Rhetoric is a wonderful art in its own right. That many use it as a
substitute for reason is unfortunate, but that doesn't imply that one
can't use it in addition to reason. Tools are just tools, neither
good nor evil; it is the mind wielding them that determines that.
> > Utopia might not be
> > possible, but since I can't run simulations of whole societies to find
> > out, I must rely on principle and reason.
>
> I hope we will be able to remedy that in the near future. People are
> already doing alife simulations of simple societies (usually rather
> ant-like) and of course the evolution of cooperation. It would be
> interesting (and probably only a matter of time) to study a more
> realistic model where different social structures could be tested.
> Simulations support reason, at least when everyone is allowed to test
> them and their basic assumptions are known.
That would be marvellous. Axelrod's original result was quite stirring,
and more complex ones would be a great accomplishment.
> > Reason tells me that a free
> > society would work, and would be less likely to commit the atrocities
> > that every govenment in human history has committed.
>
> Suggestion: why not explain this clearly and logically in a way (say) a
> ten-year old could understand, and then let your opponent put forth his
> model in the same simple way. Then we can start analyzing what reason
> tells us (but don't forget history; reason isn't always right).
Many others have done a far better job of that than I, and I have
little patience to debate what I consider "basics" of libertarian
thought. I'm more interested in the contentious fringes: intellectual
property law, origination of rights, perpetuities and covenants,
and so on. Debating whether schools should be private or public is
about as interesting to me as it would be for a physics professor to
debating whether heavy things fall faster than light things.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC