From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 94 18:48:35 PST
To: jrochkin@cs.oberlin.edu (Jonathan Rochkind)
Subject: Re: A possible solution
In-Reply-To: <ab001bf602021004931e@[132.162.201.201]>
Message-ID: <199411290245.SAA14361@netcom6.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Jonathan Rochkind wrote:
> At 5:35 PM 11/28/94, Aron Freed wrote:
> >Ok. You all have basically defeated the stiffer fines issue.
> >
> >The one issue remaining is do we want to live a life of anarchy.
> 
> That depends on what you mean by "anarchy." I'm sure there are a few
> anarchists on the list, but they probably don't mean the same thing as you
> do by "anarchy".

Indeed, different things are meant by the overloaded term "anarchy."
Three fairly different meanings are in common use:

1. Anarchy(1) -- Chaos, lawlessness, people killing each other at
will, law of the jungle, mother rapers, father rapers, and other
"anarchic" things. This is thee "popular" notion of anarchy,
associated with bomb-throwers, nihilism, terrorism, and disorder.
(Never mind that most terrorists work for political causes, and that
most nihilists are too deeply into their coffee house discussions to
do anything.)

2. Anarchy(2) -- "Whoever denies authority and fights against it is an
anarchist." (S. Faure) Social change through communal self-ordering,
etc. (I'm not an expert in Anarchy(2), and I for sure don't have the
rhetoric down!) Often associated with left-leaning views. Also linked
to "anarcho-syndicalism." Georgee Woodcock's "Anarchism" is a good
introduction. 

3. Anarchy(3) -- Anarcho-capitalism. (Not to be confused with the
arachno-capitalism of the Web, or th narco-capitalism of the CIA.) The
free-market, libertarian approach of people choosing who they will
trade labor, goods, or money with. David Friedman's "The Machinery of
Freedom" is a good place to look.

Most anarchy(3) supporters would argue that anarchy(2) implies
anarchy(3), that some people will have more wealth than others for
"normal" reasons (greater talent, harder working, willingness to be
bond trader instead of crystal healer, etc.). I lack the will to make
the arguments here. Robert Nozick's "Anarchy, the State, and Utopia"
is a thoughtful argument in favor of Anarchy(2) leading inevitably to
Anarchy(3).

Anarchy(1)--people killing each other at will--is of course what
America and many other countries hav as the default. Conclusions are
left for another time.

The links to crypto are very clear:

strong crypto  --->  anarchy(3)

Which is what I call "crypto anarchy."

Lots of discussion of this in my Cyphernomicon FAQ.

--Tim May



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