From: Damien R. Sullivan (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Date: Thu Jun 25 1998 - 18:42:30 MDT
On Jun 25, 5:08pm, Daniel Fabulich wrote:
> An important point which I should have made earlier is how often and to
> what degree egoism/libertarianism/utilitarianism agree: they agree quite a
> lot in my experience, more than 80% of the time.
But it's that other 20% that has all the fun and controversy. What if you can
screw people without their finding out about it? What if you're vastly more
powerful than they are? I.e., you're a Power. Or more currently
realistically, you're a member of a well definable group such that you're
confident other members won't prey on you and you all are collective strong
enough to prey upon others. Such as Europeans invading the Americas, or Bantu
farmers driving out hunter-gatherers, or the repeated Indo-Europeans invasions
of Europe, from the Celts to the Goths, or the Draka. Egoism and
utilitarianism agree a lot better when the other egos have about as much power
as your ego to begin with.
-xx- Twirlip of Greymist X-)
"It is a curious consequence of giving the representative assembly unlimited
power that it has largely ceased to be the chief determining agent in shaping
the law proper, but has left this task more and more to the bureaucracy."
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