Yeah... what Thomas said... to which I would add: MORALITY: Public, Private & Personal at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/message/47174
-TLP --- In [email protected], "Thomas L. Knapp" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Quoth Andre: > > > Anarchy is simply the absence of government. > > Not exactly. Anarchy (in the political sense, versus the "chaos, rape > and murder" hype) is the absence of _the state_, which is a very > SPECIFIC form of "government." > > We'll always have "government," because "government" is simply any > system under which a discrete group administers the mutual affairs of > the group's members. > > A state is an organization claiming, and attempting to enforce, a > monopoly for itself on determining and administering the process of > government within, and on matters relating to, a given geographic area > and the people residing within that area. As geography continues to > become less important, it may attempt to claim such monopolies over > populations bound by other criteria than geography, but that's been > the main basis for the last 400 years or so. > > Al Qaeda is a throwback insofar as its goal is to coerce the political > allegiance of Muslims (under "sharia" law) just as the medieval Holy > Roman Catholic Church coerced the political allegiance of Christians. > > As feudalism developed, a geographically-based state polity displaced > "christendom." The industrial revolution and its attendant upheavals > tended to free people from feudal bonds of serfdom to lords > self-selected on the basis of ancestry, but geography remained the > obvious basis for polity for some time thereafter -- the automobile > and the airplane didn't make travel fast enough, nor did the telegraph > and telephone carry information fast enough, to supersede geography. > > Now we have the Internet, which makes exchange of information on a > large scale nearly instantaneous, and it is now possible for > self-selected groups of individuals who may not be geographically > co-located to seriously consider various forms of self-government > which invite/request support for their goals rather than demanding > allegiance to self-proclaimed monopolies. Not without kinks and > exceptions, of coruse, but it's coming. > > Tom Knapp > ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
