''state'' by giving it ''legitimacy''.

'''Exploitation''': The process of restricting people's ''value'' expression without their consent, of one's own power, through the use of the power of another, or indirectly through ''propaganda''. I distinguish between three categories of exploiters : ''first-hand parasites'', ''second-hand parasites'', and ''free riders''.

*'''First-hand parasites''' are the individuals who use force directly, those that have the guns, and the individuals who give orders to them (policemen, soldiers, private criminals, politicians, bureaucrats).
*'''Second-hand parasites''' are the individuals who ''exploit'' indirectly by benefitting from ''state'' power, and depend on ''state coercion'' for the maintenance of their status (activists, interest groups, political organizations and parties, unions, corporate trusts, corporations receiving subsidies, corporations benefitting from protectionism, mafias).
*'''Free riders '''are people who would still have a job in a ''market anarchy'', but who use ''state ''power to further their aims, while suffering the perverse effects of said power (CEOs of multinationals, politico-scientists and politico-artists, activists, churches, lawyers, doctors, insurers, public school teachers, amateur and professional athletes, and so on).


'''Democracy''': According to ''statist propaganda'', a ''collectivist'' method of self-governance, "by the people, for the people". In practice, democracy is the means by which the ''state'' secures its ''legitimacy'' without needing to surrender any real power to "the people", representing a step down from monarchy, a form of ''social'' organization in which ''legitimacy'' is an arduous process. It gives the illusion of decision-making to its captive population through the process of ''voting'', which is yet another form of ''"might makes right"'', although ultimately a futile one. The main product of democracy is ''social warfare''. As a decision-making process, should be replaced by ''Informed Consensus''.

*'''Voting''': A ''democratic'' ritual in which individuals, called "voters", cast ballots in favour of a candidate or party. Morally, it represents a sanction of ''state coercion'', as ''democracy'' is a mechanism of ''legitimacy''.
*'''Social warfare''': Process by which individuals affiliate themselves to various activist groups and demand ''laws'', ''rights'' or privileges. Social warfare arises because of the Tragedy of the Commons: people must band together and get ''state'' power to act in their favour before other people do the same against them. When present in a relatively ''free society'', the end result of this process is called the erosion of ''freedom''.
*'''Informed Consensus''': Process of decision-making where groups of informed individuals come together and take a decision by consensus, with a set of rules and values used to guide dialogue. This can be scaled to as few as two individuals (a couple) and as many as hundreds of thousands of people or more (Wikipedia). 


'''Right''': According to ''statist propaganda'', a whole category of arbitrary laws and privileges united by a common concept (e.g. "the right to health care", "animal rights") that are owed to a group for no specific reason. In reality, a natural principle of ''social progress'', derived from the ''value'' of ''freedom''. A right is possessed by all individuals, and stops when the rights of another are infringed.

*'''Right of self-ownership''': Principle that all individuals should own their own bodies. 
*'''Right of action''': Principle that all individuals should be ''free'' to act in any way desired.
*'''Right of property''': Principle that all individuals should be ''free'' to own things other than their own bodies.
*'''Progress''': The expansion of our capacity to act (that which ''freedom'' acts upon).


'''Equality''': A ''statist'' code-word used to imbue ''legitimacy'' to the ''democratic'' process, and push the doctrine of ''social justice''. In reality, political equality means that all individuals should have the same ''rights''. ''Statist'' systems are inherently unequal, as they are predicated on the existence of a ''ruling class'' which has the ''right'' to make an arbitrary code of ''laws'', impose it by force, steal people's resources, and so on.

'''Social justice''': According to ''statist propaganda'', a vast forcible redistribution of resources by the ''state'' in order to enforce "''equality''". In reality, the market is true social justice, where you receive resources and popularity proportionally to the perceived value of your contributions, and give proportionally to how you perceive other people's work. That is the only just ''social'' principle.

