From: Billy Brown (bbrown@conemsco.com)
Date: Wed Mar 24 1999 - 11:59:30 MST
mark@unicorn.com wrote:
> Sorry? You've kept commenting about how we should stick with governments
> because we don't know what might happen in an anarcho-capitalist society.
> What reason other than fear or a desire for control would you have to do
> that?
Actually, what I said was that we should stick with limited, constitutional
government because we can build one that will work fairly well. I am not in
favor of an anarcho-capitalist system of government because we have no idea
how it will really behave, and the potential for catastrophic problems seems
large.
Now, I know you probably think 'anarcho-capitalist government' is an
oxymoron, but it isn't. Any entity that makes and enforces laws is a
government. A PPA is simply a weak government with completely uncontrolled
borders. If the police and the courts are run by different companies, then
the whole system is a government (albeit an even weaker one). The only way
you can be free of government is to have pure anarchy - and then you are
living in a Hobbesian state of nature, from which governments will
inevitably arise.
So, my preference is for a single weak government that can be constrained
with well-understood tools. I don't favor anarcho-capitalist schemes
because I do not believe that the market is capable of constraining
violence, and I expect that police corporations of any kind would simply
grow into a new kind of police state.
> See, you look on nukes as a problem and universal surveillance or brain
> implants as a solution. I see nukes as a way for oppressed minorities to
> get their freedom. Then you're suprised that people think you're more
> interested in control and safety than freedom.
I see cheap nukes as a problem because all they are really good for is
killing millions of innocent civilians. I see universal surveillance and
mind control as monstrosities that oppressive states will happily embrace as
soon as they are feasible. I mentioned them because I believe in dealing
with the world as it really is, not as I wish it to be.
You may be willing to risk your life on a long list of breezy assumptions
about how everything is bound to go your way. Feel free. I think your
experiment will end in disaster, but you are more than welcome to give it a
try.
Meanwhile, my goal is a system that will deliver almost exactly the same
degree of freedom as yours, without anything like the same potential for
catastrophe. I fail to see what is supposed to be so terrible about that.
Billy Brown, MCSE+I
bbrown@conemsco.com
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