a response to dual power theory

Replying to Dual Power by establishmentdisliker

A libertarian and Austrian perspective rejects the concept of dual power as a flawed and dangerous approach to challenging state authority. Rather than liberating individuals, it risks replacing one coercive system with another, perpetuating collectivism under the guise of popular control. True freedom demands the complete rejection of institutionalized power structures in favor of voluntary association, private property, and unrestricted markets.

Neighborhood councils or oversight boards should not be established as parallel governments. Such bodies inevitably impose majority rule and collective obligations, eroding individual sovereignty. History demonstrates this clearly: the Soviet councils of 1917, far from fostering liberty, became tools for consolidating totalitarian control. No new bureaucracy—however "democratic"—ought to be created to "oversee" the old one.

A "patriot economy" or any form of organized economic dual power must be opposed if it relies on communal or nationalistic structures. Individuals should instead engage in unrestricted counter-economics: voluntary, unregulated trade that bypasses the state entirely. Cryptocurrencies, decentralized networks, and or otherwise "free and fair" markets empower people directly, without requiring collective or third-party approval or intermediary institutions.

References to Lenin’s writings on dual power or works advocating universal armies and utopian dual structures ought to be approached with extreme caution. These ideas promote organized coercion and state-like authority, which libertarian thought unequivocally rejects.

The Sons of Liberty rightly resisted imperial overreach, but their legacy supports individual rights and minimal government rather the creation of competing governing bodies. Technological sovereignty should serve personal autonomy alone: tools like blockchain and encryption must enable private transactions and self-defense, never collective mandates imposed on non-consenting individuals.

In intellectual principle, power must never be divided between competing authorities; rather it should be dissolved or at least diluted. Society ought to transition toward voluntary institutions—private defense, arbitration, and mutual aid—grounded in the non-aggression principle and absolute respect for property rights. Only this path ensures genuine liberty, free from both the existing state and any would-be replacement.