[ExI] don't let your guard down, not for a minute...
Damien Sullivan
phoenix at ugcs.caltech.edu
Sat Sep 11 17:32:20 UTC 2010
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-)
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