"The one no earthly nation has tried. Anarchy!"
"Anarchy!" the captain and Putz burst out together.
"That's right."
"But—" Harrison was sputtering. "What do you mean—they're ahead of us? Anarchy! Bah!"
"All right—bah!" retorted Jarvis. "I'm not saying it would work for us, or for any race of men. But it works for them."
"But—anarchy!" The captain was indignant.
"Well, when you come right down to it," argued Jarvis defensively, "anarchy is the ideal form of government, if it works. Emerson said that the best government was that which governs least, and so did Wendell Phillips, and I think George Washington. And you can't have any form of government which governs less than anarchy, which is no government at all!"
The captain was sputtering. "But—it's unnatural! Even savage tribes have their chiefs! Even a pack of wolves has its leader!"
"Well," retorted Jarvis defiantly, "that only proves that government is a primitive device, doesn't it? With a perfect race you wouldn't need it at all; government is a confession of weakness, isn't it? It's a confession that part of the people won't cooperate with the rest and that you need laws to restrain those individuals which a psychologist calls anti-social. If there were no anti-social persons—criminals and such—you wouldn't need laws or police, would you?"
"But government! You'd need government! How about public works—wars—taxes?"