I've thought a lot about this topic. The idea that a large population could work together minus a central governance is hard for me to wrap my brain around. I agree in theory it would be ideal. But lets look at the current America system. We have numerous political parties but in reality it comes down to Democrats or Republicans. Both parties have their core platforms (understanding they evolve and vary slightly over time). Half of the country sees things the way the Democrats see them and half the country sees things the way the Republicans want them. With the rise of democratic socialism we have an ever growing youth wing that wants the government to care for them from cradle to grave. People that are not free thinkers would never survive in the voluntary world. In a voluntary world you are 100% responsible for every outcome in life. You have no one to blame but yourself. If you have a large portion of the populous this is comfortable with the government being their daddy I see no way for adaptation. I would argue that voluntary cities would have a much better chance of working, but again how you go about creating those in our already "structured" system would not be an easy task.
It does take a lot of thought, but I think it's possible. The book For a New Liberty was very helpful to me personally for thinking about this. I've gone into some more thoughts here as well. I think a big part of the solution is DAC technology. That's why I joined eosDAC: https://eosdac.io/
The American system is another flavor of the same problem: a system of control backed by violent force.
I think we can do better.
I agree, many people do not want to be free. They fear freedom and they don't want to take on personal responsibility. I also think the actual state of existence is being "100% responsible for every outcome in life." Everything else is an illusion and a lie, especially that the government will take care of you. People are harmed by lies and I'd rather help them live in the truth.
I actually disagree with you a little bit there...
I don't think half the country sees things red and the other half blue.
I think that the vast majority of people sit in the middle and agree/disagree with various policies from both sides. Part of the problem, as I see it, is that the Republicans and Democrats are both terrible at governing, but very, very good at ganging up against anyone else and locking them out of the conversation. Ideally you'd have a number of political parties that all need to work together on individual policies to make them work. This two party system is just terrible. Way more competition in this space would help us all.
I do totally agree with you that most people are not free thinkers... but also, why should they be? Everyone has their own life with their own dramas. The whole reason we have elected officials is so that we don't have to worry about everything... I think it's hard for most people to pay attention to the government when they've got their own bills to pay... of course, the irony being that the bills might not be so nuts if they were more free-thinking.
I'm honestly not sure how the voluntary world would work.. who would look after the shared infrastructure?
I think DACs can help. See some links in my reply to the post above for more details.