[extropy-chat] my country, right or wrong

[Mike15007 at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/15/2005 8:11:49 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
neptune at superlink.net writes:

And a better way to lessen wars would be to slash government  military 
budgets (down to zero if possible), lower the size of the government  military 
(again, down to zero), abandon many foreign commitments, and foster,  as much as 
possible, free trade through unilaterally opening markets.   Privatizing 
military forces would probably be best too.  If each person  had to pay the direct 
cost of all the military she or he wanted, I think most  people would opt for 
purely defensive forces and there would be a marked drop  in foreign adventures 
-- save for those few who felt some kind crusading  spirit.  Those few would 
be very few indeed and their leaving on such  adventures would likely be no 
great loss and even a welcome respite from their  bleeding heart asinine 
harangues.

    As neat as this sounds, a state that did this would  likely lose to any 
neighbors that maintained a large, well-funded, tightly  centrally controlled 
military. This option (slashing military budgets and the  size of the 
government military down to zero, or as low as possible) is only a  viable strategy - 
or a safe one at least - if everyone else one knows about is  doing the same.
    And then, like in many similar games where the  perceived benefits of 
"defection" are huge, all it takes is one "defector" to  upset the whole order, 
and it's only a matter of time before one comes along.  Doing away with, or 
minimizing, the military and military budgets, is still a  little too close to 
doing the same with one's immune system. Ditto for  intelligence agencies (which 
let you know when someone else is spying on you and  planning to do something 
to you that you wouldn't like).
    As long as there are "germs," there'll be need of  "immune systems." And 
"germs" are a good deal tougher to eliminate completely  than sophants of any 
kind.

 
Regards,
 
Dan


My first post,
 
Mike
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