Frequently Asked Questions

Is this site really about anarchy or is that just a clever name for a zany webcomic?
So you’re really an anarchist? What does that mean?
Don’t most governments have the consent of the governed?
What constitutes explicit individual consent?
Do you mind if I repost one of your comics on my site?
How do I make a suggestion for a cartoon?
Should I violate copyright laws?
How do you protect your intellectual property?
Why aren’t there more frequently asked questions?

Is this site really about anarchy or is that just a clever name for a zany webcomic?

Yes and yes. First of all, I reserve the right to do a comic about anything that I think will be entertaining, and many would say I have a bizarre and zany approach to humor. Also, while most of the comics have some sort of social or political statement to make in the process of entertaining, not all do, and the comic seems to have broad appeal from a lot of different viewpoints. I do frequently address principles of an anarchist philosophy of life, but my primary slogan for my site speaks to what I believe to be pretty broad appeal:

When it comes to politics I hate it all, so no matter what your personal views are, sooner or later I’m bound to make fun of someone or something you hate. But the name also seems to speak to something zany and off the wall, which is also a good description of much of the comics, and I think it inspires curiosity which is good marketing.

So you’re really an anarchist? What does that mean?

Yes, I’m really an anarchist. What that means to me is a rejection of archons (false leaders) and coercively-imposed hierarchies.

I believe that violence is destructive and begets more violence. I believe that peace is essential to the prosperity of the human race and that we can only achieve such piece by respecting the incredibly pluralistic nature of human beings. I believe the greatest strengths of the human race are our intelligence and reasoning ability in combination with our ability to specialize and work together for the survival and greater success of every individual, i.e. our social nature. I feel that the most effective way to maximize such civilized behavior is to consistently support the political equality of every human being. I consider arbitrary rankings such as politicians, judges, police, and military to be irrationally derived notions of authority. I consider the only true source of authority to be explicit individual voluntary consent to such authority absent duress or fraud.

Our current governments are simply institutionalized violence. These structures represent an outdated and barbaric attempt at achieving order. I believe anarchy to be the logical next step in the evolution of civilized society. I believe authoritarian monopolies aggressively imposed on the masses to be nothing more than a very effective form of organized crime and such organizations are controlled by and serve the most wealthy and elite of all criminals, though many of those criminals would of course not consider themselves such. I suspect most share the same delusions that they use to indoctrinate their servants, just as ancient proponents of slavery justified their abuse with a delusion that slavery was mutually beneficial and that the slaves themselves benefited from the “guidance” of their masters. These violent governments are our greatest source of conflict and strife, far beyond the petty crimes they claim to protect us from.

Now it’s important to say what being an anarchist doesn’t mean to me since your imagination may be running wild right now. I am vehemently opposed to violence except as an absolute last resort for my personal protection. In fact, that’s my primary motivation for being an anarchist. While I oppose governments in their current non-voluntary forms, I have no intention to use violence to overthrow governments, to hurl Molotov cocktails at government buildings, or to cause harm to government officials. Not only do such actions thoroughly disgust me, but they’re harmful to any movement that purports to achieve more freedom from such oppressive institutions. The line between victims and victimizers needs to be crystal clear. We can only evolve the human race by enlightening individuals to the absurdity of using violence to solve problems and the way to do that is to practice what we preach as consistently as possible.

These views are in line with the vast majority of other anarchists I have befriended and interacted with personality, particularly here in New Hampshire where there is quite a variety of efforts for peaceful progress toward more personal freedom and less government intrusion into our lives. Unfortunately, those who disagree with my non-violent approach tend to stand out and get more attention making it a difficult task to dispel such stereotypes. I aim to take on that challenge. Part of my motivation for creating a comic was to present a peaceful anarchist viewpoint in an entertaining and non-threatening way and hopefully help burst some of those violent stereotypes.

Don’t most governments have the consent of the governed?

Absolutely not. They often achieve the consent of a majority, but first of all, that’s not sufficient to logically establish authority over non-consenting minorities. Justifying violence with numbers is just ganging up on the weak. It is a flawed philosophy of might-makes-right. A might-makes-right philosophy might make sense in the animal kingdom where a creature’s ability to survive and prosper is in its physical traits*, but it epically fails to capitalize on the greatest strengths of humanity. Secondly, the way governments typically achieve consent is through fraud and duress.

It is fraud when we are indoctrinated from an impressionable early age into the irrational belief that without violently imposed rulers, we cannot achieve peaceful order. It is fraud when we are indoctrinated into believing that we are not slaves because we can choose our masters. It is fraud when we are indoctrinated into believing we are even choosing our masters when we have only a meager influence on the slim choice of masters presented by our violent political systems. We are controlled first with lies and fraud and only secondly with duress, threats of punishment if we dare to step out of the herd as free-thinking individuals.

