personal liberties" - check. "Digital cash and other new technologies make it difficult for
traditional governments to control the currency of power" - check.
Thanks for everyone who's contributed to my understanding. I've still got a few devil's
advocate caveats I'm happy to be talked out of:
1. I agree that the still-burgeoning, information-based economy is fostering the profitability
of libertarian-style models. But I suspect that (a) the cost/benefit ratio of dominating
others will always be more attractive than self-suffiency to a minority of persons willing to
use coercion, (b) most people will succumb to governance over self-rule (if handled correctly),
and (c) the greater the % of population willing to be governed, the more difficult it is for
those who do not wish to be governed to retain autonomy.
Therefore, I submit that although libertarianism will advance to a degree, it will never fully
replace current systems of government.
2. Hypothetically, if coercive government did disappear completely, wouldn't power-mongers just
switch their mechanism from coercion to persuasion? John Clark noted that Germans probably
wouldn't have attempted genocide against the Jews en masse without the Nazi military machine.
But would a Nazi propoganda machine have been equally effective? It's my understanding
that a large percentage of the American population believe that welfare recipients are
responsible for much of the country's ills, but have no idea that USA spends 150 billion/year
on corporate welfare. Isn't that governance by persuasion rather than coercion? And although
I'd like to believe that the only factor influencing the market value of my work is the work
itself, I'm fully aware that public perception of my race, gender, sexual preference, education,
etc., are extremely influential. If any body can control the factors that set the prices for
my work, does it really matter that they use persuasion rather than coercion? Is it only
an ethical victory, or is there something I'm not seeing?
What's the libertarian position on this? That population control through media, while sometimes
unfortunate, is not unethical?
-k.
<bold>___________________________________________________________
</bold>Kristen Brennan
codewarrior princess
brennan@jitterbug.com
http://www.jitterbug.com/pages/brennan.html
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GO d? s+:+ a-/a? C++ ?U W++$ K- M+ PS++ PE Y+
t+['60s only] 5? X+ R++[recovered] !tv b++++ DI++++
D--- G e* h+ r++ x++/z**
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The child says, "Give me what I want because I desire it."
The teenager, "Because it is ethical." And the adult,
"Because I am holding a gun."
<bold>___________________________________________________________
</bold>