IN SEARCH OF THE ROOTS OF CONFLICT
Do we have a problem here?
We intuitively know that a conflict does indeed exist. We know this because we are not free and the limits imposed to our freedom are not voluntary. Take for example taxes. Very few -if any- person would pay taxes voluntarily if the government would not have people with badges and their corresponding guns pointed at you. But as we have seen above, the structures themselves cannot originate nor describe the conflict. Then what?
The principle of authority
If you go through a course of philosophy, one of the first things they will teach you about are the many invalid ways of argumenting that may be put forward to support a point of view. One of such methods is called "The Principle Of Authority" and it goes more or less like this.
Whatever we say is true just because we, in authority, say so.
As you can see, this argument cannot be argued against because it has no rationale. It has no logic. Why would people "in authority" be correct? There is no correct answer to this answer. The truth is that they may be correct or incorrect. Just because they are in authority has no bearing on the correctness (or incorrectness) of their point of view.
In any process where your arguments are shot down just because people are "in authority", will automatically put you in conflict with such people. Most people do not accept this principle when it comes to arguments. But who uses this principle extensively and almost without exclusion? Politicians. And what do politicians create? Governments. And how are governments organized mostly? In Hierarchical Networks. See the connection yet?
The upside down analysis
Most people who have written about the H's versus the N's have performed the incorrect analysis. The source of most large conflicts among people are not organizational structures but attitudes. For example, it is difficult (although not impossible) to get upset because the structure of trees is not the same as the structure of grass. Yet, this is exactly what they did in their analysis. They blamed the structure of trees for growing too tall and blocking your window instead of blaming the gardener who planted the tree in that location in the first place!
IN SEARCH OF SOLUTIONS
The incorrect solution
Most people who "fight" against the evil, evil concept of government (or political theory) are actually romantics. Basically, they have these rosy notions about how everything will suddenly be nice and fuzzy and cuddly if we could only get rid of all governments. They believe that if governments could be removed, then, mysteriously, all hierarchical structures will disappear and only network ones will remain. As hierarchical structures are the root of all evil, only good shall remain. This is, of course, nonsense. These structures were created by humans and as such they cannot be removed more than we cannot stop breathing and not die. True, we can force everybody to become egalitarian, but in order to do so; we need somebody that will make us do it which means somebody with more authority than ourselves, which means a hierarchical structure!
The correct solution
In order to find the correct solution we need to have a good diagnosis. This diagnosis was performed above. The source of the conflict is the execution or utilization of "The Principle of Authority". Therefore if we wish to solve this conflict we need to find a solution that will remove the use of said principle. Unfortunately, all governments operate on this principle. All laws and regulations are, in fact, derived from said principle. The concept of democracy is a deeply flawed one because it rests on the concept of Social Contracts which are invalid (see Social Contracts Are A Scam). Therefore the only solution to this problem is a system that does not make use or or advocates for governments. And the only one that does so and is not farfetched is the Absolute Libertarian one. This system gets rid of the "Principle of Authority" because it is contract-based (of the voluntary kind). As such only voluntary contracts are acceptable and as such, they are breakable. Under such system it is impossible to operate under the "Principle of Authority". This is not to say that Hierarchical or Hierarchical Network structures will cease to exist. Not at all. Those structures will still prevail. The only difference is that nobody will be able to restrict our freedom against our will by using the "Principle of Authority" and this is the key element of the solution.
In other words…
Let's clarify. Let's say that in a government-less town a few people create a company to sweep the streets. This company is organized voluntarily by people who provide their sections of roads into the company. The company will keep all these sections clean by charging a road toll to all visitors. However, in order for the company to function, there must be a president which will be elected by simple majority. This president may take decisions against the will of a few shareholders. Is this an application of the "Principle of Authority"? No. This is not so because all shareholders entered into this company voluntarily. They knew going in that certain decisions may go against their desires, but nevertheless they entered. This means that they voluntarily accepted certain decisions that they may not like. They voluntarily accepted restrictions to their absolute right of property. But the story does not end here. As the only relationship between shareholders is the contract, each shareholder may choose to break it. This will, of course, trigger some penalty clauses, but there is always an opt-out option.
Compare this with the operation of governments. In modern democratic societies, we did not voluntarily choose to have our freedom limited by politicians and there is no opt out option. True, we can go to a different country, but that's not the point. The point is that our property is in this country but there is no way to reassert our full property rights. That's the point. Not to mention the fact that there really is no place to run to any longer (see Your Country Is Your Prison Cell).
CONCLUSION
In the end the Hierarchical and Network structures (and any hybrid that may be developed from them) are nothing but tools. How we choose to use them is the key. In current, modern democratic systems they are used to supress our property rights (actually, politicians have fully succeeded in so doing). However, in a truly free market environment completely devoid from governments, those tools would prove to reign supreme to relentlessly increase our standards of living. This is so because in a truly free market the free market itself is the only "authority" who may exercise the previously mentioned principle but contrary to what politicians do, it prefers to remain silent deferring all decisions to you. You are in complete control.
Unless, this is, you enjoy and ravel in the thought that you have zero control over your property (which includes your body). If this is the case (and this is certainly your choice), we salute you since your way of living is already dying.
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.
