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Anarchy (Ethical, Moral, Spiritual Progression)

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RiKD    United States. Dec 30 2014 12:32. Posts 8552

Tolstoy on government:

During his 1857 visit to Paris, Tolstoy witnessed a public execution in Paris, a traumatic experience that would mark the rest of his life. Writing in a letter to his friend Vasily Botkin: "The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens... Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere."

Tolstoy on Anarchy:

The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order, and in the assertion that, without Authority, there could not be worse violence than that of Authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that Anarchy can be instituted by a revolution. But it will be instituted only by there being more and more people who do not require the protection of governmental power ... There can be only one permanent revolution—a moral one: the regeneration of the inner man.

The True News:



Thoughts?
Insights?
Information?
Introductions to other thoughts?

I have found the only way to live out some of these questions is to get them out in honest, open-minded, willing collectives. Collectives where the tribe is aware of ubiquitous assimilation and the promotion of double think within the current systems. Collectives where the basis of education is truth, beauty, and goodness. Collectives where we realize we are not immune to corporation and nation sponsored education and press but we are honest and openminded and willing to seek and search out ethical, moral, and spiritual progression. We are all in this together:

Love,

RiKD

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RaiNKhAN    United States. Dec 30 2014 14:06. Posts 4080

relevant re-post from one of loco's blogs:

The biggest Rockets, Sixers, and Grizzlies fan you will ever meet! 

dnagardi   Hungary. Dec 30 2014 15:06. Posts 1776

without regulation, government or whatever u wanna call it we would be still in caves farming,hunting

and if u wanna set anarchy into the currently existing world 90% of the worlds population would just starve to death, big cities would collapse (no transportation, food in supermarkets wouldnt be replenished etc). In small villages i guess they would still live on, farming for themselves.

i mean its no coincidence that every culture around the world shares the basic fundamentals of regulation. It is the most stable option even if it has negative sides

my thoughts


Baalim   Mexico. Dec 30 2014 16:57. Posts 34250


  On December 30 2014 14:06 dnagardi wrote:
without regulation, government or whatever u wanna call it we would be still in caves farming,hunting



Lol why? how has the state contributed to the development of society dont make claims like this without thinking this shit through.


 
and if u wanna set anarchy into the currently existing world 90% of the worlds population would just starve to death, big cities would collapse (no transportation, food in supermarkets wouldnt be replenished etc). In small villages i guess they would still live on, farming for themselves.



WTF why would people starve? how does the state help with the nourishment of people? No transportation? transportation would be simlpy privately developed, there are man, transportation is not free, you pay bus and train tickets, you pay tolls on roads, pay for your licence etc.


 
i mean its no coincidence that every culture around the world shares the basic fundamentals of regulation. It is the most stable option even if it has negative sides




Also every culture around the world is rooted in religion and it doesnt make the concept of a god any less idiotic, governments exist because people have fought and risen to power in history and society trends to maintain the status quo

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Gnarly   United States. Dec 30 2014 17:08. Posts 1723

>anarchy
>an abstract idea that can come to fruition

There's always the go-to idea that with anarchy, people would be killing each other left and right. Or, as another way of stating the same thing: imposing their authority over others.

Diversify or fossilize! 

Baalim   Mexico. Dec 30 2014 17:11. Posts 34250

I have been an anarchist for many years now and its painfully obvious how the state is incredibly harmful for humanity but people are simply unaware of it, unaware that the government can even be questioned in the sense of its existence.

Ive always compared it with religion because its actually very similar for people, most religious people don't ever question the existence of god, a quick an honest look at it would make any man an atheist in matters of a couple of minutes and the same thing happens with the state, people talk about decmocracy as if its somehow it was a synonym for freedom and the word anarchy means chaos and molotov cocktails.


A clear sign of this is the post above this one, those arguments are clearly no rational or remotely well thought, just as a religious person trying to defend its religion for the first time.

Most people first questions about anarchy are "but what about police, what about plumbing" etc, which shows that they have never enterteined the thought of a society with no state for even a second before in their lives.

