[extropy-chat] Re: A view of what politics is

[Dirk Bruere]

On 10/16/05, Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> ### So refusing to sell a single apple is using "violence"?
>
> Having a black belt while buying apples is being "violent"?
>
> Being rich while selling apples is being "violent"?
>
> Of course, if you redefine all words, from "violence", to "apple" and
> "orange", you can make your definition of "politics" apply to whatever you
> want.
>
> I am not saying that all politics is trade - I am saying it is
> antithetical to trade. Trade is voluntary exchange, not compelled by the
> threat of violence. Politics is the use of organized violence to achieve
> dominance.
>
> Perhaps I should add "politics is the use of organized violence to
> achieve, or deny dominance". This would accommodate the organized resistance
> to politics in the form of insistence on maintaining personal freedom, as a
> form of politics, although I would rather call it anti-politics.
>
>
Trade is only applicable to those who have something to trade.
See Marx, and the real world, when that is not true.
If you are starving and have nothing I want then your only options are
theft, intimidation, charity or death.
When large groups are involved you get revolution and war.

Dirk
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