Many interesting thoughts have been expressed in this thread. On the topic of government's legitimacy as the sole proprietor of the use of force, some of you might be interested in the point of view described here:
David Friedman: The Machinery of Freedom<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YfgKOnYx5A> Friedman's ideas were completely foreign to me the first time I heard them. They still seem "different" somehow even now, but I can't shake the feeling that he's on to something. I would not be surprised if someone were to retort "it'll never work because it only takes one bad actor to spoil it for everyone". Indeed, that viewpoint has already been expressed in this thread multiple times. I reject such notions due to their particularly dim view of humanity. :-) How is it that we place such a high value on cooperation, yet come to the conclusion that cooperation is or would be powerless to stop baddies in our midst? We embrace the principles of the bazaar (open source) in our day-to-day lives, but cling to the cathedral (government) when it comes to the regulation of force. I guess it's just one of those things that makes me go "Hmm...". I don't expect anyone here to change their mind about government upon hearing Friedman's thoughts. I'll just mention that hearing his ideas did expand my own admittedly narrow conception of the world. For me, it was 40 minutes well spent. YMMV, etc, etc. /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