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chris   United States. Dec 30 2014 17:16. Posts 5503

the government built roads in the US. not to say private roads could not or would not have been built, but they would not all adhere to a standard. just like the FDA.

without government, if someone wronged me, i have no recourse. there is no criminal court. i must then find a way to harm this person to seek justice.

i think government is needed, but it is a beast we have to be careful about how much we feed....as the more we put in, the more powerful it becomes, and it no longer serves its people, but the other way around

5 minute showers are my 8 minute abs. - Neilly 

Gnarly   United States. Dec 30 2014 17:44. Posts 1723


  On December 30 2014 16:11 Baalim wrote:
I have been an anarchist for many years now and its painfully obvious how the state is incredibly harmful for humanity but people are simply unaware of it, unaware that the government can even be questioned in the sense of its existence.

Ive always compared it with religion because its actually very similar for people, most religious people don't ever question the existence of god, a quick an honest look at it would make any man an atheist in matters of a couple of minutes and the same thing happens with the state, people talk about decmocracy as if its somehow it was a synonym for freedom and the word anarchy means chaos and molotov cocktails.


A clear sign of this is the post above this one, those arguments are clearly no rational or remotely well thought, just as a religious person trying to defend its religion for the first time.

Most people first questions about anarchy are "but what about police, what about plumbing" etc, which shows that they have never enterteined the thought of a society with no state for even a second before in their lives.



I think philosophically, we could never even have a discussion on the idea of anarchy due to our seemingly wildly different beliefs. Is your definition of anarchy simply that which there is no government? To me, the idea of governing can be seen in nature. The sun governs the solar system through its gravitational pull and it's intense energy it radiates throughout. We see less of the sun during winter, which means it's either harder or impossible to farm the same things that would be farmed in summer. However, you might not want to personify the sun, so we can go to living things governing other living things. Micro-organisms eat up each other and lions eat up gazelles. When a lion roars, it's likely that he's saying, "This is my territory. Trespass and die." While the lion is not something we would class as a government, he is governing the mammals around him. Those animals will seek to avoid him. This is a nature social order.

Nature social orders end up progressing to the point where having social intelligence is be more effective at having a career in politics than spatial intelligence, therefor giving way to different ways of "roaring". Even families are their own state; usually, there will be a patriarchal figure leading the family. Sure, the other family members can act on their own, but to be able to partake in festivities such as what's going on right now is up to certain people. People will always claim something and impose their authority over others about it.

This is why even when civilization breaks down, if that ever happens, it will quickly rise back up so long as there are humans left alive. People will always strive to achieve their ideas, whether for helping out or for selfish gains, and those strong enough to impose their will on others will, in fact, impose their will on others. The weak will serve the strong while the strong serves the weak.

Diversify or fossilize! 

Baalim   Mexico. Dec 30 2014 18:07. Posts 34250


  On December 30 2014 16:16 chris wrote:
the government built roads in the US. not to say private roads could not or would not have been built, but they would not all adhere to a standard. just like the FDA.

without government, if someone wronged me, i have no recourse. there is no criminal court. i must then find a way to harm this person to seek justice.

i think government is needed, but it is a beast we have to be careful about how much we feed....as the more we put in, the more powerful it becomes, and it no longer serves its people, but the other way around



On the contrary unlike government enterprises, privately owned ones adhere to the rules of the free market, thus forcing them to compete through quality, price etc, thats why privately owned bussines will always outperform state ones, every single time.

The FDA kills much more people than it saves all the regulations blocks new medicines and it has been responsible for the deaths of millions of americans blocking medicine for heart disease available in europe for decades, this regulation is a corrupt hoax that serves the purposes of big Pharma, not the consumer.

LOL police... the governments runs the Mafia model... you give up a big % of your earnings in exchange for protection, its bullshit protection because they only protect you from themselves, to avoid getting your face smashed in by the man collecting the money in the same way the government does, if you dont pay these "taxes" who will come knocking in your house to put you in a cage for years?

Have you ever being victim of a crime that the state and a courtroom helped you correct? no? thought so.

There are many models of dealing with that in anarchic tribunals if you want to read more about it I can send you links.


And no.. the government will never serve the people, it will always serve itself, its human nature, the bigger the government the more fucked you are, but its only a matter of size, small cancer or big cancer.

