I wrote: > > Do you mean in those who continue to > > believe in coercive solutions (i.e., > > government)? Especially in the face > > of the fact that government has been > > responsible for 120+ million deaths > > in the 20th century alone? :-D > > > The idealism that I refer to is the > concept that human beings can create > something substantially better than > what exists. You mean like human beings have been doing for 10,000 years? Even in my mere 54 years I have seen amazing advances. I expect to see many many more before I'm through. > We should all have a touch of this > idealism but reality doesn't fit the > model so well. Belief in progress has been the hallmark of human endeavor ever since at least the Industrial Revolution. Where's your historical perspective. My guess is that you are not very old, is that correct? > > The countries with the most government, > > though have the least responsive > > economies and vice versa. > > > A bit overbroad. Perhaps, but true nonetheless. > > Profit seeking is not the sine > > qua non of literal anarchistic > > systems--non-coercion is. > > > Now that's idealism - a human-powered > machine that doesn't work by coercion. > Yep, that's where I'd place my bet. You already do. 98% of what you do every day is based on non-coercive, voluntary interactions. Excluding natural disasters (floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc.), the remaining 2% (i.e., government/coercion) is responsible for essentially all of the rest of humankind's miseries. Over 120,000,000 deaths in the 20th century alone... > And to bring the topic full-circle - > both behaviors exists in parallel now, > today. Let the best one win. That would > seem to fit the underlying Darwinian > bent to the anarchistic whoozywhatzits. Yes and no. By it's nature coercion fights against freedom (e.g., when the subsidized post office was still unable to compete against Lysander Spooner, it didn't improve its efficiency, it just got the government to make it a coercive monopoly). We'll win in the long run, but it's not a fair fight. S a n d y
