anarchism

ANARCHISM: THE ALTERNATIVE TO GOVERNMENT After the Middle Ages, Europe entered a stage of monarchy. The birth of the modern European nations occurred under the control of kings, queens, and noblemen. Spain, France and England (most noticeably in Western Europe) and their counterparts, Poland and Russian in Eastern Europe, are three of the finest examples of this trend. However, almost from the beginning, there was an outcry against monarchy. Philosophers claimed it was basically evil …

…not able to cope with themselves at all times. True, these institutions do often stray from their original purpose, but the idea of institutions in itself is not a bad one. This, then, is the dual mistake of the anarchists: they overrated the inner goodness of man and dismissed the value of institutions. On such shaky ground they could never hope to accomplish their goal of the anarchist society, for the anarchists would destroy themselves.