Self-government is Not the State

One concept I've slowly been exploring is the idea of government versus the idea of the state. In the theoretical libertarian anarchy, government may still exist via self-government of communities or entities in which membership is voluntary. Self-government is not the same as the state.

When you boil "self-government" down to its purest, basest form, it all comes down to the individual and his decisions to self-regulate. If a confederacy of individuals decided to ban together and all voluntarily self-regulate according to the same standards, and collaborate for projects and ventures without collective theft, then there is true self-government without there being a state.

Just because the state has hijacked the label "government" as a euphemism does not mean voluntary self-government equals the state. If the self-governing association is 100% voluntary and if the state is coercion embodied, then voluntary self-government is not the state.

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Artwork by Libertatis in the public domain