From: blancw@pylon.com
Date: Thu, 25 Aug 94 00:40:37 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Voluntary Governments?(Coercive Persuasion)
Message-ID: <199408250741.AAA07331@deepthought.pylon.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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<Delete if you don't find this spine-tingly, effervescently 
thrilling>

From Jason W Solinsky:

. . .You can form a fairly potent government using economic 
coercion. . .
. . . the power of a cybergovernment to banish citizens gives 
it the abilility to enforce its regulations. 
.........................................................  
(assuming I have nowhere to go besides the astral plane)

I wasn't going to add to this discussion anymore, but I 
couldn't believe it.  I didn't use to think that it was so 
difficult to distinguish between "real" government and any 
other kind of controlling influence.  Reflecting upon the 
difference between kinds of control and the difference it 
makes, I made a list of important elements which help me 
identify what kind of a yoke is over my neck:

.  governance by force = control 

.  the direction of the intended influence:
   a withholding of services & benefits, or
   an imposition over the individual

.  the duration of that controlling influence:
   related to a specific event, or
   maintained ever-presently as a matter of course

.  the scope of the influence:
   specific to a particular function, or encompassing a 
geographic area;
   limited to family, friends, or
   inclusive of all mankind, or perhaps 
   encompassing every living thing on the planet as well
   all the mineral rights and all the forests and the seas

.  the kind of control being exerted:
   dependent upon an individual's self-committment, or
   having overriding precedence

.  expected complicity from the recipients:
   their apparent willingness to knowingly subject themselves 
to another's ministrations, or
   their protests against obligatory participation

.  recognition of Authority:  
   passive recipience, or active participation;
   acknowledging the other party's sovereignty; or
   not considering themselves subjects of it

.  how those in control "achieve" or ascend to their position 
of authority over all others within that system, and 
.  how the relationship to that authority is managed:  

   by the individual's own attraction/desires for the 
possession or reception of things which s/he does not have;
   by threats against the capacity for self-determination & 
self-command

.  what it is that "they" are aiming for:   what do they want 
from those upon whom they exert influence or control:
   -  their business
   -  attention
   -  their material property
   -  their soul
   -  support for their delusions of grandeur

Otherwise, I can usually tell because they give themselves 
names like "United", "National", "World", or because all of the 
individuals within that jurisdiction presumably belong to it 
and assume the identity of the organized entity; they are known 
outside of it by its name (Americans, Greeks).

Blanc