James C. Scott, in his wise and witty book, Two Cheers for Anarchism: Six Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Dignity and Meaningful Work and Play, reviews ways we the people would be better off if we were less submissive to authority than we are.
He isn’t a full-fledged anarchist. He understands the need for government. That’s why he gives two cheers for anarchism instead of a full three cheers.
But he says the anarchists have a point. Governments, corporations and other big institutions are more repressive than they need to be, and we the people have given up too much of our self-reliance and self-determination.
I read and liked Two Cheers when it first came out, and later read and liked two of Scott’s weightier books, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed and The Art of Not Being Governed: an Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia.
I recently read it again, one chapter a month, as part of a philosophy reading group hosted by my friend Paul Mitacek. We stopped meeting before we finished the book because of the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing requirements.
The pandemic makes the issues Scott raised all the more important. In times of pestilence, famine and war, we the people submit to authority as we never would normally, and concede rights that we might or might not get back after the emergency is over.
Alternatively, we have a rational fear of anarchy in the bad sense—a war of all against all for the scarce means of survival.
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Here are Scott’s six arguments.
Chapter One: The Uses of Disorder and Charisma
Scott wrote about how anonymous individual defiance of law sets limits to government authority and sometimes is a prelude to revolution. His examples include desertions from the Confederate army, English poachers violating the nobility’s game laws, armed farmers in the U.S. Midwest stopping foreclosures during the Great Depression, wildcat strikes in the same era and spontaneous civil disobedience of U.S. segregation laws in the 1960s.
He also pointed out how “charismatic” leaders, such as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Franklin D. Roosevelt, acquire their popularity by noting carefully how their audiences respond, and adapting their message to their audience.
Scott recommended the practice of “anarchist calisthenics”—harmless disobedience of pointless laws and regulations. He says this will mentally prepare you to resist actual tyranny if tyranny comes.