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Baalim   Mexico. Dec 30 2014 18:17. Posts 34250


  On December 30 2014 16:44 Gnarly wrote:
Show nested quote +



I think philosophically, we could never even have a discussion on the idea of anarchy due to our seemingly wildly different beliefs. Is your definition of anarchy simply that which there is no government? To me, the idea of governing can be seen in nature. The sun governs the solar system through its gravitational pull and it's intense energy it radiates throughout. We see less of the sun during winter, which means it's either harder or impossible to farm the same things that would be farmed in summer. However, you might not want to personify the sun, so we can go to living things governing other living things. Micro-organisms eat up each other and lions eat up gazelles. When a lion roars, it's likely that he's saying, "This is my territory. Trespass and die." While the lion is not something we would class as a government, he is governing the mammals around him. Those animals will seek to avoid him. This is a nature social order.

Nature social orders end up progressing to the point where having social intelligence is be more effective at having a career in politics than spatial intelligence, therefor giving way to different ways of "roaring". Even families are their own state; usually, there will be a patriarchal figure leading the family. Sure, the other family members can act on their own, but to be able to partake in festivities such as what's going on right now is up to certain people. People will always claim something and impose their authority over others about it.

This is why even when civilization breaks down, if that ever happens, it will quickly rise back up so long as there are humans left alive. People will always strive to achieve their ideas, whether for helping out or for selfish gains, and those strong enough to impose their will on others will, in fact, impose their will on others. The weak will serve the strong while the strong serves the weak.


Its not my definition of anarchy... the definition of anarchy is simply a society with no state, its right in the obvious etymology.

The sun or lions have absolutely nothing to do with anarchy ffs, you are clearly confusing anarchy with some weird ideology of nobody having any power over others, its simply about not living under a organization that monopolizes violence through army/police with mandatory direct or indirect taxation.

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Gnarly   United States. Dec 30 2014 18:26. Posts 1723


  On December 30 2014 17:17 Baalim wrote:
Show nested quote +



Its not my definition of anarchy... the definition of anarchy is simply a society with no state, its right in the obvious etymology.

The sun or lions have absolutely nothing to do with anarchy ffs, you are clearly confusing anarchy with some weird ideology of nobody having any power over others, its simply about not living under a organization that monopolizes violence through army/police with mandatory direct or indirect taxation.



an·ar·chy
ˈanərkē/
noun
noun: anarchy

a state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority.

What's your definition, again?

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chris   United States. Dec 30 2014 18:27. Posts 5503

Baal, if the government in the US didn't build roads, only the wealthy would have roads because the poor could not afford them and middle class areas could not afford to maintain them, as the costs are enormous - and then there is the matter of contribution. i suppose you know all about social goods and public goods.

The FDA kills people? This statement...I do not know if you are trolling or truly believe that....

Yes, I have been victim of several crimes. The guy did not get sent to prison, so no, the court did not "help" me.

Send me links. I'll be happy to take a look.

Pretty sure there are some governments that do a decent job, to some extent. The issue is "power corrupts" and "power protects power" principles. People who obtain power, in theory, become corrupted, to some degree.

If we were a true anarchist society, I could kill you for disagreeing with me and I face no consequences, outside of maybe having to deal with your family.

I remember reading about the president of Uruguay acting quite well.

I am not saying I trust the government, or that it is always right, I am only arguing that some level of government is needed. How about net neutrality? If you are for it, you are a hypocrite. If you are against it, then I kind of hate you (on that topic).

If net neutrality isn't upheld, companies could could abuse bandwidth however they chose. A pure anarchist society is like communism....in theory, it's a utopia. Freedom, no government to get in the way, and we can do what we want and the free market should dictate things and we all get what we deserve, blah blah blah. Wouldn't work that way if it was actually applied. Would be more of a dystopia.

Did you like the "wild west" in US history? People shooting each other in the street?

I respect you Baal, and trust you actually have some real world example you could present that makes anarchy sound better a governed society.
Cause I am sure you like your internet, with your power, and rent, and money, cause in an anarchist society, there is nothing to enforce your rental agreement or property ownership, there is nothing to govern your power supply from being cut because they no longer feel like honoring your service agreement, etc. And money, cause, ya know...I doubt you want to have to raise livestock to barter for other goods...since money (well, fiat currency) is backed by governing bodies.

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chris   United States. Dec 30 2014 18:28. Posts 5503

also with anarchy, baal, you would not have been able to ban people, as you used to!

you are mad you lost mod status! i knew it!

