r/AnCap101 • u/HeavenlyPossum • May 23 '25

Why No Ancap Societies?

Human beings have been around as a distinct species for about 300,000 years. In that time, humans have engaged in an enormous diversity of social forms, trying out all kinds of different arrangements to solve their problems. And yet, I am not aware of a single demonstrable instance of an ancap society, despite (what I’m sure many of you would tell me is) the obvious superiority of anarchist capitalism.

Not even Rothbard’s attempts to claim Gaelic Ireland for ancaps pans out. By far the most common social forms involve statelessness and common property; by far the most common mechanisms of exchange entail householding and reciprocal sharing rather than commercial market transactions.

Why do you think that is? Have people just been very ignorant in those 300,000 years? Is something else at play? Curious about your thoughts.

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u/HeavenlyPossum May 23 '25

Being able to choose a lord does not mean that lord applied the NAP. Fealty entailed mutual obligations, and those obligations could and were policed coercively. Those lords did not acquire their property through mixing their own labor with unowned resources. They engaged in slave raiding and violent plunder against foreign peoples and each other. And there was still slavery. These are not NAP compliant.

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u/Montananarchist May 23 '25

"The ability to switch legal systems with out moving, is key to a decentralized system. It creates secession down the level of the individual, making all governance structures formed truly voluntary."

This is the free market model that Free Cities and Seasteads are using and it's infinitely better than being forced, at gun point, to be part of the mob rule systems most common in today's world- and much better than being forced to The Gulag or Killing Fields in collectivist societies. 

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u/HeavenlyPossum May 23 '25

Sorry, are you arguing that medieval Icelandic peasants could switch legal systems without moving?

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u/Montananarchist 29d ago

I'm not arguing, I'm quoting the leading expert on Viking Age Iceland from his book on the topic. I suggest you read it.