the endless questions

Crass – if there was no government

If there was no government, wouldn't there be chaos

Everybody running round, setting petrol bombs off?
And if there was no police force, tell me what you'd do
If thirty thousand rioters came running after you?
And who would clean the sewers? Who'd mend my television?
Wouldn't people lay about without some supervision?
Who'd drive the fire engines? Who'd fix my video?
If there were no prisons, well, where would robbers go?

And what if I told you to Fuck Off?

What if there's no army to stop a big invasion?
Who'd clean the bogs and sweep the floors? We'd have all immigration.
Who'd pull the pint at the local pub? Where'd I get my fags?
Who'd empty out my dustbins? Would I still get plastic bags?
If there were no hospitals, and no doctors too,
If I'd broken both my legs, where would I run to?
If there's no medication, if there were no nurses,
Wouldn't people die a lot? And who would drive the hearses?

And what if I told you to Fuck Off?

If there were no butchers shops, what would people eat?
You'd have everybody starving if they didn't get their meat.
If there was no water, what would people drink?
Who'd flush away the you-know-what? But of course MINE never stink.
What about the children? Who'd teach them in the schools?
Who'd make the beggers keep in line? Learn them all the rules?
Who's tell us whitewash windows? When to take down doors?
Tell us make a flask of tea and survive the holocaust?

Hit the anarchy nay sayers with that. The governemnt doesnt do any of these things. The actual government themselves – those 600 or so buggers – dont do any of this stuff. Who empties the bins? Not the government. Not the council. Not even the subcontractor. No its bob the bin man. And why does he do it? A sense of civic duty? The social contract? No bob does it cos he gets paid.

Now people will say 'ah but the government pay bob,' they may do yes but where does that money come from? The government doesnt have any money of its own. It doesnt earn money. No all the money comes from us. From you and from me. And why do we give this money? According to some it is as part of a social contract whereby we pay for services provided by the government. We want our bins emptied and bob the binman wants money so we pay the government to pay bob to empty the bins. Now can you see how this might work at least exactly the same if not in all probability better without that pesky coercive governmental middleman?

The same can be said of any of the lines in this song

if the tv mender wants security provided for his shop and the former policeman wants his tv mended then both can come to a voluntary agreement, a trade, from which both benefit. Both feel they are gaining from the trade otherwise they would not do it (not necessarily a monetary benefit – could be a warm sense of altruism experienced by a do gooding nurse). Now obviously this kind of direct trade is quite limiting and here humans have developed the concept of money as an intermediary enabling individuals to trade amongst a wider society regardless of whether the policeman wants his tv mended.

The song poses the mind stunningly simple and powerful question what would happen if there was no government? What would I eat? How would people with food shops survive? Hold on maybe those two problems could cancel each other out. And so the penny drops.