5 minute showers are my 8 minute abs. - Neilly 

Gnarly   United States. Dec 30 2014 18:29. Posts 1723

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/7118?redirectedFrom=anarchy&

we can go more


  Etymology: < Greek &#7936;&#957;&#945;&#961;&#967;&#943;&#945;, n. of state < &#7940;&#957;&#945;&#961;&#967;-&#959;&#962; without a chief or head, < &#7936;&#957; priv. + &#7936;&#961;&#967;&#972;&#962; leader, chief. The word was also adopted in medieval Latin anarchia, and French anarchie (Cotgrave 1611), from one or other of which the English may have been immediately taken.

Diversify or fossilize! 

chris   United States. Dec 30 2014 18:33. Posts 5503

to be clear i do not like taxes or being told what to do, but i also recognize a necessary evil

5 minute showers are my 8 minute abs. - Neilly 

Gnarly   United States. Dec 30 2014 18:33. Posts 1723


  On December 30 2014 17:28 chris wrote:
also with anarchy, baal, you would not have been able to ban people, as you used to!

you are mad you lost mod status! i knew it!



>baal's face when

Diversify or fossilize! 

RiKD    United States. Dec 30 2014 18:45. Posts 8552

"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

-Winston Churchill

"The water's blue, swallow the pill."

-Frank Ocean

Wake Up LP:

 Last edit: 30/12/2014 18:51

RiKD    United States. Dec 30 2014 18:58. Posts 8552

Anyone in this thread who defines anarchy as anything other than simply the absence of government I will consider stupid and/or a troll.

Please, any further discussion:

The definition of anarchy is simply the absence of government.


RiKD    United States. Dec 30 2014 19:01. Posts 8552

Not the absence of community.

Not the absence of hierarchies.

Not the absence of human folly.

The absence of government as we have known it.


Gnarly   United States. Dec 30 2014 19:07. Posts 1723

RiKD, did you not read the actual etymology of the word?

>without a chief or head

Diversify or fossilize! 

Romm3l   Germany. Dec 30 2014 19:52. Posts 285

national defence, laws and credible enforcement of human rights, property rights, social welfare, education, provision of public goods, regulation of pollution...

...yeah we're better off without any of that shit (lol)


Baalim   Mexico. Dec 30 2014 19:58. Posts 34250


  On December 30 2014 17:27 chris wrote:
Baal, if the government in the US didn't build roads, only the wealthy would have roads because the poor could not afford them and middle class areas could not afford to maintain them, as the costs are enormous - and then there is the matter of contribution. i suppose you know all about social goods and public goods.



God this is so retarded, what roads are you talking about? I said that if you wanted to know more about specifics on how roads could be handled by private investors then Id link you to articles about it, are you interested ?
[quote
The FDA kills people? This statement...I do not know if you are trolling or truly believe that....[/quote]

Yes the FDA causes far more deaths than it saves, it has caused hundreds of thousands of death for blocking heart disease medicines available in europe 10 years before the FDA approved them.


 
Yes, I have been victim of several crimes. The guy did not get sent to prison, so no, the court did not "help" me.


Well there you fucking go, so stop pretending the government solves those things, because its extremely inefficient and unjust when it comes to crime.


 
Pretty sure there are some governments that do a decent job, to some extent. The issue is "power corrupts" and "power protects power" principles. People who obtain power, in theory, become corrupted, to some degree.


A government is just a dirty reflection of its own society a very advanced civil society will have a better state than a third world country, but the state its still harmful to its society regardless of its advancement.


 
If we were a true anarchist society, I could kill you for disagreeing with me and I face no consequences, outside of maybe having to deal with your family.



No thats not true, just as an example in Mexico since justice is rarely served in rural areas people lynch criminals, they are far more effective in serving justice, actually more just and a bigger deterrant to crime since they are pretty brutal, and this is the most barbaric form of anarchist justice, a more developed society easily deals with criminals in an organized fashion without the need of a state



 
Did you like the "wild west" in US history? People shooting each other in the street?



Again you have no idea what anarchy is... im pretty sure the united states had a government in the times of the wild west didnt it? they had an army, sheriff taxation etc etc etc. That is an example of a shitty state, not of anarchy.


