[ExI] what the hell was i thinking?

[William Flynn Wallace]

p.s.  I am not a 'true' libertarian by Dan's definition, but that is more
of a philosophical position than a practical one.  In fact, as a practical
one, it would produce chaos, looting, murders and assaults and every other
crime you can think of.  Who or what is to stop these things from
happening? Get real, as we used to say long ago.

Who gets to define libertarianism?  Certainly not Dan - or me.
bill w

On Thu, Mar 14, 2019 at 12:29 PM William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> That view of libertarianism is diametrically opposed to libertarianism.
> Libertarianism, in terms of authority, is the view that no one should have
> authority over anyone else.  dan
>
> Just where do these 'true' libertarians live?  I don't know of a place
> where no one has any authority over anyone else.  bill w
>
> On Thu, Mar 14, 2019 at 12:12 PM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of
>> Dan TheBookMan
>> Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2019 9:41 AM
>> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
>> Subject: Re: [ExI] what the hell was i thinking?
>>
>> On Mar 14, 2019, at 9:15 AM, <spike at rainier66.com> <spike at rainier66.com>
>> wrote:
>> > This is, in my view, the message of libertarianism: support authority
>> but watch them closely.
>>
>> That view of libertarianism is diametrically opposed to libertarianism.
>> Libertarianism, in terms of authority, is the view that no one should have
>> authority over anyone else. (In the case of the police, abolition seems the
>> appropriate libertarian response. Self-identified libertarians who scoff at
>> this are almost certainly not libertarians but simply conservatives posing
>> as libertarians.) And the best defense against the excesses and abuses of
>> any authority is simply not to ever grant authority (over oneself and over
>> others) in the first place. Failing that — because most folks don’t want to
>> take such a bold stance — one shouldn’t be so naive as to believe that
>> various authority-approved watchdog measures will somehow work well to curb
>> arbitrary power.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Dan
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Dan, your comment demonstrates that the Libertarian party is no more
>> unified, and probably less so, than the two American mainstream parties
>> (which are both so dis-unified no one can really tell what they stand for
>> (do you know? (neither do we.)))
>>
>> Within the Libertarian party are those who hold the view that no one
>> should have authority and those who recognize that any no-authority society
>> is at the mercy of the bad guys.  A pragmatic approach to the question
>> results in the lower case l libertarian, often conflated with lower case c
>> conservative, but distinct in my view.
>>
>> A pragmatic approach recognizes the firm necessity of authority, but also
>> recognizes that power corrupts.  So... power must be very strictly
>> controlled.
>>
>> We are now seeing a technologically-fueled vast and rapid expansion of
>> surveillance.  We are getting to where home-mounted video is common enough
>> that it is a highly effective tool against any crime which requires the bad
>> guy to physically visit the home of the victim.  Enough citizens have
>> cameras and have offered access to the constables that the bad guy can be
>> tracked right to wherever he went.  The constables aren't publicizing it,
>> but we see the results.  Package theft, so common just five years ago, has
>> taken a nosedive in this area.  The UPS trucks and FedEx trucks seldom have
>> signature-required deliveries anymore.  It is safe enough to leave the
>> packages on the doorstep.  I now buy nearly everything from online
>> retailers and have never had a package stolen.  If it ever happens, I will
>> have good video evidence on the perp from two different angles.
>>
>> spike
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
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