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Butler Shaffer

Boundaries of Order: Private Property as a Social System Paperback – January 1, 2009

by Butler Shaffer (Author), Butler D. Shaffer (Author)

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Boundaries of Order by Butler Shaffer is in that tradition, a completely fresh look at a marvelous intellectual apparatus by a mature intellectual who has been writing on law, economics, and history for four decades. It is the treatise on liberty and property for the digital age, one written in the Rothbardian/Hayekian tradition but with a unique perspective on how the great struggle between state and society is playing itself out in our times.

What's striking is how this is not a book that merely bemoans a bygone era. In fact, Shaffer's view is that the state itself represents a bygone era, ruling with dated ideas over a world that no longer exists. Reality is at once hyper-localized and hyper-internationalized with the two ends of the spectrum connected through digital communication and infinitely complex forms of ownership that never stop yielding unpredictable change.

Shaffer argues is that we are living in a world of glorious upheaval, managed in an orderly way by virtue of individual volition and property ownership. The state is not part of this path of progress and only works to impede it temporarily and at terrible cost. Meanwhile, the political is ever less relevant for people in the course of their daily lives. It does not help us accomplish the ends we seek to achieve. In this way, he strengthens the case against the state, and intensifies it in our times: the sheer complexity of the social order stands to utterly defy any attempts to control it.

The book is at once deeply radical and penetratingly optimistic about the future. He helps us to imagine that the withering away of the state will not bring cataclysm but simply more of what we love and what we find useful and less of what we do not love and what we do not find useful. One comes away from this work with an intense awareness of the great dividing line—too often made invisible by disinformation—that separates power relations from social relations.

Print length

350 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Ludwig von Mises Institute
Publication date

January 1, 2009
ISBN-10

1933550163
ISBN-13

978-1933550169
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B002C00P5G
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ludwig von Mises Institute; 1st edition (January 1, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 350 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1933550163
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1933550169
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.6 ounces

Best Sellers Rank: #10,153,102 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7,430 in Social Philosophy

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Shane Pruyne

Nothing grows from the top down.

Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2014

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This book is not for the uninitiated libertarian or free thinker. I am glad that I had a solid foundation of Rothbard before I tackled this text. It is said that you must hear something three times before it sticks. Shaffer must use this principle a great deal in his teaching because it comes out in this book as well. I have read complaints that this book was overly long for the content, but once the ideas begin to 'stick' it is well worth it.

Shaffer starts off by redefining Statism as just one form of Institutionalism and then takes off like a rocket. He examines the differences in ownership and control of property and how they reflect on liberty. Then he looks at Boundaries and Trespass. He also tackles the 'Newtonian' perspective of social order and posits that a larger understanding of physics and nature call for a more Holistic or "Holographic" understanding of society. I will be digesting these ideas for a very long time. "Nothing grows from the top down."

6 people found this helpful

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James Joyner

Take the good professor's class...

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2013

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This is no light read. One must be willing to learn in order to enjoy this book. It may seem long to some... for those looking for buzzwords to impress or criticize. But this book is thorough; it leaves out little or nothing. It is also clear and concise. This is not libertarian ideology where someone rails on and on about liberty and freedom; this book describes and defines in great detail the nuts and bolts of cooperative human relationships and of what they are made.

I've not read a more compelling book than this in 50 years... since I first read Ludwig von Mises' books ("Human Action", "Theory and History" and "Socialism").

I can only guess that this book is very much like one of the good professor's classes. He expects you to learn something instead of simply rehashing old worn out ideological slogans.

If you are a student of self autonomy (freedom) and/or of human relationships, this is a book for you.

3 people found this helpful

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Darrell L. Dullnig

A masterpiece!

Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2012

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This book was obviously a labor of love. While I have enjoyed reading a number of Shaffer's articles(always lucid and well organized thought), this volume has all the earmarks of a libertarian classic; it is hard to put down. It took time and patience to present the subject matter surrounding the question "Who ownes you?" The author explores the role that private property plays in our society, demonstrating that with a dominating state apparatus in charge, we are little more than semi-autonomous slaves, and that what we consider our "ownership" of property today is an illusion.

He goes on to present a convincing case that an evolution away from pyrimidal, authoritarian systems and toward a true free market system based upon a three dimentional horizontal social network would not only work, but would present human society with the best chance of realizing the elusive utopia. The book is weighty and will challenge you to think, but it is never heavy. He is selling the idea of true human freedom, and has packaged his product well -- I'm buying it!

3 people found this helpful

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Ted Seay

Profoundly Subversive

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2009

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"Boundaries of Order" is a profoundly subversive look at property and social behavior. Shaffer posits that property, indeed, underpins all such behavior.

