From: mark@unicorn.com
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 20:57:15 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: democracy?! (Re: Terrorism is a NON-THREAT
Message-ID: <878300037.16771.193.133.230.33@unicorn.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Jim Choate wrote:
>If we as individuals can't make our own decisions about what is best for us,
>what makes you think some stranger will do any better?

Indeed. Yet in a democracy, any two other members are assumed to know
better than me, and any 51% to know better than the other 49%.

>Every form of government other than democracy assumes a
>priori that noble oblige is prima facia. To paraphrase an old questions of
>politics, who governs the governors? Or do you feel we have found angels in
>the form of kings?

Democracy is merely the scoundrel's last attempt to maintain the divine
right of kings by coverting it into the divine right of the elected. 

>Which means we should have the lowest number of incarcerated individuals
>instead of the most.

Indeed, thereby proving that democracy *doesn't* work.

>Doesn't work what way?

Midnight raids, anti-drug laws, all the examples you just gave of the
evils of democracy, etc, etc.

>Consider, other than democracy, that every form of
>government has an implicit assumption that there is some base sets of
>activities that citizens should be permitted and they will be happy.

Someone (Churchill?) once said that democracy is the best form of
goverment. Amusingly he considered this a defence of democracy, not
a damning indictment of the entire concept of government.

>In a
>democracy the people are given the opportunity to make up their mind what to
>do with their lives and property without having to obtain permission from
>some authority.

Medical licensing, drivers licenses, pilots licenses, export restrictions,
gun licenses (in various democracies), concealed weapons permits... do I
have to go on? This doesn't seem to bear any resemblance to the reality
of democracy.

>Paying a government to keep the park clean and mowed and the lights on at
>night or my streets well paved and de-iced in winter 

And a government does this better than a private corporation because?

>is not quite the same
>thing as having black-suited ninja wann-be's kicking my door in at 2AM
>because I choose to smoke a joint or even grow my own weed; 

Again, this is a clear example of the failure of democracy. A big
difference between democracy and anarcho-capitalism[1] is that in
an anarcho-capitalist society the cops will be too busy making money
to launch such raids on their customers, and most customers will be
too self-interested to pay cops to raid their neighbors.

>There is a reason behind the madness of "Congress shall make no law...".

Indeed; such a shame they put all those other words into the 
Constitution. That phrase sounds like a pretty good conception
of government to me.

    Mark

[1] See, for example, 'The Machinery of Freedom', by David Friedman: 
excerpts on the Web at http://www.best.com/~ddfr/