Free-Market Anarchism Flag Proposal

The Quick Explanation

Black is the traditional color of anarchism, while gold could be said to represent capitalism. The red-white-red stripe is a nod to Austrian economics, a cornerstone of free-market anarchist thought. The Libertatis Æquilibritas is another symbol of free-market anarchism, while the crown represents personal sovereignty.

Note: There is also a version of the flag ("First Variant," below) without the additional symbolic elements. I think I'm starting to like that simpler design than the more complex original version here.

The Full Explanation

When I began working on an anarcho-capitalist flag, I was familiar with the flag of the Swedish Anarcho-Capitalist Front — sadly, the link to their former website appears to be dead — on which black, as is traditional, represents anarchism. Gold represents capitalism. But that really didn't influence me as much as you might think. I actually began by arranging the Libertatis Æquilibritas (the yin-yang dollar sign thing) various ways on green-and-white Cascadian flags. I wanted something that represented my personal spin on individualist anarchism. So this too is a persoflag.

Update!

In The Betrayal of the American Right, Murray N. Rothbard writes:

In the winter of 1963-64, [Robert] LeFevre organized a winter-and-spring long "Phrontistery" at Colorado to pave the way for transforming Freedom School into a Rampart College. ... For the first time in public some of the group also unfurled the "black-and-gold flag," the colors of which we had all decided best represented anarcho-capitalism: black as the classic color of anarchism and gold as the color of capitalism and hard-money.

This is the first I'd heard of this flag, which as you can read evidently contained much of the same symbolism as my design. It sounds like it may have looked like the gold-black diagonal design on this Wikipedia page, which also cites the Rothbard quotation above. I find that fascinating, since as I note above, I arrived at a diagonal (per bend sinister, the heraldically-minded would say) design while unaware these other designs existed.

Now, my discussion of my own design continues...

I am an anarchist (of the free-market variety). But I also believe, as Hans-Hermann Hoppe wrote in Democracy: The God that Failed, that, "If one must have a state, defined as an agency that exercises a compulsory territorial monopoly of ultimate decisionmaking (jurisdiction) and of taxation, then it is economically and ethically advantageous to choose monarchy over democracy" (p. XX).*

I therefore wanted a design that captured both anarcho-capitalism and monarchism as transitional phases from social democracy to anarcho-capitalism. You could call it anarcho-monarchism — if you didn't mind the fact that that term doesn't really make any sense.

Anyway, shortly after the sentences quoted above, Professor Hoppe cited the work of one of my heroes, Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn.

Hoppe quoted K-L's Leftism Revisited (p. 210) to the effect that American leftists before and during World War I particularly loathed the Habsburgs' Austrian Empire. There were many reasons, including that "it had inherited many traditions from the Holy Roman Empire (double-headed eagle, black-gold colors, etc.)". Black and gold thus represent anarcho-capitalism and also monarchism.

I reinforced the reference to Austria by adding a red-white-red fimbriation. This is a nod not only to the Habsburgs and K-L (an Austrian), but also to the "Austrian School" of economics, a cornerstone of classical liberal thought.

(Somewhat after the fact, I realized that combining the colors black, red, and gold could be seen as suggesting the flag of Germany too. While there are certain liberal-nationalist connotations to those colors in German history, that wasn't my intent.)

The crown obviously represents monarchy, but more broadly is a symbol of sovereignty. This particular crown comes from the Danish royal arms because I didn't want to use a British crown.

As I noted on the introductory free-market anarchism page, the Libertatis Æquilibritas is a symbol of anarcho-capitalism. You can read more about it in this article by Per Bylund, the man who designed it.

*Of course, Hoppe also wrote, in that same section, "In complete contrast to the othodox opinion on the matter, then, elementary social theory shows, and will be explained as showing, that no state as just defined can be justified, be it economically and ethically. Rather, every state, regardless of its constitution, is economically and ethically deficient."

It seems appropriate for a flag for free-market anarchism to have variants. Here are three I've come up with.

First Variant

This is a less symbol-filled, and therefore less expensive, alternative. This stripped-down version really makes the Austrian elements of the design more apparent. As my wife pointed out, it's also handy if you'd prefer not to have to explain the Libertatis Æquilibritas to your neighbors.

This is the version my wonderful wife had made for me for my birthday. Isn't it cool? Isn't she cool?

I've noticed, by the way, that while the black and gold colors are dominant on the web, when you see the flag in the cloth, your eye is really drawn to the red stripes in the middle.

Second Variant

In a talk Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn gave at the Mises Institute, he reminds his listeners that liberalism has its roots in Spain (see also this .pdf article). Below is a version of the flag that substitutes an homage to Spain in place of one to Austria. I'm not sure what I think of it, frankly. To be a more authentic representation of the Spanish flag, the central gold stripe should be wider than the two red ones.

Third Variant

Speaking of the Journal of Libertarian Studies (where the .pdf article above appeared), JLS editor Rod Long noted on his blog not long ago that the color historically associated with radical liberalism is sea-green. In that spirit, here's another version of my flag. I don't think I have the color quite right yet, but I kind of like it.

Sic transit gloria Wikipedia

For a while, this flag design was linked-to on the now defunct "anarcho-capitalist terminology and symbolism" page on Wikipedia. And no, I didn't put the link there myself. In what seems like an entirely sensible edit to me, though, that page has been incorporated into a larger discussion of anarchist symbolism and the link to my page removed. Ah well.