Shaffer is a "wraparound" libertarian, so far right he's left, or is it the other way around? In any event, he is vehemently anti-war, anti-state and even anti-institution, arguing that sclerotic institutional bureaucracy is the enemy of liberty and thus ultimately of us all. His notion of "property" far transcends real estate, though, and his discussion over three chapters of "boundary", "claim" and "control" is alone worth the price of the book.

This book carries the potential to enrage across the political spectrum, which to my mind is reason enough to recommend it. It is far more than that, however, and I urge those puzzled by our society's inability to "form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity" to read Shaffer's book.

32 people found this helpful

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DeMar Southard

He's a joy to read

Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2016

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Nobody presents a more reasoned, logical explanation of what should be common sense than Mr. Butler. He's a joy to read.

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Ditz

Property Rights: Essential for Every Living Thing

Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2010

After reading this book, I have a much more profound understanding of what property rights really means. It is the essential, inherent, first order of the day for every living thing. Each one defends his property from all invaders. If one has no property rights, one descends below the highly regarded worm.

Each life needs space with which to raise offspring, maintain a food source, etc. With the loss of property and thus the rest of our rights - for the many spring from the one - we are but slaves living in abject poverty, with a few toys served up as passifiers. Subservient to the master providing gruel, or basic white bread and water.

The dissolusion of family leads us to commit acts that would not normally occur. The family, with inherent rights, defines the Boundaries of Order. The State has had this very destruction in its sights for decades. Their plan is nearly complete.

Boundaries of Order by Butler Shaffer is a must read for anyone concerned with loss of property rights, and thus all the others that spring from the most necessary right. It's not just for the spotted owl, or the Prebble mouse. Each of those needs space in order to survive as do humans. The loss of space, rights, property, can be linked to the sickness we are experiencing now. The mental illness of not knowing there are invisible shackles around your ankles. The vast restrictions put upon us creates the sociopathic disorder we are seeing in our military machinations. This effect "trickles down to those creatures we desire to save above man". For if man has been stripped of rights, you can be sure that plants and animals will be lost first.

As an aside: Notice big corporations force you to apply for a job online, via multiple choice answers to questions that should be questioned. They seem to be seeking sociopaths. You have no right to question, add explanations, etc. You are but a number in the bottom line in the machine of social disorder.

9 people found this helpful

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Simon Kitchener

Boundaries of Order

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 8, 2013

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Book review to Boundaries of Order by Butler Shaffer

