And what about egoist anarchists who take liberty of others ?

Question

Why, an egoist anarchist will restrain himself for taking liberties of others ?

Comments

what does it mean, exactly, to "take the liberty of others"? like...restrain them? take their shit? give them a lobotomy? please...curious minds reel...

Answer 1

One answer is that they won't restrain themselves. Some egoists can be pretty anti-social, to the point of being hostile to others. These people often don't actually identify as egoists, they are merely people who do whatever they want regardless of others.

Another answer is because they want to restrain themselves. There is nothing to stop an egoist from taking the liberty of others, unless the egoist is worried about charges of hypocrisy, which consistent egoists should not be. It may well be that egoists decide they don't want to take the liberty of others, at least not other types of anarchist who they may see as allies in the fight against control.

That said, I'm not an egoist, so not best placed to answer.

Answer 2

Why would any person ever restrain themselves from taking the liberty of others? Egoists are no different from anyone else. We are all motivated, on some level, by the drive for self-preservation.

With that in mind, it often doesn't make sense to "take the liberty" of others, especially amongst anarchists (who are generally hostile to those who take liberty from them), as the negative consequences are likely to be bigger than the benefit. Why be a tyrant? It's actually just too much work, in my opinion.

that said, I don't particularly define myself as an egoist, so this might not be the best answer ever.

Answer 3

Stirner proposed the "Union of Egoists" specifically as a strategy of horizontal association, and emphasized things like the selfishness of playful joy together and becoming self-determining rather than that of enslaving people. Of course there are authoritarian egoists, but, an egoist anarchist specifically does not want to become the new spook or shackle of another.