virus: Re: Virus: Sociological Change

Martin Traynor (m.traynor@ic.ac.uk)
Wed, 18 Dec 1996 16:19:16 +0000


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On 18 Dec 96 at 15:46, jonesr@gatwick.geco-prakla.sl wrote:

> The power hungry, and the greedy cause a threat to the "ordinary"
> people, and thus to protect themselves, they must form government.
> Anarchy ends.

No. To protect themselves they only have to form a power coalition.
This can have the specific goal of protection from attack *without*
having anything to do with the governance of the people who form it.
BTW, I'm not disputing that there are certain freedoms which it might
make sense to voluntarily relinquish for certain concessions. For
example, you and I might sit down and make an agreement between
ourselves that we will not attack each other. We might sign a contract
specifying the acceptable limits of intrusion upon each others
lifestyles and we may employ an agency of some kind to mediate in
disputes or to take revenge should the pact be broken by one of us.
This consensual agreement can be extrapolated as far as you'd like to
take it, with millions of people having the same or similar terms and
conditions of business with each other and with various enforcement
agencies backing up these contracts, but it does not constitute
government.

> > As to your first
> > point about other peoples well being; I think it's exactly the
> > opposite. Anarchy is one of the few (only?) systems which doesn't
> > give a shit whether or not I give a shit about anyone else.
>
> If you see above, it's more about taking other people into
> consideration when carrying out your actions, but you don't have to
> compromise because of people's instructions or opinions.

I'm not with you. You seem to be agreeing with me.

> > In the
> > society we live in, each of us is forced to pay for other peoples
> > lifestyles.
>
> Yeah, fucking students :)

Funnily enough, as long as I could afford to, paying a certain amount
of money into financing education is something I *would* do
voluntarily (provided I was happy that the funds were well managed).
There are some others, but my objection to the tax system is its
coercive nature and the mismanagement of public monies. It seems to me
that most of my money is spent supporting a monolithic bureaucracy
which is shafting me at every opportunity.

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Martz <m.traynor@ic.ac.uk>
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If all you've got is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. ????