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Our liberal (as in philosophy, not institutions) ideas about freedom are very often boneheaded and unsophisticated. We are often convinced that if we abolish au
by lo_zamoyski 3y ago
Our liberal (as in philosophy, not institutions) ideas about freedom are very often boneheaded and unsophisticated. We are often convinced that if we abolish authority, we remove (a source of) tyranny. On the contrary, we remove a major protection against it. Remove authority, and you expose yourself to rule by power and force. In the absence of authority, power is the only remaining basis for rule. It is what rules.
You don't remedy shortcomings and failures of authority by abolishing it. Doing so only multiplies the problem.
- ch4s3 3y agoThis is just the Thomas Hobbes argument. Centralized authority is just exercise of power, there's nothing mystical about it some sort of powerful "sovereign". In this particular case the rules have been built to the benefit of a narrow few property holders at the expense of broader society, they are precisely a curtailment of freedom and an exercise of raw power.
- scottLobster 3y agoSo we shouldn't have abolished slavery, that only multiplied the problem? We should have reformed the institution of slavery instead? For talking about boneheaded and unsophisticated ideas, this post is severely lacking in nuance. No one is suggesting anarchy, and removing a generally malfunctioning authority can be quite productive.