From: Rachel_P._Kovner@gorgias.ilt.columbia.edu
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 94 18:20:51 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Bad govt represents bad people?
Message-ID: <1994Aug31.161253.1181968@gorgias.ilt.tc.columbia.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


perry@imsi.com wrote:
>Actually, as public choice economic theory has shown, bad government
>tends to be the inevitable result of the evolutionary pressures on
>government and government officials. This is not to say that some
>government programs are not occassionally well run or that some
>government officials are not legitimately "trying their best", but
>that the pressure on the whole system is to go towards maximum
>corruption, just as the evolutionary pressure on organisms is to only
>follow survival-prone strategies.

and David Koontz wrote:
>Since when is the victim responsible for the crime?


I would agree with you that there is a natural evolutionary trend towards
bad
government - however, I do not think of this process as inevitable.  The
"eternal
vigilance" quote I cited was merely my way of saying that "bad government"
-will-
come about if people do not protect their rights, because of this
'evolutionary
pressure' of which you speak.  Therefore, it's very important for a society
to
resist this evolutionary pressure.  If they do not, their actions will
contribute to
the rise of bad government.  I'm not really interested in throwing blame
around,
but I would say that those who do not resist 'bad government' are, in some
small
way, responsible for it's rise.

There will always be people out there who will attempt to encroach on our
liberties - sometimes they will succeed, sometimes they will fail.  It
depends on
how much support they have and how much resistance they encounter.  It is
up
to the people of a country to resist bad government - otherwise, although
they
will be the victims of bad government, they will have contributed to
bringing it upon
themselves.

rk
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