So then, if you are admitting that there is no way to prevent new power bases
from forming, I have to ask the question: Where's the bloody point?
The point is not perpetuating the things you seek to avoid. If you're worried about people forming power bases, then why are you creating power bases?
I am supporting a system which is better than the alternatives. Churchill, bastard though he was, was right.
Please, please give an answer that doesn't involve contrived
examples, and honestly explains whatever logic may be behind this.
i can only repeat my answer, Dice. There's nothing new to say.
Deliberately creating an oppressive system to live in is not preferable to to the possibility that somebody might create an oppressive system and try to compell you to live in it. Having uniformed police committing crimes is not preferable to having thugs not in unforms committing crimes. Living in a society where people will throw you in jail if you don't pay taxes is not preferable to a system where the possibility exists that maybe somebody might try to rob you. And as said many times, even in this system where you have certainty that people are trying to take tax money from you, you still have the possibility of robbery.
This system is, creates and perpetuates the very problems you apparently think it solves. Have you ever paid a traffic ticket? What happened? Some person stopped you from doing something you wanted to do, and demanded that you give his organization money, under threat of imprisonment if you didn't.
Why does the fact of him wearing a uniform paid for by your tax dollars make that not highway robbery?
You are paying people to oppress you. You are willingly contributing to the system that curtails your freedoms. And you're fighting and defending it like a victim of Stockholm Syndrome.
The point of the system is that it recognizes that police brutality and individuals endangering others as morally wrong, and these ideals are enforced, even if shoddily and inconsistently. A system in which you or I have the freedom to say
this is wrong without being killed or imprisoned is better than the alternative.
And as a matter of fact, no, I have never paid a traffic ticket. I refuse to own a car (or can't afford a car and university, take whichever suits your preconceptions more).
And really, the Stockholm Syndrome thing is edging nearer to personal attacks. I don't support my system because it is good, but because it is better than anything else that humanity has tried, and because apparently unlike you, I would rather work to fix and improve it than throw it out with the bathwater.
Consider an analogy:
You have a puppy. This puppy is a normal puppy; it plays, eats, and makes messes. It is sometimes noisy. It costs money to support, but it makes you happy. After a few weeks, you decide that you don't like that it keeps peeing on your carpet or barking in the middle of the night. So you go for a drive, and head for the pound. On the way there, you cross a bridge. As you do so, you open the window of your car and toss the puppy into the river, leaving it to drown. Continuing on your way, you are much happier, as you contemplate how nice it is without that consarned puppy ruining your things, making noise, and taking away from your income.
Still, things are as they always have been. You know that if you live without a puppy, you have to begin each day by flipping a coin. If heads, you continue your day as normal. If tails, you will be visited by the evil spirit of human nature, who will either beat you, rob you, rape you, or brutally murder you. The only thing that can prevent this is a puppy. Sure, the spirit still randomly selects one of every ten thousand people each day, but that is still better than not having a puppy at all. Besides, you've heard the legends. People who care for their puppy, ensuring that it grows properly, and knows good behavior, will eventually see it become a dog, which can bar the spirit from your life altogether. Dogs are also able to use the money you spend on them to do useful things, like building bridges, dams, power plants, cities, and roads. To channel that money into special magic that can put out fires and help you recover from illness. Now, you have never seen a dog before, nor has anyone you know. Still, there is always that hope.
So you continue to the pound. You pick a new puppy at random. It has a cute little brown and white face, and it stares up at you inquisitively as you carry it to your car. Several nights later, you are awoken to the sound of it barking. You think to yourself that this puppy really isn't very good, always making messes, being noisy, costing money. Maybe you'd be better off without it.
Is this a reasonably accurate representation of what you believe?
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Topic: A question for llibertarians. (Read 10737 times)