"Anarchists are simply unterrified Jeffersonian Democrats"

The quote "Anarchists are simply unterrified Jeffersonian Democrats" by Benjamin Tucker encapsulates a remarkable point of view on the relationship between anarchism and classical liberal democratic perfects. Benjamin Tucker was a popular 19th-century American anarchist and individualist who believed in the primacy of individual liberty, voluntary cooperation, and minimal government intervention. In this quote, Tucker draws a contrast in between anarchists and the political approach of Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and an influential supporter of democracy and individual rights.

To interpret this quote, it is necessary to analyze the ideological commonness and differences in between anarchism and Jeffersonian democracy. Jeffersonian democracy is identified by its focus on limited federal government, specific rights, agrarianism, and a belief in the capability of individuals to govern themselves. Jeffersonians advocated for a society where the federal government's main role was to safeguard individual liberties and ensure justice.

Anarchists, on the other hand, look for to remove hierarchical structures, consisting of the state itself, which they view as naturally coercive. They visualize a society based on voluntary associations and shared aid, devoid of institutionalized authority. Tucker's characterization of anarchists as "unterrified" recommends that they push the Jeffersonian concepts of private flexibility and uncertainty of central authority even further, to their sensible extreme, by promoting for the overall abolition of the state.

In essence, Tucker is implying that anarchists share the foundational Jeffersonian worths of specific liberty and self-governance however are not constrained by the worry of departing from the standard political structures that Jeffersonians may still accept. By utilizing the term "unterrified", Tucker recommends that anarchists are bold and courageous in pursuing absolute freedom, unafraid to challenge the status quo and take apart existing power structures in their mission for genuine autonomy and equality.

This interpretation highlights the radical extension of classical liberal worths by anarchists and suggests a philosophical continuum where anarchism is viewed as the supreme awareness of the principles embraced by Jeffersonian democracy, albeit in a more uncompromising and extreme kind.