[ExI] reconnect

[BillK]

On 9/10/07, Frederick Mann wrote:
> If you do some research, you may find that
> during the past 100 years, governmentologists
> have caused many more deaths than godologists.
> I suspect that governmentologists have outscored
> godologists by a factor of more than 10 to 1.
>
> R.J. Rummel (frequently nominated for the Nobel
> Peace Prize) coined the term "democide" for
> death by government:
> http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/
>
> His number for democide victims during the 20th
> century is 262,000,000. However, he doesn't seem
> to include people killed by governmentologists
> during wars. If you add the latter, the total
> probably comes to about 300,000,000:
>
> http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM
>
> (Of course, some governmentologists are also
> godologists.)
>
> Given that the s...s have caused the deaths
> of maybe a few dozen, compared to about
> 300,000,000 by governmentologists, exposing
> the evils of which cult is most pressing?
>


I'm not sure what you are claiming here.

I can see that if everyone lived as a primitive self-sufficient farmer
family, occasionally trading with the family two miles down the road,
then large scale wars and genocides would not happen. But obviously we
would lose all the benefits of civilization, and people will never
choose to live like this. And they would be helpless against an
invading army.

This is not what Rummel is claiming either. He seems to be all in
favour of government. But it has to be what he calls democratic
government.

He has his critics, of course. Michael Mann (no relation, I presume)
has pointed out that most of the 20thC genocides were produced by
massively popular governments where the people were filled with
nationalistic fervour.

Genocide is defined as the deliberate and systematic destruction of an
ethnic, religious or national group. It is very likely that religious
motivations will be called in to justify the slaughter.

But I think you probably need to get Keith Henson to comment on the ep
causes of wars and genocides. And governments aren't the cause. They
may be necessary, but are not sufficient on their own.

BillK