I’ve been studying anarchist and libertarian thought for about six years now. In that time I’ve found that learning to compare the state to a gang in a very detailed and factual manner is crucial to the growth of anarchist thought. It’s often the one thing that brings folks from small government to stateless thinking. It’s no easy task to change someone’s beliefs about government. Sometimes the only thing you can do is simply lay out the facts, and the fact of the matter is that the state is a gang, not unlike any street gang or mafia. The evidence is obvious and abundant, if only most people had the courage to draw that conclusion. Nobody arrives at any stateless ideology without that final paradigm shattering realization.

You’ll often hear certain sayings thrown around such as “The government is a mafia” and “The government is a gang thieves writ large”. Those statements are not just figures of speech. They are undoubtedly true. My only grief with this language is that many folks don’t seem to look into the truth beyond skin deep. Beltway Libertarians and Minarchists are especially guilty of this. They throw these sayings around as a kind of meme and nothing more. They would strip the state to its bare essentials, leaving nothing but its monopoly on violence. The irony being that they still accept the forceful violent aspect that makes government a gang in the first place.

The best evidence for this occurred to me while reading about violent crime statistics in the United States. By all indications, violent crime has been dropping since the early 90’s. There are many theories for this, ranging from increased gun ownership, to lower lead levels in our bodies, to video games and entertainment creating some kind of harmless outlet for violent impulses. Though these theories may hold weight, one thing flies in the face of them all. Gang membership has exploded over the past 20 years. There are currently 1.4 million gang members in the United States according to the FBI. That’s a 40 percent growth over three years before that study was taken, and it reflects an overall explosive trend since the 90’s. What gives? How could crime be on the descent while gang numbers continue to mount?

With a little research I found only one source looking into this possible correlation. A research paper written by Russel Sobel and Brian Osaba titled “Youth Gangs as Pseudo-Governments” paints a totally different picture. Street gangs are not the core cause of violence. As a matter of fact, they’re not necessarily even a problem, so much as they are caused by a problem. What these two researchers figured out by looking at data gathered from the LAPD was that it’s the violence and crime that comes first, then the gangs start forming to protect themselves. People don’t join gangs just to deal drugs and make money. It always starts with people fearing for their lives in a violent neighborhood. While the gangs commit many acts of violence, the overall crime rate in gang controlled territory often decreases. In a nutshell, gangs fill a void that government services leave behind. When the government fails to protect the rights and safety of their citizens, the citizens will take it upon themselves. However righteous that may sound on the surface, they are forming nothing more than primitive governments.

When I make this case to some folks the reaction I often get is, “Oh ya? Well I’ve never seen a gang build a bridge, or a school.” Yeah right. I have. You just need to know where to look.

One of my first jobs was at a Pizza Hut. There was a bright young Mexican fellow I often talked to while he made the pizzas. Between orders, we’d often talk about his former life growing up in Mexico. Amongst all of his colorful stories, the one that always stood out to me is when he said the high school he went to was built and funded by one of the cartels. Truth be told, gangs and mafias frequently engage in acts of “charity,” just like governments do. I suspect they are for less than altruistic reasons. Often it’s to gain the trust of the population so that they won’t snitch, and they may provide hideouts from time to time. Just like governments, gangs can’t survive without some kind of support or compliance from the population.

You can find numerous other examples of this throughout history. After the earthquake in Kobe, Japan killed 6,000 people in 1995, it was the Yakuza that stepped in long before the authorities could. They utilized their privately owned helicopter fleet to deliver aid to the city. They did this again after the Fukushima earthquake. And just as a government wont do anything that isn’t in its own interest, the Yakuza allegedly takes a 5 percent cut of any construction work they’re involved in. Thus, part of the relief effort is also establishing contacts with the rebuilding. Al Capone did something similar during the Great Depression. He spent a fortune funding bread lines and soup kitchens in Chicago to build his public image. Though not a traditional street gang, Hamas is yet another example. According to Reuven Paz, a scholar on Islamic Fundementalism, “Approximately 90 percent of its work is in social, welfare, cultural, and educational activities.” They build schools, orphanages, mosques, clinics, soup kitchens, and even fund sports leagues.

What should you take from all of this? Whenever the government fails to deliver on its promises, and whenever it fails to protect its citizens, gangs always fill that void, and pick up the slack. Gangs often find themselves fulfilling all of the same duties governments claim to provide. Why do they do this? Because they are governments.

Gangs will put money into schools, into roads, and into hospitals (money that’s often stolen through robbery, fraud, and extortion. Sound familiar?). They will claim exclusive rights of protection over a given territory (turf). They will make treaties with each other. They will go to war with each other. The lower “soldiers” of the gangs will wear uniforms (colors), and have their own form of boot camp (initiation), however informal it may appear. Gangs will even set up charters and constitutions that dictate how members are supposed to conduct themselves amongst leaders, peers, and outsiders, including what their rights are in the gang. It’s been claimed that gang constitutions are often as sophisticated as those found in a typical Fortune 500 company.

Gangs even follow the same “story arc” as governments. When I read the history of any particular gang, it often reads like the history of any government or empire I’ve ever studied. It starts out with good intentions. Impoverished and persecuted people with the need to band together, so that they may protect themselves from the predations of their neighbors. They often start with a strict code of ethics allowing them to only fight against a certain group, or in a certain circumstance. Once they establish a firm sense of security over a given area, factions form within. The worst rise to the top of their hierarchy after a few generations. Before long their ethics and good intentions are nothing more than a mythology and propaganda they feed to their new recruits, as the gang turns into a predation machine that loots everything they can carry. As the focus of this machine is nothing but profit at the expense of every one’s freedom and enterprise, they no longer provide protection in any meaningful way. They leave a new void for the next start-up gang to fill. What starts with Robin Hood, always ends up being the new Sheriff.

There’s another reason Anarchists should study the gang to government comparison. It’s not just one of the most critical factors in convincing someone of the merits and truth of a stateless society. Understanding that comparison also opens the door to realizing how the state perpetuates itself throughout the millennia, always leaving a power void in its death throws for the next gang of thieves to fill. Only when we understand how this cycle perpetuates itself, can we finally break out of it.

Tags: Al Capone, Gangs, Hamas, Police, Yakuza