From: hal@finney.org
Date: Thu Jun 03 1999 - 12:43:47 MDT
My problem with the libertarian debate is that I think many people are
using too strict a definition of the word. The essential component of
libertarianism, as I see it, is its voluntary nature. It is the absence
of coercion which defines the relationships that we should support.
However, some people seem to have a misconception where they see a
libertarian society as a paranoid version of Galt's Gulch, with every
relationship governed by money, with every member going armed.
It is entirely possible to have a libertarian society where there is no
individual property, all items are shared, and some community mechanism
is used to allocate resources. It is entirely possible to have a
libertarian communism. All that is necessary is that it be voluntary.
It is entirely possible to have a libertarian society where gun ownership
is not permitted, where no one goes openly armed, in which guns are rare
and only owned by criminals. Again, all that is necessary that this be
a voluntary arrangement. Just as you might not be able to bring your
guns into a restaurant if the proprietor refuses, so you may not be able
to enter a voluntary community which has similar policies.
There is no coercion in these situations. There are legitimate issues
of practicality which will depend on circumstances, including the size
of the community and how it is organized in other respects, as Billy
Brown has emphasized in our discussion. But it is *not* a moral issue.
Ideally, in the future we will have more choices about how to live
our lives, not fewer. Extropianism means an increase in diversity,
in dynamism, in exploring opportunities. I don't want to see a future
where every community is the same, the cultural equivalent of Burger King
and McDonalds on every corner. A global monoculture, even if it is one
where the rules and policies are agreeable to me, would be lacking in
the crucial element of diversity. This would be entropy, not extropy.
Ideally, we will have a future where Joe Dees, Mike Lorrey, Mark Grant,
and other participants in the guns debate will *all* be able to find
communities which they find acceptable. Whether these are space stations
or underwater colonies or uploaded virtual communities or basement
universes, I hope that future technology will give us room to try many
possible ways of interacting with others. Some will fail, some will
succeed, and hopefully they will all be richer for the diversity.
Hal
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:03:57 MST