About

A goat track (also known as a desire line or a social trail) is a path that forms when many people use the same route to cross an area of grass or other vegetation. Goat tracks always appear spontaneously, often in areas where established (deliberately constructed) paths already exist. They can appear where the established paths direct people away from those areas they most want to pass through, or where the established paths are circuitous or otherwise poorly constructed. I've always found goat tracks to be symbolic of the coordinated and orderly outcomes that can occur in the absence of formal authority or other agents of power. To me, they represent the structure that can emerge from the bottom up, from the "grassroots" (even though it's actually the grass roots that are trampled and die when a goat track is created.....). They show that authority is not a necessary precursor to stability and structure, and that a state of freedom does not necessarily entail a descent into chaos.

As far back as I can remember, I've been uncomfortable with authority and power, but, like many others, I've taken the pragmatic stance that while a society without domination by one person over another would be nice, it probably wouldn't work. I now no longer take that position; nothing in human psychology, in human history or in my own experience suggests to me that such a free society wouldn't be possible. Almost all the day-to-day interactions between people occur without domination by one party over the other and without formal structures of authority to manage those interactions, yet these interactions almost never end in stagnation or irresolvable impasse. The end of feudalism, slavery, absolutism, apartheid, and the continuing struggles to end domination of women by men, and of workers by their bosses, have resulted in a better world, rather than a worse one. In my own life, I've implemented relatively non-hierarchical relationships with tutors for my courses, with my Honours students, and with undergraduate students, and the world didn't fall apart. I almost never use formal forms of address in my interactions with my supposed subordinates and I avoid using my title where possible, yet mayhem and pandemonium have never ensued. And, of course, the goat tracks...

This website is an attempt to show that these observations and the principle that follows from them - that freedom from authority does not entail chaos - holds across almost all domains, including interpersonal relationships, families, societal structures, workplaces, educational institutions, the legal system, and the international political arena. As well as analyzing these domains from this anti-authoritarian position, the articles on this site - which I've tried to keep short and to make easily accessible - will attempt to imagine in general terms what a society absent of structures of domination might look like, and how such a society might function. These imaginings are very general sketches, because I don't think it's possible to have a really clear sense of how to implement a completely new social structure, or to know what would actually work in the real world. These imaginings are my own personal musings and ideas, which are likely to change and evolve over time, but the key theme running through all of them is a constant and stable one: that the world can (and should) be more free, more democratic, and more humane.

As those of you who know me well know, I don't often put my views on these things out there explicitly, preferring to have the discussion only when others want it (or when I get particularly outraged by some of the things going on in the world). I've been told, though, that I have a distinctive (peculiar?) perspective that might be worth airing... so here goes the airing... Hopefully it'll be more like freshly washed sheets than smelly socks.

I would like to acknowledge Vincent Fogliati for inspiring me to set up this blog by launching his own (much more lighthearted) blog, "Life is Frightening". I would also like to thank Adrienne May for helping to come up with the title "The Goat Track to Freedom". Without that conversation on the shores of Sullivan's Creek, this blog would most likely be called "Blog".