It is duress when we are told our rights are privileges and those rights then taken away under threat of punishment if we do not comply. When you sign a government contract, such as to obtain permission to simply travel, under threat of punishment if you do not sign, then the contract was signed under duress. That’s just one example. Truly free people need no permission to engage in activity that harms no one. It is duress when an all-powerful monopoly restricts our choices and then insists that we make a choice before we can simply continue to live our lives peacefully without fear of punishment.

* Where does a 500 pound gorilla sleep? Answer: Wherever it wants to!

Do you believe there is such a thing as a rational justification for authority?

Certainly. Legitimate authority is established by the explicit voluntary consent of individuals absent both fraud and duress. If someone offers me something I want in exchange for doing something for them, and assuming they were honest and non-threatening, they are merely persuading me to obey them. That’s an example of a mutually beneficial relationship and I have chosen to respect their authority to some reasonable extent.

Good leaders inspire people to follow them voluntarily. Good leaders shouldn’t be confused with a politician who may manage to achieve the consent of some sort of majority and use their support to gang up and impose his will on everyone in a sweeping manner. Practically all current notions of government are based on exactly that horribly flawed notion of leadership.

Do you mind if I repost one of your comics on my site?

No, I don’t mind at all as long as you leave the images completely unaltered, particularly leaving the URL intact and readable.* In fact, I consider it good promotion for my site. If you do, I would greatly appreciate it if you would make the image link back to the specific page where I originally posted it. That way, if someone clicks on the cartoon, it will take them to the associated entry where they can read what I wrote, possibly digg the cartoon, and post comments if they like. The front page of my site ( http://anarchyinyourhead.com/ ) only shows a portion of whatever is the latest entry. The URL you link to should look something like this: http://anarchyinyourhead.com/2008/01/14/national-id-parlor/. To obtain that URL, just click the title of the post and you’ll be taken to a permalink of that entry that will always point to that specific cartoon even after I post new cartoons.

*If you alter my comics, or show only a portion of a comic out of context, you may be misrepresenting my actual views.

How do I make a suggestion for a cartoon?

Just send an email to . I have a lot of ideas in the queue so don’t get your hopes up but a number of my cartoons are at least loosely based on suggestions people have made.

Should I violate copyright laws?

Absolutely! Well, with respect to my site anyway. If you do it elsewhere, great, but you may bring down the fury of the state upon your head.

I encourage you to print cartoons you like, unaltered and with the URL clearly visible, and post them up in public places. It’s good promotion. I appreciate whatever support you can afford, of course. No contribution is considered too small. Click the “Support” link to see what you can do to support the site and ensure that I’m able to continue it. This comic is still a labor of love and is nowhere near the point of providing me much of a financial reward for my many hours of regular work. Also, many of the cartoons are available on a number of products in the store, including things like post cards and greeting cards. Any purchase you make from my store results in a small commission.

My comics are theoretically protected by U.S. copyright law, but to an anarchist like myself that’s a bit like an atheist expressing knowledge of the ten commandments of Christian mythology. I don’t really support notions of copyright. I do support notions of common courtesy as well as intellectual property, but I consider it my own responsibility to protect my rights. When I release content into the countless bit streams of the Internet, I can’t reasonably claim the right to restitution if someone reproduces said content without any harm to myself. Suffice to say that I won’t be using lawsuits to extract payment from you if you reproduce my cartoons yourself. If I ever partner with someone else like a publisher, I unfortunately won’t be able to speak for them, but for now I have total control over the images. Sadly, I have to face reality and live in the world such as it is, and I don’t know of any publishers that don’t partake of the perverse justifications for violence that the U.S. copyright laws provide.

How do you protect your intellectual property?

First of all, I make every attempt to insure that my work gets credited to me. As long as that happens, I feel like I will obtain some benefit from the free proliferation of that content, even if it’s just more regular visitors to my sites which potentially raises my ad revenue and helps me sell products related to my comics and ideas.

In addition, I create the cartoons on this site with a vector graphics program which allows me to generate images at various resolutions without ugly artifacts. I try to keep those vector images secure. The graphics I upload to the store are generated at a substantially higher resolution (about 5x the height and width of the website image) so you’re paying for quality. Cafe Press protects this content for its customers by contract. So you could download an image from my site, create your own product from it (in violation of Cafe Press’s terms), and avoid the modest commission I get from my products. However, you’d be going to a lot more trouble, using a resolution far below the specifications called for by the printers, and at best would only save a few bucks. My commission on products like t-shirts is only about $1 or $2 in most cases. The bulk of the price is in the production by Cafe Press. That $1 or $2 savings would likely result in a really crappy-looking product.

Why aren’t there more frequently asked questions?

I haven’t been asked enough questions. I need your help! Ask away and maybe your question will be answered here as well.