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True. Many countries require military service of one sort or another. And more generally, governments do tend to view their citizens as resources. I recall a gr
by mirimir 8y ago
True. Many countries require military service of one sort or another. And more generally, governments do tend to view their citizens as resources. I recall a great book on the history of data science. But not the title :( One of the drivers, as I recall, was knowing resources to plan wars.
Still, the juxtaposition of "lawful" and "government" makes me smile.
- emiliobumachar 8y ago"Seeing like a State", perhaps? http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/03/16/book-review-seeing-like-a-state/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/03/16/book-review-seeing-like...
- mirimir 8y agoThat seems a great book. But this was more about database design, and statistics. Covering maybe 17th-18th centuries, and focusing on Western Europe. I recall France and Germany, in particular.
- mirimir 8y agoJust to be clear, I was rather agreeing with "Forcing someone to do a job is slavery." And just pointing out that states do that a lot. But they couch it in language about "duty" and so on. I mean, many millions of soldiers died in WWI and WWII. Many were volunteers, sure. But many were conscripts. And of course, having your country conquered may also not be such a great thing, unless your government are jerks. Anyway, I distrust all governments above the village level. I do see the argument for ~state level government. Basically, to deal with groups of jerks. National defense is arguably the only justification for national government. And that's just because there are other national governments, controlled by jerks. So it's sort of like a multi-player protection racket.