Re:Competition Is Dying, and Taking Capitalism with It?
by int_19h on Thursday November 29, 2018 @07:22PM
(#18565506)
> It can just as well be a mutual and voluntary agreement.
If it were a completely mutual and voluntary agreement, then you wouldn't need a government as such, or laws, or any enforcement thereof. And that would be an anarchist commune, not a state.
Any place that has laws, and penalties for breaking those laws, has an implicit threat of violence against law-breakers - it's really that simple. And if it is making that threat at all, it's because it expects the law to be broken by some.
> The "violence" in "monopoly on violence" isn't any more sinister
I didn't say anything about it being sinister in principle. It's only sinister if it causes more violence than it prevents.
> What is your point, in relation to my original point of government being ours in principle, and being changeable?
I was specifically responding to another person saying that "a gang is a little bit like government", further expanding on that. It was not directed at you or your comment.
If it were a completely mutual and voluntary agreement, then you wouldn't need a government as such, or laws, or any enforcement thereof. And that would be an anarchist commune, not a state.
Any place that has laws, and penalties for breaking those laws, has an implicit threat of violence against law-breakers - it's really that simple. And if it is making that threat at all, it's because it expects the law to be broken by some.
> The "violence" in "monopoly on violence" isn't any more sinister
I didn't say anything about it being sinister in principle. It's only sinister if it causes more violence than it prevents.
> What is your point, in relation to my original point of government being ours in principle, and being changeable?
I was specifically responding to another person saying that "a gang is a little bit like government", further expanding on that. It was not directed at you or your comment.