patrick.net

It's the Corbett anarchy thing again. I like the thoughts. Government CAN be immoral. Most cycle into and out of morality in various ways.

In the natural world, every creature is beset by predators. Social creatures with hierarchies will always tend to develop intra species social predators and parasites. Because humans are relatively predator free from outside nature, and has succeeded in quelling those threats, our intra species predators have thrived and proliferated because opportunity costs tend to be low and rewards are high. The predators also develop specialty skills, and in our social organizations, they have become dynastic. Government is sort of an elective, hierarchal predatory controlled condition in which there is variable symbiosis.

I suppose you could call governement an inevitable fact of social evolution. I don't think the anarchists can actually cite a non-governmental model that persisted beyond local, isolated groups. Plus, we are so tied to the world through all of our stuff, local effects can't be entirely relied on to supply us.

So you believe government protects us? Despite the Revolution, Fort Sumter, the Lusitania, Pearl Harbor, Gulf of Tonka, 9/11, Iraq, etc, etc, etc.

For examples without government see the settlers as they moved west, old west towns, and anyone who lives in a remote area now. As the Chinese say "the mountains are high, and the government is far away.". People have always lived without government throughout history, up to and including today.

Never figured you fell into the 99%(from other post).

Governments do protect us to some extent, if only for selfish reasons. Or at least, they provide a convincing illusion of protecting us. Government is an inevitable consequence of crowded tribalism. Tribes will fight with each other, then eventually band together for protection and commerce against other tribes or groups of tribes, ergo ipso facto government.
People don't really assemble rationally in cooperative groups that self govern without exploitation. Humans have built in forces of social hierarchy, which create internal conflicts until a dominance is achieved. That dominance is government. It's an observation, not an apology.

You mention crowd, but there is plenty of land out there. Are you saying if we don't collect into cities(contrivance of government), these fights won't happen? I'd say looking at the American Indian that's not the case, as they didn't have cities, and definitely had some aggressive tribes(Apache).

But on a more personal level, are your relationships about cooperation or exploitation? I'd say mine are all cooperation. And I think most of us would say the same. Seems like what's really hanging over your head is the specter of evil man, not the presence. Meanwhile the presence of evil government is here now.

I'll take what could be over what is.