| sc94597 said: This is an interesting point you both bring up, about borrowed time. I think the biggest way we can effectively reduce government is by showing people the logic and ethics behind doing so, combined with technological decentralization (i.e the internet.) The only reason government is so much more effective than say a mafia, is because it persuades people that its use of force is morally sound, while a mafia resorts to only paternalism (makes dependents) on the initiation of force. It is the institution of force rather than the decentralization of force which makes government so powerful. If people recognized the beast for what it is, even if it's not the majority of the populous, government reduces. So it's an ideological war more than anything. It's not as if this hasn't happened with anything else either. Most people view absolute government and monarchy rule as especially abhorrent. Most people today view slavery and rape as especially abhorrent. This was not true in history. If most people view government as inherently abhorrent, regardless of its size, then the monopoly it has on the initiation of force is broken, and as a society we can start working to reduce the initiation of force in its decentralized incoherrent form, as individuals or voluntary collectives. But as long as there is a monopoly on force (the state) this is impossible, due to its centralization of power. The best forms of small government and anarchy in history happened because government wasn't viewed as necessary in the majority (or all) affairs, not because the system was dismantled and left open for somebody else to come in or because a document limited it. |
That's all true and a good explanation of how politics is downstream of culture. A rotten culture always manifests a rotten government. Once people accept that it is okay to use coercion against an innocent person for the greater good, it's all downhill from there.
