Re[2]: Re: left anarchy, right anarchy

Kennita Watson (kwatson@netcom.com)
Tue, 30 Sep 1997 23:50:45 -0700


>On Tue, 30 Sep 1997 15:14:14 -0400 (EDT)
>Estacado66@aol.com wrote:
>
>>>Try a change of metaphor and see how it tickles your intuition buds:
>>you're shipwrecked, starving hungry, walking along a beach. You see a
>>woman roasting a pig. Are you justified in just grabbing the pig
>>because her roasting of the pig was an "act of enclosure", and therefore
>>a dastardly initiation of coercion?<

Are we assuming that the woman won't give you any pig if you ask nicely?

If not, you may be in the wrong for grabbing the pig (stealing is stealing),
but if you would otherwise starve, I would consider you justified in doing
so. If pig-stealing carries a death penalty on this island, you're SOL.
If the penalty is a year in jail, three days of ditch-digging, a fine, or
whatever, it beats starving.

In any case, if the woman didn't steal the pig, she can roast it, eat it
raw, throw it to the sharks, or hang it up as a decoration without it
being any kind of coercion.

Kennita

Kennita Watson | The bond that links your true family is not one of blood,
kwatson@netcom.com| but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do
| members of the same family grow up under the same roof.
| -- Richard Bach, _Illusions_