From: "E. ALLEN SMITH" <EALLENSMITH@ocelot.Rutgers.EDU>
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 1996 17:04:08 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Assasination Politics
Message-ID: <01I14MTH8YDGA0UZOC@mbcl.rutgers.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


From:	IN%"jimbell@pacifier.com"  "jim bell" 12-FEB-1996 04:18:43.34

>>How much weight is Lotus going to give the opinions of a bunch of
>>unbalanced sociopaths when they're thinking about making deal to gak those
>>extra 24 bits?  Not much, I'll bet. 

>If "AsPol" actually WORKS, Lotus won't have to "deal" to get "those extra 24 
>bits."

>Lotus should announce that they have heard of this new idea on CP, called 
>"Assassination Politics," and have assigned a couple dozen programmers to 
>implement it by July 1996.  They'd back (guarantee) the prizes for the first 
>such organization, and they'd sell the software to others.  At that point, I 
>think the resignations from government office would skyrocket.  

	It seems likely that any overt organization operating an Assasination
Politics scheme will be outlawed... even though the most logical reading of
current laws says that it isn't illegal (except for the gambling part). An
anonymously constructed one seems a lot more likely - which Lotus could then
anonymously patronize. I do have some ideas for making such possible, but I'm
waiting on a defense of three points before I'll release them. These points
are:

	A. My previously mentioned problem with a limited but non-libertarian
organization.
	B. I don't trust the average person to look ahead enough to make this
(or other Anarcho-Capitalist) schemes work. In other words, the average person
has to be able to see that a non-limited organization is a danger to them,
etcetera. Moreover, Jim Bell is ignoring the other sources of propaganda than
government in convincing the average person that someone is doing something
wrong (when, by my ethics at least, they aren't) - such as religion and
various organizations like the PFDA. Admittedly, as I've stated before, the
requirement for some money would help, at least to the degree that our economy
is meritocratic. (A growing tendency, fortunately.) If most people are on a
subsistence wage (the result of free trade & automation with varying human
abilities), they can't afford enough money for Assasination Politics. (Yes,
I'm an intellectual Elitist. Deal with it.)
	C. While I may not like dealing with the average person very much (see
above), I don't want to see them starving in the streets. I can see
governmental welfare as being necessary for this, although the private form
is definitely preferable. (And yes, I can justify this as being a libertarian -
if not Libertarian Party - viewpoint. If I recall correctly, I had a debate
with Perry on this on Libernet, in which he tried to dismiss me as "just a
Democrat." I was posting under the name ALLENS@YANG.EARLHAM.EDU at the time).
	-Allen