From: Paul Grant (shade999@optonline.net)
Date: Wed Jul 30 2003 - 10:02:30 MDT
A free state is a state in which you are free to leave :)
Just look at the <<people from Lancaster county>>; they
have an excellent system in place...
omard-out
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-extropians@extropy.org [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.org]
On Behalf Of Olga Bourlin
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 10:43 PM
To: extropians@extropy.org
Subject: Re: On Libertarianism and founding a free state (was Re: Food
labels etc)
From: "Phil Osborn" <philosborn2001@yahoo.com>
> One serious but unaddressed problem with building a
> "free state" in today's world is that the existing
> states will not let you.
You've pointed out some serious problems. There are also - I'm not sure
what to call them - maybe ... impractical problems?
When I first came to live in Seattle I lived not far from the original
"Love Family," who *all* lived in one of the most architecturally ugly
buildings I've ever seen. They were like a blast from the past - when
buffaloes roamed and the sky was not cloudy all day (I mean, they
dressed up like "pioneers," you know?). I used to observe their
children - the young ones seemed happy enough (in the special way that
young ones being naturally curious can be), but the adolescents looked
sad, restless, stunted, out of place ... they looked like they wanted
*out.*
Why am I comparing (irony of ironies) a free state to a cult? Because I
keep coming up with all sorts of impracticalities (and many of the them
are identical).
Mama, what if your children don't want to grow up to be cowboys? Papa,
how'r you gonna keep them down on the free state after they've seen
Pareeeeeee ...? What if your sister falls in love with an outsider?
(Say, are you even going to let outsiders *in*?)
Maybe I've just not hung out with gun aficionados enough to understand
the benefits of a free state, so pardon if my ignorance is showing.
But, in trying to sew the troublesome strands together to make it whole,
all I come up with is ... our dear little albeit imperfect democracy
that has made great strides in (irony or ironies) the democratic process
since its inception, and especially in the last few decades. From the
perspective of the year 2003 the 1950s - holy Happy Days! - look like
the Dark Ages.
I don't think a free state is ever going to work, boys ... not unless
something drastic happens, e.g., like if we blew ourselves back to the
Stone Age. Too impractical, I say (not to mention a few other worrisome
thoughts crossing my alleged mind from time to time).
Olga
Olga
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