tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15644559.post6006540648356496439..comments2024-03-21T03:55:51.565-07:00Comments on Omniorthogonal: Be your governmentmtravenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02356162954308418556noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15644559.post-69110728162039192982011-10-09T15:28:41.599-07:002011-10-09T15:28:41.599-07:00@tggp: I did mention that my critique/complaints a...@tggp: I did mention that my critique/complaints applied almost as well to the left as to the right.<br /><br />Exit is a fine strategy for atomized individuals. For real people who live in communities and have social connections, it doesn't really work. And then there's the question of where you end up after you exit and whether you just have the same set of problems (I fantasized awhile back about exiting to Europe, a strategy which looked a lot more attractive a year ago than it does now).mtravenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02356162954308418556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15644559.post-37675838900647500212011-10-07T20:38:38.148-07:002011-10-07T20:38:38.148-07:00Wouldn't we see the same idea from left anarch...Wouldn't we see the same idea from left anarchists that society is good and natural but government is bad and alien?<br /><br />To me the dispute over democracy should have more citations to Exit, Voice and Loyalty. I place very little faith in voice, but it's better than nothing (you have a bastard you can't even throw out). But if there's any hope of exit, we need to leap at that.TGGPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11017651009634767649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15644559.post-52963745619501286132011-10-06T14:09:58.224-07:002011-10-06T14:09:58.224-07:00I have met very few people who call themselves lib...I have met very few people who call themselves libertarians that could truly be called anarchists, i.e., that desire a complete disappearance of government. It is always possible to reduce an idea to absurdity by extending it to its logical extreme, and that is what you have done. <br /><br />What most self-described libertarians really believe is no more than what George Washington did:<br /><br />"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master."<br /><br />Like fire, that troublesome servant, government works best when it is kept within strict limits. Fire is useful inside a fireplace or furnace - frightful on the floor, furniture, curtains, etc. Similarly, government is useful when it is confined to the purposes of defending the country against foreign enemies, stopping the depredations of murderers and thieves, protecting private property, adjudicating disputes between citizens, and otherwise enforcing that modicum of stability and order necessary for civil society and its institutions (which long pre-existed any current government) to survive and prosper. When it strays beyond those bounds, it becomes rather like fire which has leapt from the stove to the rest of the kitchen.<br /><br />Of course, limitations on the scope of government are a sort of "repudiation of democracy." Pure democracy is a tyranny of the majority - two wolves and a lamb taking a vote on what to have for lunch. Democracy, too, can be extended to extremes that no reasonable person would desire. We quite sensibly repudiate that.scwnoreply@blogger.com