For the majority of human history, human society existed in one of two states, either in anarchy, where small clans and tribes governed themselves, or under tyranny. Where the monarch or emperor or god-king's word was law. I believe there is a reason for this, and it is not simply because we were primitive. After thinking through these things for as long as I've has political opinions, I've come to a conclusion. Those states, anarchy and tyranny, are the only two states we are really capable of understanding and engaging with on a meaningful level.

We are still the same primitive apes that formed these societies, and I believe the modern world is proof that we have just gotten ahead of ourselves. We believe that because we have accomplished some interesting things that we have freed ourselves from our own nature. But all of our materialistic and moral advancement has come at a cost. It is something that everyone is aware of but nobody wants to talk about: our mental health. Skyrocketing suicide rates, chronic depression, anxiety, and a nearly universal lack of a sense of purpose.

Now look at how we are governed. Massive parties, byzantine bureaucratic structures. These are systems so complex that 4 years of specialized higher education is a requirement to even begin to understand how it all operates. So what does the average person do to conceptualize it? We call it a tyrant, either one we like or hate, but a tyrant nonetheless. All these systems do is obfuscate who is to blame for what and who should be held accountable. When was the last time it was certain that a specific person in government had done something wrong and then that person held to account? Then we delude ourselves and say that there is virtue in collectively tossing aside the Sword of Damocles claiming that we are better for not putting the tyrants head on a spike, when in reality if our governments were run by a single person, we would have done just that, and we would have done it long ago. We claim that since we vote for our leaders, we don't need to rise up against them, because they do what we elect them to do... except when they don't. Our government doesn't do only exactly what elected officials run on. Who does those things that we don't vote for? How many degrees of separation are there between our elected officials and those people? What stops elected officials from either backing or doing these things themselves? The threat that we won't vote for them again? Is that punishment enough? Does that actually solve anything?

We live within systems that we truly do not understand, cause and affect are unknown, who to hold accountable is unknown. We sit around, depressed, anxious, and without purpose, hoping that our vote will somehow solve it all, that this single person will change everything or will at the very least take things a step in what we think is the right direction, but we really have no idea what it is we are trying to do.

The more complex the system, the more that can go wrong, and the harder it is to understand, let alone fix.

At least, in anarchy, you know who is in charge of you personally and you can negotiate with them yourself, kill them and take their place, or leave. At least in tyranny you know whose palace to storm and whose head to put on a spike, knowing that whoever comes next will at least be something different.