What would society be like if there were no laws, no government and no police?

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well people could voluntarily band together under a uniting ideology and it might be a lovely little commune.
I don't think it means you could just suck the organs of state out of a country overnight and everything would be rosy.

Yes, there are often problems when states disappear, but usually those problems were already there before the state collapsed.

Reply 21

Tahooper

There would be no society.

Reply 22

warp2125

Chances are we would descend in to loose groups of tribes.... some we would trade with, others we would attack... so really not much different to how we are now.

Reply 23

TheHistoryStudent

I've no idea personally, but for some reason I'm leaning towards us initially being in a state of anarchy, and then, given enough time, small groups of people would form organised groups like tribes and the whole thing of society, law and order would begin again. This would be done out of necessity in my opinion - for defence (against things like looters), a desire to live a more peaceful life, and possibly to make it easier to do things like obtain food (either through force, which is easier if you have numbers, or perhaps farming, if arable land is available).

I suppose an alternative would be that we could (to an extent) go back to a similar state to the earlier human hunter-gatherers/farmers - small family/related groups eking out their own living, but no actual law and order being around... I think that's less likely though, because we already have a concept of law, order and so on, and we have grown up in it, whereas to ancient people, the idea of society as we know it would probably be quite alien...

EDIT: As for your actual question - perhaps you could do it as a time-line of some sort? showing the transitions of what people are doing to survive? Or perhaps something similar to that evolution image, you know the one which shows the evolution of man? (except you'd replace the end product so to speak, with an ordinary person in a society, and at the start might be just one person doing whatever they can to survive... it's a weird idea I know haha...)

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 24

JackJack

There's one thing in this world that makes society - money.
Think about it. Without it, there would be no society.

Reply 25

boba

it would be chaos at first but then over time rules would emerge even if they weren't as formal as laws. some sort of governance would emerge. And some form of policing would emerge. like our history starting again. Every society in the world has some sort of rules and social etiquette these rules are enforced somehow and there is some sort of governance. Even though the rules the form of governing and way of keeping people in check vary greatly they are found in all groups including groups that have developed in isolation.

Reply 26

TheBatman

I think laws and rules of sort would always exist. We're primates essentially where hierarchies and order of dominance occurs. Id imagine there would be very local networks to defend and uphold function. It wouldnt be absolute anarchy long term, everyone would lose out. For any progress to succeed for anyone there must be at least a basic form of understanding and order. Its like in prison, prisoners have their own sets of unspoken laws to abide by. Don't start on that guy because hes protected by him, or don't snitch on him etc.

Reply 27

hexagon999

Draw nothing, there wouldnt be a society

Reply 28

Rhadamanthus

Original post by RandomChap

Like I said, it isn't necessarily preferable, I'm just asking you guys to think a little more outside the Statist box!

You might be interested in this:

http://praxeology.net/GM-PS.htm

Oh goody, anarcho-capitalist rantings. Let's devise a theory of human action based on a priori principles and ignore how society has functioned for several thousand years! Honestly, these guys are as bad as Marxists.

Reply 29

snozzle

There are instances when we can say just conditions exist in our society. The riots for example were a momentary 'state of nature' to borrow from Hobbes? I think.

Reply 30

johnaulich

Original post by Wall of sound

I have to draw create a cartoon illustrating what life would be like in these conditions. Do you guys have any ideas what I could draw? Doesn't have to be complex. This is for my A level class.

I've already touched upon themes such as separatism and anarchism. I also thought about drawing the evolution of man backwards but I'm not sure.

Any thoughts?

Do you mean... if it happened tomorrow? Or if this was an alternate society without these things?

Reply 31

johnaulich

Original post by anarchism101

Would do fine. The Zapatista rebels in Mexico live in a stateless society and they're fine.

Fascinating. This really isn't a piss take question... do they also sell coffee?

Reply 32

perfectsymbology

I think a techologically advanced quasi-anarchist state could work with every one taking only what they need from and contributing to the needs of their respective communities but you still need a central army to protect from some aspiring warlord or foreign armies trying to take control of everything.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 33

No Man

I see I'm not the only one that thought Somalia.

Although it would be worse in the Western world where there is more access to dangerous things (i.e nuclear weapons).

Reply 34

SnoochToTheBooch

it would be lord of the flies or mad max or worse. humans - rules = the congo.

Reply 35

perfectsymbology

Well, something will need to replace rapacious capitalism in the future before all the world's resources are outstripped and bled dry.

Reply 36

amarjit18

well a world without the law and lawyers may look something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u9JAt6gFqM

Reply 37

Aliccam

Original post by whyumadtho

People would self-organise to fulfil their collective interests more efficiently, which would bring about the creation of rule and order.

We really only need one law, and that is to not harm any other person.
Nearly all the laws we have today just protect property.

Reply 38

Aliccam

Original post by perfectsymbology

The alternative to having army would be for the entire populous to immediately simply down tools, and only provide for each other, until they got bored and went away.