Anarchy refers to a society without a central political authority. But it is also used to refer to disorder or chaos. This constitutes a textbook example of Orwellian news-speak in which assigning the same name to two different concepts effectively narrows the range of thought. For if lack of government is identified with the lack of order, no one will ask whether lack of government actually results in a lack of order. And this un-inquisitive mental attitude is absolutely essential to the case for the state. If people were ever to seriously question whether government actions are really productive of order, popular support for government would almost instantly collapse. The identification of anarchy with disorder is not a trivial matter. The power of our conceptions to blind us to the facts of the world around us cannot be gainsaid.
--John Hasnas, Professor of Business and Law, Georgetown University
