X-Message-Number: 5090
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 1995 21:23:36 -0800
From: John K Clark <>
Subject: SCI.CRYONICS Forget about government, it's dead
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In the context of cryonics, discussing the flaws or merits of government is
a little like talking about the virtues or evils of Vikings, it's academic.
Long before the first cryonics patients are revived, nation states will be
long gone, they will be as extinct as city states. I don't think we have a
choice, Like it or not a change to Anarcho-capitalism is inevitable,
not because somebody's rhetoric convinces people of it's benefits,
and certainly not because politicians change the law, but because of
technology.
Modern communication, cryptography and untraceable digital cash will
make it increasingly difficult to collect taxes. Governments will
undoubtedly draft many new laws to try to protect themselves
but making rules is easy, enforcing them is not. Regardless of
the laws, you can't collect the tax if you can't find the money.
Even the traditional standby of "tax by inflation" would not
work as people would just switch to a competing currency
(untraceable of course) that suited their needs better. The
tribute that could still be extracted, like property taxes and
building permits, would have to be increased to astronomic
levels and collected with a heavy hand, a tax revolt will
follow. Without money government will grind to a halt.
Personally I do not consider that a tragedy, I think it will be
good for cryonics. Anarchy can be very workable, (just look at
the Internet) I believe its the best way to get things done.
It's true that large projects can't be accomplished without
good organization but government is not the only way to get
organized, or the best. A command economy, the kind governments
like, is inherently inefficient. If you doubt this just look at
the pitiful situation in Eastern Europe.
Even if we make the ridiculous assumption that all politicians
are honest and have boiling water IQ's they could never do as
good a job as the free market because they are lacking a vital
ingredient, price information. The true price of an object is
determined by an enormous number of variables and is much too
complicated to be calculated from first principles, but the
market will tell you what the correct price should be, no
trouble at all. Whenever you change jobs, travel, or make a
purchase you are casting a vote and sending an exquisitely
sensitive message to the economy to change in a way you want. In
a Democracy all you can do is vote for a grab bag of promises
every 4 years.
By far the best introduction to anarchy I know of is "The
Machinery Of Freedom" by David Friedman, It's a wonderful book.
He talks more about Anarchy (lack of government) than
Libertarianism but I think there is reason to think that one
will encourage the other because people would be willing to pay
private protection agencies (PPA) to protect themselves and
their families but would be much more reluctant to PAY money to
restrain the private behavior of others, child abuse and
perhaps a few others excepted. Anarchy and Libertarianism are
related but are two separate concepts so if everybody except me
thinks it's important to put on funny hats on Tuesdays and
are willing to pay big bucks to enforce it then I'm just
going to have to put on a funny hat. Everybody can't have total
control over what laws they want to live by but we can have a
lot more control than we have now.
PPL's ( privately produced law) in a anarchic world would have
private protection agencies (PPA's) to back them up. All parties
would have a reason to avoid violence if possible. The disputing
parties would not want to turn their front yard into a war zone
and violence is expensive. The successful protection agencies
would be more interested in making money than saving face. Most
of the time this would work so I expect the total level of
violence to be less than what we have now but I'm not such a
utopian as to suggest it will drop to zero. Even when force is
not used the implicit threat is always there, another good
reason to be civilized.
No system can guarantee justice to everybody all the time but you'd have
the greatest chance of finding it in Anarcho-capitalism. In a dictatorship
one man's whim can lead to hell on earth, I don't see how 40
million Germans could have murdered 6 million Jews in a
Anarcho-capitalistic world. Things aren't much better in a
Democracy, 51% can decide to kill the other 49% , nothing even
close to that is possible in Anarchy , even theoretically .
In general, the desire NOT to be killed is much stronger than the desire
to kill a stranger, even a Jewish stranger. Jews would be willing to pay
as much as necessary, up to and including their entire net worth not to be
killed. I doubt if even the most rabid anti Semite would go much beyond 2%.
As a result the PPA protecting Jews would be much stronger
than the one that wants to kill them. In Anarchy, for things
that are REALLY important to you ( like not getting killed) you
have much more influence than just one man one vote.
It won't be perfect , there will still be brutality, but you have to ask
yourself, brutal compared to what ? states? Governments, those
paragons of charity and morality, those defenders of the weak
and powerless, the source of all virtue, have butchered hundreds
of millions of people this century alone, often their own
citizens. PPA's would have to work very hard to break that record.
The bottom line, don't count on government protecting you when
you're frozen in liquid nitrogen, it will be dead , and unlike
you there will be no hope for revival.
John K Clark
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