From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@imsi.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 94 12:14:17 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Voluntary Governments?
In-Reply-To: <m0qd0At-000I8SC@crynwr.com>
Message-ID: <9408231914.AA02302@snark.imsi.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Russell Nelson says:
>    In our high school we had a student government.  We had no prisons
>    and no guns.
> 
> Then you were a club.

Indeed. Why do you think most university students are as apathetic as
they are about their student "government"? Largely, I'd say, because
student "government" bodies possess no real power and do nothing --
they are "governments" in the same sense that white styrofoam carved
into an appropriate shape is whipped cream. (I once was part of a
debate held by Columbia University's Philolexian Society on the topic
"Resolved: Student Government is Amazingly Lame", in which I noted
that the low probability of a student government coup d'etat complete
with tanks rolling about the campus, and of the following student
government dictatorship run by a student military junta, demonstrated
that the student "government" wasn't a government but a weak way to
keep students placated, devoid even of the mild entertainment the
occassional revolt could bring.)

Perry