The stateless Middle Ages were the only example of a functioning anarchic order in the West.
The ‘Reactionary’ Libertarianism of Frank van Dun, by Richard Storey.
Forgive the length of this post and the multiple links. I am thinking it is necessary to capture and summarize my thoughts on this topic, and have found this work by Storey to be a good vehicle through which to do so.
Storey offers a summary of his conversation with Frank van Dun (FvD). Storey introduces the piece with his starting point:
Like many anarcho-capitalist libertarians, I believed that the Church, far from being a hindrance to state growth, was the primary promoter of centralised statism in Northern Europe.
Storey offers a summary of his view – how he came to reach this conclusion. He reached out to FvD, hoping to maybe learn something but also to receive confirmation of his views. As you can tell from his past-tense use of “believed,” Storey received much more of the learning than he did the confirming.
Kingship and Law in th…
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Except where noted, the remainder of this post (to include the quote at the top of this post) offers some excerpts from FvD’s response to Storey. So there is no confusion about where FvD is headed, he begins his response:
Most of your comments fit what is still the PC-view of the medieval period and the role of the Church in it.
I began my education on this topic by reading Fritz Kern’s Kingship and Law in the Middle Ages. I learned that the Dark Ages were not so dark; serf’s had far more freedom and protection in the law than we do today; every individual could veto the decision of his lord if…