I would hate to live somewhere knowing that I had to always be nice to everyone just in case I needed their help one day.
By this I infer that you also prefer arranged marriage, so that you don't have to put yourself out to be appealing to a prospective partner but can just be given one.
I thought you understood how arranged marriages worked. The groom is not "given" a bride; the families of the respective groom and bride arrange things to the families ( read: parents) interest. What the groom wants never enters into it.
Even in arranged marriages, the bride is not chattel; marriage is not chattel slavery(although some may disagree...).
Seems to me, though, he has expressed an important truth as to why people are more free under a properly working democratic government than in the type of small town where everybody had better show up at the same church on Sunday, and otherwise not do anything which might cause tongues to wag about them.
If that's the sort of "freedom" we're talking about: when we are perfectly free to do whatever the hell we please, and
never modify our behaviors to accommodate our neighbors, then we are not humans but tigers or sharks. When we
always modify our behavior to accommodate our community, then we are bees, termites, Borg-ites.
Besides, I'd argue that in the small AnCap town, I can cause tongues to wag by not going to church and might get ostracized but in your properly working democracy I can be jailed for, say, refusing to kill or support killing on command of government -- and that's assuming that your properly working democracy hadn't voted for the
death penalty for Quakers refusing a military draft.[/quote]
You are forgetting that
today we have an all-volunteer army. It must be hard to make your point when you have to reach thirty years into the past.
As for properly working democracy, I dont know if it has worked properly since Ben Franklin was asked "What kind of government do we have?"
Because you see, until recently, not every American has had the right to participate. Even today, Libertarian and would-be AnCap'ers are working to reduce the number of citizens eligible to vote.
People here seem to forget that the second half of Anarcho-Capitalism is
capitalism. In capitalism, there is no morality, no vice, no virtue, only
money.
Anarchy is all fine and good, but once you've gotten the euphoria of total freedom under control, you will realize that the capitalists have enslaved you far worse than any government ever could.
Governments can be changed or overthrown; money is forever.
So when you wish for Anarcho-Capitalism, be careful what you wish for; you may just get it.
Government is authorized to compel me to violate my most basic moral principles or be deprived of freedom of movement.
Actually it isnt. Even if you
volunteer to go shoot people because the capitalists say you must, you can still opt out. But, if you know you cannot kill people on command, why are you
volunteering to do so in the first place?
I think maybe you should go to dictionary.com and look up "volunteer".
I'll take the small-town gossips, thanks.
except in good circumstances (i.e. a frontier with self-selection, as opposed to here and now) that threat might have to be carried out more often than... pleasant.
Except in good circumstances, e.g. a government staffed solely by good, trustworthy, highly-trained people, the threat of being killed by LEOs too "distracted" or "in fear of their lives" to respond any better than a panicked child, or of "us[ing] the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies", or of being destroyed as pawns might have to be endured more often than... pleasant.
I see that the sources you link to are vehement anti-government and anti-authority websites. Even given their known biases (and probably a good job of selective editing), how can I trust what they are reporting? (Ok, maybe I
would believe Wikipedia, because it never gets re-written to advance certain points of view, does it?)
Its like asking me to believe the Weekly World News' story about "Alien Man-Bat top advisor to Presidents Bush and Obama".
I guess i mean they have a credibility gap. Remember what Ike's grandpa would tell you: "Dont believe everything you read."
Tell me how you are safer when the very neighbors you can't trust to follow the rules are put in charge of enforcing the rules -- ?
Tell me how you are safer when the very neighbors you cant trust to follow the rules (of the ZAP) are given the same rights as you are? (adjudication, etc.)
How is your society any safer than this one if the members refuse to obey the rules of the society?
Especially when your only defense is to vote them back to ordinary citizen status, and that's only if they haven't co-opted the polls and/or the law enforcement process?
So tell me, how do AnCappers keep money from corrupting your society? Judges can be bought, adjudicators can be bribed or extorted/blackmailed/etc.
Since there are no laws against kidnapping and no police to investigate, how do the judges stay honest?
Of course, we're talking about a large city, say Denver or Chicago, not Moscow Idaho. In a city of half a million people, how do you keep everyone honest?
Especially the big money capitalists, who have the same freedom as you do.
If the big money boy wants your property, he will get it. He can hire far more bully boys than you have shots in your shotgun.
The anarchy part I get, but you havent explained how capitalism is restrained.