 

Cause I am sure you like your internet, with your power, and rent, and money, cause in an anarchist society, there is nothing to enforce your rental agreement or property ownership, there is nothing to govern your power supply from being cut because they no longer feel like honoring your service agreement, etc. And money, cause, ya know...I doubt you want to have to raise livestock to barter for other goods...since money (well, fiat currency) is backed by governing bodies.




LOL yeah there fucking is something stopping the company from cutting my supply its called free market, my energy company is shit? well then I easily decide to give my money to a company with better service... just the way you do with any other mother fucking service you have, your Cable TV, your Internet, etc.

But guess when you CANT switch to other company... when its a monopoly held by the state, now they are the ones who can actually cut your power and you can do shit about it.

Ex-PokerStars Team Pro OnlineLast edit: 30/12/2014 19:59

Baalim   Mexico. Dec 30 2014 20:00. Posts 34250


  On December 30 2014 17:33 Gnarly wrote:
Show nested quote +



>baal's face when





I would be free to ban all day long TLP is a privately owned company so again you misunderstand anarchy with communism.

Ex-PokerStars Team Pro OnlineLast edit: 30/12/2014 20:00

Baalim   Mexico. Dec 30 2014 20:11. Posts 34250


  On December 30 2014 18:52 Romm3l wrote:
national defence, laws and credible enforcement of human rights, property rights, social welfare, education, provision of public goods, regulation of pollution...

...yeah we're better off without any of that shit (lol)



facepalm... this isnt like discussing religion with religious people its even fucking worse.


National Defense... you mean armies? oh yeah right, what would the world do without armies? I mean, what would we do without the incessant slaughter of innocents through history, what would we do without atomic bombs, concentration camps, drones bombing the shit out of the middle east... We better have a fleet of 5,000 F-15 fighters jets paid with the public enemy... what happens if Genghis Khan tries to cross the border zomg! lol

credible enforcement of human rights? Do we live in the same world or something? because in the world I live in human rights are trampled by the hundreds of millions every single day

You dont need a state to have property rights

Welfare is an idiotic inefficient attempt to give back crumbs after the state send those people into poverty in the first place that doesn't exist in most countries.

Public education is garbage and far inferior to private education, I have gone to private schools since kindergarten to University all my life, there is no need for state education.

Pollution regulation yeah... newsflash the USA is the 2nd biggest pollutant in the world, so please tell me more about how the wonderful state protects environment.

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Romm3l   Germany. Dec 30 2014 20:34. Posts 285

I dont know if we live in the same world. I live in western europe and things are pretty damn good here. there aren't any russians or chinese invading. I can walk down the street without fear of being knived for my pocket change because there is a credible deterrent in place. People generally specialise and do their jobs because they expect they will be paid and able to spend their money in a stable system. people innovative and come up with quality of life enhancing things all the time because they have confidence the system will let them profit from their innovations through a patent system. productivity is high and im enjoying a standard of living superior to anyone in past human history.


Spitfiree   Bulgaria. Dec 30 2014 20:43. Posts 9634

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_%28book%29

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Revolution-Russell-Brand/dp/1780893051




Anarchy has nothing to do with what 99% of people think it is. It doesn't mean you should not respect people and go out on the street killing anyone on sight and riot and destroy stuff.

I'm glad people like RikD are starting to question things.

Romm3l please the way you are talking about things are a result of a system which was designed to serve us the human population, but instead is turned around and only serves a few hundred thousand ( at most ). You have absolutely no idea how brainwashed we are, you should read about Bernays and then you should read the things he's written. It ll take a bunch of time though cause the way he writes makes me feel like i'm a retard.

To be honest there is way too much on this to just put it up in a topic, and even the 2 books above are just a slim part of the things everyone should read. And if i try to put out the ideas out of them I would just look like a conspiracy theorist, mostly cause my english isn't good enough to transmit their messages


We have alternatives, the main problem is, and i think here is where Brand's major mistake is, that people fear big changes unless it absolutely necessary to do them i.e. WW2 Hitler's regime etc.etc.


And honestly, Baal is probably years ahead of reading materials and way of thinking compared to most of you on this topic ( me too probably ) his ideas are legit. You guys should really start educating yourself and stop listening to mainstream nonsense whose only purpose is to bring more propaganda to the masses more.




