I just returned from my regular Saturday morning trip to our local farmers' market. I was wearing a T-shirt one of my daughters had had made for me that reads: "peace, love, anarchy." I stopped at one booth, and the man running it - in his 40s, I would guess - smiled and commented favorably on the word "anarchy." "I'm from central California, and we're pretty conservative up there. A few years ago, I would not have been favorable to anarchy. But things are getting crazy and frightening in this country," he went on, suggesting that anarchy might not be a bad alternative. He was quite sincere in what he was saying.
I went on to point out to him that this farmers' market was a perfect example of anarchy: I didn't see anyone using force upon one another; free negotiations were taking place; there were no jails to lock people up; etc.; that anarchy, in other words, is nothing more than the way in which most of us live together in society - whether at work, in the marketplace, our neighborhoods, etc.