Take your typical dinner party discussion about property and the talk will inevitably lead to mortgage rates, house prices or noisy neighbours. Move that discussion to the college seminar and it might enter the less concrete world of whether property, particularly the accumulation of it, is moral, fair or both.
It is years since I attended university (or a dinner party). Then the enlightened ruminated on the inherent instability of private ownership and its cause of conflict. The classless society populated by altruistic citizens and led by the enlightened was seen as the ideal by the sceptical, inevitable by the optimists. Today I suspect those same seminars are still dominated by the equally enlightened learners agreeing on the immorality of inequality. Feeding on statistics that show the increasing inequality wrought by the present system that rewards the greedy and ignores the needy, the discussion, I can only imagine, revolves around how the progressive thinker can most efficaciously aid in the redistribution of society's wealth for the general good and universal (they probably say global) reduction of conflict.
Academia's addiction to the opiate of Marxism, it seems, has yet to be kicked. Conflict is taught as stemming from the inequality of distribution while violence has its roots in class conflict, wherever it erupts. To reduce conflict goes the theory, the rich must forego their riches and the poor placate their misfortune with the re-distributed manna. Nothing new there then.
Butler Shaffer in his book `Boundaries of Order' sees the solution to human conflict differently. Yes, all human behaviour can be addressed in terms of property ownership but conflict arises not from class struggle but from our individual misconceptions about our relationship to property and the resultant lack of respect shown for it, and, more importantly, each other. As a lawyer Shaffer experienced property disputes and their resolution at a practical level. It is how, when or by whom property is owned or controlled and disagreements over these issues that cause human conflict. As an academic and teacher of law he considered the problem at the theoretical level and it is in this area his book excels.
Property, he reasons, is derived from the very entropic nature of life itself. All life is dependent for survival on having space to occupy and resources to consume at the exclusion of everyone else. This space and these resources, essential for life to continue, are the reason for property's existence. In common with all living things, humans require exclusive space and resources to exist. The rationale and derivation for property then is biological.
This biological basis for mankind's right to property he argues, is sounder than the positions taken by the `legal positivists' and `natural law' proponents of property rights. The former argue that ownership is derived from the laws of the state and are therefore a human construct based on `rights' of parties. This position argues Shaffer, only leads to conflict as the law needs to be enforced and therefore requires legalised violence to ensure standards are kept. As an alternative to the legal positivists some philosophers have suggested principles based on `natural law'. This explanation was favoured by Locke who began with the assumption that people had a property interest first in themselves, which transcended the authority of the state, and then by extension, to resources in nature through what Shaffer rather mischievously called `the labour theory of ownership'. By mixing his labour with a heretofore un-owned resource, the individual incorporates his will into the resource and thereby makes it his property. This approach, Shaffer concedes, has some affinity with the biological/entropic claim to property but breaks down quickly when it claims to be based on natural laws.
These laws, which Shaffer dismisses as little more than subjective preferences projected onto the universe and characterised as eternal principles, have been given further credibility by being aligned with laws governing the physical universe. The problem comes when you try to prove the laws. Newton's second law of motion can be proved empirically by experiment but how do you prove a normative law? Furthermore, you can't break or suspend a natural law (that would be a miracle), but you can deny an individual of his property. Shaffer does concede sympathy with Locke's position and given the choice of living in a society dominated by legal positivists or by Locke's natural laws, he would seemingly choose the latter. What he can't accept is that the former is based on coercion and leads inevitably to conflict, while the latter is based on a delusion that subjective values held by man are actually objective laws governing the universe.
Competition for space and resources is endemic to life itself, and so property is essential for us to survive. How best then to thrive? Violence or the violation of property is anathema to a living being's continued existence and so should be opposed morally and existentially. But is not violence part of the competition for life? Do we not violate when we consume the resources we need? Given that species are not generally cannibalistic, the answer is no and should we become so then it is unlikely we will thrive as a species. Rather, it is through cooperation and the respect for property that we ensure survival and flourish both as individuals and as a species. We call this the market.
Competition, cooperation and respect pre-date the state, exist where the state does not, and indeed, function best where the state is kept in check. The state is based on violence and coercion. The state is not an individual actor in the marketplace. It produces nothing and exists by the expropriation of property to meet its expenses. Individuals, classes, political parties, lobbyists and pressure groups have interests which they seek to promote for the sake of their followers by influencing the political process, but do so only with the threat or use of violence. Politics causes disputes over property ownership and the recourse to politics requires violence or the threat of violence. Unlike the market it is not consensual.
A world dominated by politics rather than the market is typified by vertical, pyramidical structures less able to change and more prone to decline and failure. Failure to remain resilient and adaptive to the processes of change that define life can bring about collapse. Shaffer sees the world now as a place where authority is in decline and these perpendicular structures are increasingly being replaced by horizontally interconnected networks characterised by greater spontaneity and increased personal autonomy. The model is more akin to a holograph than a pyramid with order arriving not from central authority but from the unintended consequences of individuals interacting in a competitive but cooperative manner so characteristic of the market.
How then best to aid and abet the transformation to a system which maximises the opportunities for individuals to satisfy their material and emotional needs?
We could start by recognising that mankind cannot shape the world according to its wishes and that to attempt to do so amounts to little more than humanistic arrogance. We need to challenge the premise that stability and order are derived from legislation and that coercion is more efficacious than consensus. We could stop looking to linear scientific models governing the physical world (economists, take note) where outcomes can be predicted given the correct inputs and perhaps look towards quantum physics where prediction is impossible but patterns are discernible. And finally as individuals, we should start by recognising the central importance of property to our lives and put greater emphasis on fostering mutual respect for the boundaries of each other's property in its widest definition. Who knows, perhaps the level of dinner party discussion and seminar debate may actually become more endurable.

One person found this helpful

Andy Curzon

Excellent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 7, 2013

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This is an excellent eye-opener for anyone interested to know that there is an alternative out there to constantly increasing government/institution control.

From a number of angles, Shaffer explains how private property rights are the foundation of most of how we live, or at least should.

Victor Levis

A Masterful Explanation of how Liberty and Property are Inter-connected

Reviewed in Canada on July 8, 2016

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Makes a strong case for a society based on mutual recognition of personal sovereignty through a realistic and fair notion of property that EXPANDS our options and allows us all to be more human. While the book defends self-interested behaviour, its overwhelming message is that civilization is defined by how much we respect OTHER PEOPLE's liberty and property claims.

The writer comes from a background of being familiar with philosophy, economics, psychology and even biology, and his many insights make for an interesting read.

Highly recommended to those who wish to understand both the problems we face in society, and potential solutions.

Julian B.

Really interesting

Reviewed in Germany on January 2, 2021

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Its a great book stressing the importance of private property for a free and functional society.

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