Perpetual Violence Is Expensive

A Steemit article by Jeff Berwick (@jeffberwick) about his recent visit to Somalia (because, for some reason, that’s where anarchists are supposed to go if they don’t like authoritarian domination) brought to mind something that doesn’t seem to occur to most people, when they make their predictions about statelessness leading to war-lords, perpetual violence, and a never-ending Mad Max scenario.

To jump to the punchline, perpetual violence is expensive.

If you take a large poor area, which has no established controlling authoritarian presence, and put a huge wall around it, letting nothing in or out, you may very well get violence here and there, theft, skirmishes, and so on. What you will absolutely not get (and what we see now in Somalia) is prolonged, organized military-style conflict. (Sorry, Hollywood.)

The reason is simple: guns, bombs and bullets cost money, and if you can’t afford food, you can’t afford weapons. (Anyone who has gone target-shooting for a couple hours with anything other than a .22 knows how much bullets alone cost.) In situations where there is long-term, organized military-style violence, it is always because something unnatural is feeding the conflict. In many inner cities in the U.S., perpetual gang warfare exists entirely because of the “black market” created by the bogus “war on drugs.” When “government” creates a huge profit incentive by manufacturing vice “crimes” (related to drugs, guns, prostitution, gambling, etc.), then even in very poor areas, it becomes very worth it to become a drug dealer—and not worth it to try to be much of anything else.

Or, in the case of Somalia, where there are outside forces—mostly governmental forces like the U.S., the U.N., etc.—feeding money and weapons to both sides, that is when you see ongoing military-style conflict. So to blame “anarchy”—an absence of authoritarian power—for the violence happening in Somalia, is just profoundly stupid. “Civil wars” are about two or more factions trying to become the new ruling class. That is not what any voluntaryist or anarchist advocates. (Duh.)

It would literally be like having some rich sadistic bastard finding two homeless guys, giving them each a thousand dollars to fight each other, handing them both Marine daggers, and then saying, “See what homelessness causes?” And yet, no doubt, plenty of state-worshipers will continue to point to domestic gang violence, or “organized crime,” or international war, or “civil war” type fighting in places like Somalia, as evidence that we neeeeeeeed “government.” Because they understand nothing about economics or human behavior.