Re: Voluntary Governments?

[jamesd@netcom.com (James A. Donald)]

I wrote:
> > Governments are in the business of violence.

Jason W Solinsky writes
> A government is something that makes laws, enforces laws and punishes
> offenders. I don't see why guns would determine whether or not something
> is a government.

> > And if I wish to conduct business in a shopping mall, either as customer
> > or shopkeeper, I have to abide by the mall rules.  This does not
> > make the mall a government.

> Why not?

Because if you fail to obey the mall rules you will get thrown out.
(Possibly by men with guns.)

If you fail to obey the government rules men with guns will come
and kill you, imprison you, or take away your property at gunpoint.

That is why the shopping mall is not a government and that is
why your "cyberspace governments" are not governments, they
are private escrow agencies.

We do not call malls governments and we do not call private
escrow agencies governments.  So we should not call your
"cyberspace governments" governments.

It is not rules and enforcement that make a government a
government - every organization, every group of people, have
rules and enforcement, usually informal, sometimes formal.

It is killing, violence, and extortion that make government
organizations different from non government organizations.


-- 
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We have the right to defend ourselves and our
property, because of the kind of animals that we              James A. Donald
are.  True law derives from this right, not from
the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state.                jamesd@netcom.com