  On December 30 2014 19:34 Romm3l wrote:
I dont know if we live in the same world. I live in western europe and things are pretty damn good here. there aren't any russians or chinese invading. I can walk down the street without fear of being knived for my pocket change because there is a credible deterrent in place. People generally specialise and do their jobs because they expect they will be paid and able to spend their money in a stable system. people innovative and come up with quality of life enhancing things all the time because they have confidence the system will let them profit from their innovations through a patent system. productivity is high and im enjoying a standard of living superior to anyone in past human history.



good job bro, while you do that there are about 1 500 000 000 people that are living in absurd conditions and barely have things to eat, and another 2 000 000 000 that are close to the same path

but you are living in western europe and don't give a fuck so way to go

quality of your life will be as good as corporations want it to be, you re just another slave you just get to be on the brighter part of it

Why did the rich get a 30 trillion bailout @ 2008 but the common man got to get kicked out of his house and lose his job. Do you know that world hunger is estimated at 30 billion / year ( ofc that number will start to fall off with time of something is done about it ) thats absolutely nothing

Why does this kid have to go through all this trouble and struggle to get funding to do something good :




Why do people vote? Do you know that every USA president so far in history is the one that got the most funding ( most likely things will be the same in any "democratic " country ) ? They can just make it a fund raiser and highest one gets to be president.

And most of all why is LOBBYING still legal ? Answer to this last question with a morally legit answer and don't be bothered by it i dare you

 Last edit: 30/12/2014 20:54

Spitfiree   Bulgaria. Dec 30 2014 20:53. Posts 9634

And honestly how does this forum still cope with Gnarly ?

He is either the biggest retard to ever exist on earth or just a huge troll


Oh yeah by the way the main problem behind anarchy working as a system is that we, the people, must become better human beings therefore fuck that idea !

These are not conspiracy theories about illuminati and reptiles or 10 people that control the world, we are talking about a mass of corporations which have one single goal - Profit, when you put Profit into the center of your system and not stuff like, welllll lets seee : saving the planet, have all people get a chance to decent existence and overall having basic moral system then its bound to fail. Yes it probably wont fail within our lifetime ( at least i hope so) but when it does we will have been just as guilty

 Last edit: 30/12/2014 21:03

Baalim   Mexico. Dec 30 2014 21:01. Posts 34250


  On December 30 2014 19:34 Romm3l wrote:
I dont know if we live in the same world. I live in western europe and things are pretty damn good here. there aren't any russians or chinese invading. I can walk down the street without fear of being knived for my pocket change because there is a credible deterrent in place. People generally specialise and do their jobs because they expect they will be paid and able to spend their money in a stable system. people innovative and come up with quality of life enhancing things all the time because they have confidence the system will let them profit from their innovations through a patent system. productivity is high and im enjoying a standard of living superior to anyone in past human history.



First you have to understand that the level of civility in germany its held together by its society not by your government, the reason why you dont get stabed in the streets for your wallet is not because there is police and jails, every freaking country has jails an cops and crime is not related on how fast cops run... its based on its societys poverty and civility, create wealth and provide good education and crime is reduced drastically, the solution is that, not bigger police.

The patent system is an absolute hoax and actually if you study about it you will realize that it actually hampers innovation, if you want a recent example of ridiculous patent laws see Apple vs Samsung that was bullshit to a point where they both agreed to stop this ridiculous war, it wasnt helping mobile technology grow, on the contrary, also read what Elon Musk has to say about patents, and how is going to release ALL the patents for battery technologies, its because he is aware that it only would stop progress in electric car technologies.

The reason you enjoy a higher standard of living is because of societys growth and the government is not responsible for it, it didnt even helped one bit, on the contrary

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Gnarly   United States. Dec 30 2014 21:39. Posts 1723


  On December 30 2014 19:00 Baalim wrote:
Show nested quote +




I would be free to ban all day long TLP is a privately owned company so again you misunderstand anarchy with communism.



are you drunk or something? tlp? it's lp... nothing more, no .net like tl. get it right.

>privately owned company
>a website
>based in a capitalist nation
>confusing anarchy with communism

I just can't even.

Diversify or fossilize! 

Gnarly   United States. Dec 30 2014 21:41. Posts 1723


  On December 30 2014 19:53 Spitfiree wrote:
And honestly how does this forum still cope with Gnarly ?

