From: blancw@pylon.com
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 94 13:43:35 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: (Fwd) Re: Alt.Gvmt.Bad.Bad.Bad
Message-ID: <199409012044.NAA09073@deepthought.pylon.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Responding to msg by Michael  Conlen:

Theft could be from thoes who do not protect there property and 
from thoes who do not respect others property, so can it also 
be said that 'bad government' can be from people not protecting 
there rights and people who have no respect for the rights of 
others? 
...............................................................

What should be said is that theft does not happen of its own 
accord;  someone must decide to accomplish the so-called 
criminal act.  To describe theft as the result of another's 
inaction is to imply that human action of any kind is mostly 
automatic, that there is a pull which will evoke action upon 
intelligence the way gravity affects inanimate objects, and 
that nothing better could be or should be expected from it.  It 
is also to imply that the possession of intelligence is 
negligible because any opportunity for taking advantage of 
another's vulnerability will be irresistible to humans, as if 
they were basically scavengers looking for the spoils of other 
people's negligence.

In which case, rather than speaking of bad Government, the aim 
should be to question the existence of intelligence & the 
possibility for morality.  I don't know who would be qualified 
to discuss it, though, without the possession of the one and an 
appreciation of the other.

Blanc