From: jimbell@pacifier.com (Jim Bell)
Date: Sun, 20 Apr 1997 23:07:51 -0700 (PDT)
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: Re: David Friedman and assassination politics
Message-ID: <199704210607.XAA11316@mail.pacifier.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At 19:51 4/20/97 -0700, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>Bell sees AP as a means to a freer society. But libertarianism is all
>about how means (Hillary's health care plan) don't justify the ends
>(everyone has health care). AP is not about libertarianism, it is about
>anarchism.

I disagree with the implications of that last sentence.

For as long as I can recall, there has been an ongoing debate in libertarian
circles between "minarchists" (those that believe in a minimal government)
and "anarchists" (those who believe in no government.)  I was once a
"minarchist," simply because I couldn't figure out a logical way to totally
obsolete government functions.  Then, I did, so I became an anarchist.  It
sounds like you are still a minarchist.  

Now, I could just say, "go ahead, be that way", but the thing to acknowledge
is that there is, at least, a DEBATE on this issue.  I didn't deny it back
when I was a minarchist; I don't deny it today, as an anarchist.  Neither
should you.

AP is, implicitly I believe, an anarchy-producing system.  That is (or at
least, may be) a libertarian position, particularly for an
anarchist-libertarian.   _Minarchists_ may be bothered by it, but that
doesn't (necessarily) make it non-libertarian.


Jim Bell
jimbell@pacifier.com