3 ms·

We need protection against governments. They are the mafia of today's world.

by urza 10y ago

lifeisstillgood 10y ago
Ironically studies of mafia show that they win by providing government services to those without. Anarchy is desirable by no one and when government a not reach then we turn to any strongman to bring order and predictability - it is the essential definition of government. Don't blame governments for being mafia, blame us for not forcing them to behave. We need a public debate on the meaning of privacy and the ownership of personal computing.
- indymike 10y ago
  There is a school of thought in political science that government is simply the big, legitimate mafia.
  - cryoshon 10y ago
    (responding to the school of thought you are referencing) "might makes right" school of political realism never made sense for me in a domestic context. the relationship of the state to the citizen at the citizen's birth is completely one directional: the state provides infrastructure, security, and economic activity while expecting nothing in return until much later in a person's life-- and if the person doesn't ever proffer anything in return to the state, that doesn't guarantee violence against the individual, nor exclusion from services. if the platonic form of a state were that it has to be a mafia of sorts reliant on the threat of physical force, it'd quickly go extinct for lack of younger replacements. can't have the young replacing the old if they never make it to middle age due to a lack of investment and all. that being said, the current governments of the west do have plenty of similarities with the various mafias... but in my opinion the issue of runaway government is a failure mode resulting from particular circumstances rather than a problem of government in the abstract.
hackuser 10y ago
> We need protection against governments The government is us, at least in democracies. Voters get what they vote for. Your problems isn't with government, but with your fellow voters: The eternal problem of society. But I do need to work with my fellow voters on many issues - I don't live in a cave - and I need government to protect me from crime, invasion, poisons in my food, diseases, aircraft that crash, racial discrimination, contractual abuses and violations, and many other things.
- urza 10y ago
  I dont know in what country you live, but where I am from, government is not "us". Definitely not me. Yes we have democratic elections. The result is that government takes 60% of my income and provides me terrible services that I dont want and often times I morally dont agree with and would never voluntarily support. Whats the difference from mafia? USA is the same, government spies on their own citizens and on rest of the world. That is what we need protection from. They are not really protecting us, they are just playing a theatre pretending they do. you say I need government to protect me from crime, invasion, poisons in my food, diseases, aircraft that crash, racial discrimination, contractual abuses and violations, and many other things. I believe we would do better job at this without government. Or at least without the monopoly government as it exists today.

We need protection against governments. They are the mafia of today's world.

by urza 10y ago

We need protection against governments. They are the mafia of today's world.

Ironically studies of mafia show that they win by providing government services to those without. Anarchy is desirable by no one and when government a not reach then we turn to any strongman to bring order and predictability - it is the essential definition of government. Don't blame governments for being mafia, blame us for not forcing them to behave. We need a public debate on the meaning of privacy and the ownership of personal computing.

indymike 10y ago
There is a school of thought in political science that government is simply the big, legitimate mafia.
- cryoshon 10y ago
  (responding to the school of thought you are referencing) "might makes right" school of political realism never made sense for me in a domestic context. the relationship of the state to the citizen at the citizen's birth is completely one directional: the state provides infrastructure, security, and economic activity while expecting nothing in return until much later in a person's life-- and if the person doesn't ever proffer anything in return to the state, that doesn't guarantee violence against the individual, nor exclusion from services. if the platonic form of a state were that it has to be a mafia of sorts reliant on the threat of physical force, it'd quickly go extinct for lack of younger replacements. can't have the young replacing the old if they never make it to middle age due to a lack of investment and all. that being said, the current governments of the west do have plenty of similarities with the various mafias... but in my opinion the issue of runaway government is a failure mode resulting from particular circumstances rather than a problem of government in the abstract.

hackuser 10y ago

> We need protection against governments The government is us, at least in democracies. Voters get what they vote for. Your problems isn't with government, but with your fellow voters: The eternal problem of society. But I do need to work with my fellow voters on many issues - I don't live in a cave - and I need government to protect me from crime, invasion, poisons in my food, diseases, aircraft that crash, racial discrimination, contractual abuses and violations, and many other things.

urza 10y ago
I dont know in what country you live, but where I am from, government is not "us". Definitely not me. Yes we have democratic elections. The result is that government takes 60% of my income and provides me terrible services that I dont want and often times I morally dont agree with and would never voluntarily support. Whats the difference from mafia? USA is the same, government spies on their own citizens and on rest of the world. That is what we need protection from. They are not really protecting us, they are just playing a theatre pretending they do. you say I need government to protect me from crime, invasion, poisons in my food, diseases, aircraft that crash, racial discrimination, contractual abuses and violations, and many other things. I believe we would do better job at this without government. Or at least without the monopoly government as it exists today.