I would say ~free as nature~, without a "but", without that usual etatist "freedom is granted by the authority" double think bullshit. In anarchy the throne is not only empty, it doesn't even exist.
A society leaves anarchism as soon as it is controlled by authority, by will or by force. The authority can be a mafia, cult, church, company, state or whatever else etatists call it these days 😂.
The trouble I see with this is that authorities naturally arise everywhere. No place on Earth has zero authorities. An anarchist (seems to me) is therefore always in a position of effectively being under the rule of some authority that they reject, while lamenting that other people are "dumb statists".
Myself, I believe that something like a state will inevitably form (if a state does not form locally for a while, the territory will just be overtaken by a larger and more remote state, which is likely worse). Therefore the sensible approach is to design the state in such a way that its power over citizens is kept in check, to avoid tyranny. This requires constant vigilance of course.
Happy to learn more about your point of view on this.
Statists are definitely not dumb, I hope i havent said that somewhere 😅. The note below regarding normies is here highly related I think. Statism is very efficient and grows from the combined wish to both be in control and yet to never feel responsible.
Anarchism definitely is a vacuum of power that opportunists like to fill. Now the question is: is this a human reality that never will change, imho rendering humans evil by design, or can humans change and overcome their lust for the throne. Its a question about believe. Personally I wanna believe that humans can evolve and thats why I try to share the altruist anarchist spirit 🙂.
Thanks, I appreciate your thoughtful response. To your question, whether a vacuum of power will always be filled, I would be say likely yes. So might as well fill it up with something sensible. The best approach so far has been through the separation of powers: multiple counter-balancing forces.
Bitcoin brings separation of money and state, which is a huge advance and will have highly nontrivial consequences on the whole balance. Hopefully for the better! However, those entities losing power through this shift will surely try to recover it in some other way, so I doubt this will be a smooth and serene process.
(What is the next aspect that can and should be separated from the state?)
