Noam Chomsky, great philosopher alive today, he was asked the question, what is anarchism to you? And his response is one that gives us a pretty good initial starting point for the discussion that's to come. His answer was that anarchism, as far as he can see it, is that whenever there's an authority that you witness in the world, particularly a hierarchical authority that exists within a society, it is ultimately that authority's job to justify its existence. No matter what it is, whether that's the father in a family situation saying, I'm the man of the house, I make the decisions here. Whether that's the priest in a church, whether that's your assistant manager working at a Dairy Queen, whether that's the CEO of a company, and yes, whether that's the government of the country you live in, all of these people, no matter how good their intentions are, have a responsibility to justify their position of authority. Because authority is not a self-justifying thing to Noam Chomsky. Not every situation in the world requires some person who's appointed where they have the authority to reign over and micromanage other people's decisions. Nobody likes the mall security guard walking around, eating a Wetzel's pretzel, drinking an orange Julius, feeling entitled to mess with other people's days just because he's got a uniform and a walkie-talkie. Now, in the situations where there's a father who's the man of the house and he's making all the decisions for the family, but in practice when making those decisions, he just ends up being a bumbling idiot that puts his family into a bunch of bad situations, an anarchist might ask the question, would that family maybe be a little bit better off if everyone in the household was contributing to that decision-making process? Can that father justify his position of complete authority there? In the situation of the priest at the head of a church, where he tells his congregation, you know, it's the craziest thing. I woke up this morning and God told me his plan for today was that you guys got to mow my lawn and make me a glass of lemonade. Won't even go into what priests have done historically to people in this position of authority. An anarchist might ask here, would you say it's necessary for that priest to have to justify their position of authority as well? Well, if you agree with these two examples, the question just becomes, how far up the ladder do we require people to do this? Does it apply to the boss in a company that's had the job for 20 years terrorizing people in cubicles? Does it apply to the government itself? To Noam Chomsky, all that an anarchist is, is someone who takes these questions seriously. Someone who believes that it's the task of the people who hold these positions of authority to demonstrate why them being in charge is serving everyone better than what we could do on our own as responsible adults. They