Alaje wrote:AuSable, I'm still having a hard time understanding exactly what it is you're advocating. According to you, you're not an anarchist, but in all the posts I've seen in this thread you constantly go on about how "evil" or "corrupt" the State/Government is.
If you believe the state is so evil, what manner of social organization would you consider ideal?
I understand he may sound young and cocky, but I happen to agree with what he is trying to say.
Don't get me wrong: I think we need government. If we didn't have a government someone would quickly rise up and take control, and there is no guarentee he would be good.
A bit of Philosophy:
If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
I measure Government in a few ways, but the first yardstick I use is this one:
Anarchy -----------------------------------|-----------[]=>----------------- Despotism
This is a scale of the balance of power. Anarchy and despotism are perfect inflections of one another, because under Anarchy, everyone has the same amount of political power, and in any form of despotism or tyranny only one person has power. Now I know most people today prefer something somewhere in the middle, but the thing people disagree on is to which side of the middle they want to be on. No I am not talking about this scale:
<----Fascist--------------------------[]--------|-----------------------------------Communist---->
Because I view Fascism and Communism as very close cousins. Think of this scale like a loop: If you push through "communist" enough you will eventually reach fascist.
If you are wondering why I put the [] on the scale, that is my own perception of where we are as a society, and which direction we are headed. You could argue both ways on the Fascist/Communist scale, but I don't think anyone would disagree very much as to the Anarchy/Despotism scale.
What I think AuSable is trying to point out is that we have strayed too far towards a form of tyrrany, and that we are continuing to move in that direction. I would suggest that we think about which direction we are headed and try to find a balance.