[ExI] don't let your guard down, not for a minute...

[Damien Sullivan]

On Sat, Sep 11, 2010 at 10:57:37AM -0500, Max More wrote:

> Damien Sullivan, who is a long-time subscriber, also supports the
> statist view:

In particular, when I joined the list in 1993, I was rather libertarian,
and soon flirted a lot with anarcho-capitalism, if I hadn't been
already.  L. Neil Smith, Vernor Vinge, David Friedman.  Though within a
few months, list discussion in particular by David Krieger (if I recall
his name correctly) put the stake in my "natural law" version of
libertarianism, causing me to shift to a mix of social contract and
utilitarian justifications.  

For a while I did feel like the list conservative, but that was
contextual: I wasn't fully committed, so I'd play devil's advocate (or
as I liked to put it, my views were quantum, depending on who measured
them), thus defending the possibility of anarcho-capitalism to my
friends, while challenging some statements about the state on the list.
(In particular, I believed we could do better than government, but I saw
no merit in statements that government can't work at all.)  I also
wasn't as Singularity-centric as many.

I since changed my mind on libertarianism, concluding that the nagging
weaknesses I was always aware of were in fact fundamental flaws.

-xx- Damien X-)