From: Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 14:59:43 +0800
To: cypherpunks@Algebra.COM
Subject: Re: Socio-Economic Cults (Re: Cypherpunk Cults)
In-Reply-To: <199708271949.PAA23255@www.video-collage.com>
Message-ID: <19970827235355.36892@bywater.songbird.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



On Wed, Aug 27, 1997 at 05:32:15PM -0400, William H. Geiger III wrote:
[...]
> 
> Both of your examples only go to prove the point of anarchy is better then
> governments.

Yes, in the same sense that you can say that unicorns are better than
horses.  But horses are real, and unicorns are imaginary.  Unicorns
have all the advantage -- we don't have to deal with unicorn shit. 

Governments are real, and anarchy is a utopian ideal, just like 
communism.

[...]

> In Germany, as in all mass murders, was the act of the *Governemnt*.
> 
> No matter how you add the numbers up there has been many many more deaths
> caused by governments than there ever has or will be by criminal.

A meaningless assertion.  Like saying "all people who die breathed
air, therefore air is the cause of death".  

You say "guns don't murder people, people murder people", therefore it
follows "Governments don't murder people, people murder people."  
Governments are instruments of people, not independent intelligent 
agents. 

You create this bogeyman, the *GOVERNMENT*, and blame everything on
it.  Now, you have identified the source of all evil.  You imagine a
fantasy hero, Anarchy, with its invincible magic sword, Cryptography,
that can defeat the bogeyman.  With this comforting theology you
swagger down the cryptoanarchy dreamscape, your head filled with the
rightness of your cause, and your righteous piece on your hip, ready
to dispense sudden death to anyone who breaks your rules. 

A comforting dream, to be sure.  But a dream.  Government is a
reality.  All empirical evidence points to government being an
inevitable part of the human condition.  Anarchy is a fantasy. 

-- 
Kent Crispin				"No reason to get excited",
kent@songbird.com			the thief he kindly spoke...
PGP fingerprint:   B1 8B 72 ED 55 21 5E 44  61 F4 58 0F 72 10 65 55
http://songbird.com/kent/pgp_key.html