[ExI] Is there a potential libertarianism / democracy tension?

[Dan]

On Tuesday, September 27, 2011 10:47 PM F. C. Moulton moulton at moulton.com wrote:
> On 09/27/2011 11:55 AM, Adrian Tymes wrote:
>> Then who enforces that law?  If no one, anything goes and whoever can take, etc.
>
> Yet one more time when I really wish the entire archive of the extropy
> email list was online so that a quick pointer could be provided since
> polycentric law and related topics were discussed very early on.

And more recently, I've raised some of these issues here and on other lists.

> If people are really interested in these questions then just google
> for "polycentric law" and also read the many essays on privately
> provided non-government protection services.  Of course there
> will be many criticisms of these ideas and I am all for criticism of
> all ideas. 

The literature on this topic is vast and I don't think, contrary to some, that these ideas and issues are going to go away. Surely, there's a certain trendiness at this time to libertarianism, but libertariansim has a longer history and an even longer past than just an American election cycle or two ago.

> What I would suggest is that those making the criticism 
> also apply the same level and types of criticism to their own pet
> ideas.

That's true. I always try to avoid double standards in this area. This is why I don't believe a libertarian society will or must be populated with saints and angels while a statist one must be populated with either real world folks or monsters and demons.

Regards,

Dan
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