'''Capitalism''', '''State Capitalism''': Can variably designate an economic system based on ''markets'', or an economic system where the most economically powerful take advantage of the ''state'''s power in order to extract advantages over everyone else.

'''Communism''': An economic system where both political and economic power are vested in the ''ruling class''. Nothing more than ''State Capitalism'' taken to its logical extent.

'''War''': Murder on a large scale committed in the name of the ''state'' or against it. The murderers who participate in it are called "soldiers".

'''Perpetual war''': A (mostly metaphorical) ''war ''whose victory conditions are unattainable, usually because the goal is a nebulous concept or for whose opposite there will always be a demand (e.g. "poverty", "terrorism", "drugs").

'''Law''': A ''monopolistic'' construct of the ''ruling class'', designed to further its interests and enforced by its ''monopolistic'' courts. In order for the ''state'' to maintain its ''monopoly'' on ''coercion'', anyone who breaks these rules is declared a criminal, and thus ''deligitimized'' in the eyes of the people.

'''Immigration''': The action of crossing an arbitrary line which delimitates the territories that each ''state'' can ''exploit''. As as problem, it is entirely manufactured by the ''states'' themselves. There is no reason to think that people separated by an arbitrary line cannot be part of the same ''society'', and in our modern world, such an idea is grossly outmoded and absurd.

'''"Agencies"''', '''"Protection Agencies"''': The terms I use to designate companies which offer a code (replacing the ''monopolistic law''), and protection services following that code, to their customers.

'''DROs''': Dispute Resolution Organizations. Term used by Stefan Molyneux to designate private courts, which also preside over ''arbitration''.

'''Arbitration''': In general, a form of justice where both parties designate a person whose ruling they will accept formally. More specifically in ''Market Anarchist'' theory, arbitration designates the process by which two ''agencies'' pre-negociate a set of common rules in anticipation of cases where a customer from each ''agency'' is involved in a dispute. 


<u>Arguments for Market Anarchy</u>

'''Burden of proof''': Logic dictates that the burden of proof be put on the positive claim. In this case, while common belief dictates that the anarchist has the burden of proof, it actually belongs to both parties. Both are making a positive claim about social organization. Furthermore, most statists make the same claim as the anarchist (i.e. that markets should exist) but adds an extra claim (i.e. that the state should exist), therefore the statist has an extra burden of proof. Statists are incapable of shedding this extra burden, which makes this a powerful argument, if you can get an honest statist to admit that he's making a positive claim.

'''Moral Razor''': A moral principle or system, or a political principle or system, is invalid if it is asymmetrical in application (to locations, times or persons). Can also be called "universality". Argument made by Stefan Molyneux.
Examples: Gun control is invalid because it sets one principle for one group (state exploiters)- you can have guns- and another principle for the rest of us- you can't have guns. Taxation is invalid because theft remains criminal in all other instances. If it is just for some people to steal in the name of the "common good", then it should be good for everyone.  And so on.

'''Geometric Argument''': Consists of setting up a fictional scenario involving three people on a desert island, pointing out that statist behaviour in such a scenario is immoral (such as taxation- two people deciding to steal a third's resources because they think he has too much) without noting that it is statist behaviour, and expanding the situation in numbers until you reach the "millions of people" stage, at which point you reveal the statist analogy.

'''Argument from the State of Nature''': Consists of examining every possible alternative about the nature of man and showing how the state is undesirable in all these alternatives. For example: if everyone is born good, then we don't need a state, if everyone is born evil, then the state would be evil as well, and if everyone is a mixture of good and evil, then a state only gives an opportunity for the most evil to wield power over the rest of us.

'''Semantic Argument''': Consists of pointing out the conceptual absurdity of concepts such as "state", "country" and "citizenship", and showing that statism is literally meaningless. A favourite argument of Marc Stevens'.

'''Argument from Freedom''': Consists of explaining the value of freedom, and demonstrating how Market Anarchy is the system most conductive to freedom.