From: Joe E. Dees (jdees0@students.uwf.edu)
Date: Sat Dec 12 1998 - 15:59:02 MST
Ok, you support the existence of government. But do you support
the
existence of a coercive (violence, theft toward the individual)
government? If so, how do you support those views in terms of
Extropianism. If not, please explain how a non-coercive government
could exist...
An entirely non-coercive government cannot exist; such an absolute
is an abstract, unreifiable construct, resembling a "straw saint" (an
"if we can't have perfection, let's not have anything" kind of
argument). But since there are necessary, essential and
indispensable services which only some form of government can
provide, it is useful for us to keep total non-coercion before us as an
asymptotically approachable goal, towards which we strive by
working to make the government we must have as non-coercive as
possible, while still able to perform its necessary, essential and
indispensable functions for us. If this violates some obscure tenet of
Extropian dogma, then there's something wrong with Extropianism at
that point, for the very concept of dogma is itself a coercive,
intellectual freedom-stealing one (even antigovernment dogma).
Joe
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