He is either the biggest retard to ever exist on earth or just a huge troll


Oh yeah by the way the main problem behind anarchy working as a system is that we, the people, must become better human beings therefore fuck that idea !

These are not conspiracy theories about illuminati and reptiles or 10 people that control the world, we are talking about a mass of corporations which have one single goal - Profit, when you put Profit into the center of your system and not stuff like, welllll lets seee : saving the planet, have all people get a chance to decent existence and overall having basic moral system then its bound to fail. Yes it probably wont fail within our lifetime ( at least i hope so) but when it does we will have been just as guilty



Instead of resorting to name calling like a child, why don't you try to refute my arguments like an adult? Oh, wait...

Diversify or fossilize! 

fira   United States. Dec 30 2014 22:05. Posts 6345


  On December 30 2014 19:53 Spitfiree wrote:
These are not conspiracy theories about illuminati and reptiles or 10 people that control the world, we are talking about a mass of corporations which have one single goal - Profit, when you put Profit into the center of your system and not stuff like, welllll lets seee : saving the planet, have all people get a chance to decent existence and overall having basic moral system then its bound to fail. Yes it probably wont fail within our lifetime ( at least i hope so) but when it does we will have been just as guilty



what do corporations have to do with government? in an anarchic society, wouldn't corporations still exist? wouldnt they still be after profit?


Baalim   Mexico. Dec 30 2014 22:20. Posts 34250

Yes they would, but corporations are dictated by the laws of offer and demand, a corporations that offer a shitty product or bloats the price or pisses off its costumers will lose ground to the competition on a free market society.

The state is not subjected to those laws, they will collect any amount of taxes they want regardless of their performance.

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Jubert69   United States. Dec 30 2014 22:54. Posts 3191


  On December 30 2014 21:05 fira wrote:
Show nested quote +



what do corporations have to do with government? in an anarchic society, wouldn't corporations still exist? wouldnt they still be after profit?


More government involvement and regulations create big corporations and get them closer to monopolies.

US Example:
FDA is a PRIME example of government involvement causing corporations to get stronger. The FDA is designed for the intent to make working drugs enter the market and clear out all the non-working drugs. The result is driving the cost of drugs to non affordable prices without insurance.

Anyone who lives in the US knows costs of medication/prescription drugs is extremely high. That's because in order for a drug to enter a market, $$$$ must be spent in order to get drugs into the market.




Companies will still be profit driven. People will be profit driven. The difference is as Baal said "corporations that offer a shitty product or bloats the price or pisses off its costumers will lose ground to the competition on a free market societ"


mnj   United States. Dec 30 2014 23:44. Posts 3848

i'm pretty pro anarchy but think there is a need for minimal government. i think this is one of those issues not really worth discussing. there is a lot of content out there that some people will read with and agree with and some people who will never go out and read these books because these questions or thoughts never occurred.

anyway regardless the government is here to stay and will prob only get bigger.


Gnarly   United States. Dec 31 2014 04:07. Posts 1723


  On December 30 2014 21:20 Baalim wrote:
Yes they would, but corporations are dictated by the laws of offer and demand, a corporations that offer a shitty product or bloats the price or pisses off its costumers will lose ground to the competition on a free market society.

The state is not subjected to those laws, they will collect any amount of taxes they want regardless of their performance.



>corporations are in anarchistic societies

There you go, thinking your personal definition of anarchy is that without a public enforcer of government. Try using the original etymological use of the word, please.

Also, a "corporation" would be imposing it's own authority, publicly enforcing it's own shitty products, to try to stay alive. This can be done by slander campaigns or through more violent methods. Like, the amount of cognitive dissonance is to the extreme in your post.

Diversify or fossilize! 

Baalim   Mexico. Dec 31 2014 04:35. Posts 34250

as usual your stupidity is unbearable, why you are not banned is beyond me.

The etymological definition of anarchy when used in a general context it refers to the state/government, it can also be used in a specific scenarios to refer to a lack of authority figure. I mentioned its etymology to get rid of the wrong definition that associates with chaos which has nothing to do with anarchy as a political or social structure.

How can a company enforce its authority (authority of what kind and over whom?) and its shitty products? please elaborate on this ridiculous claim.

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Gnarly   United States. Dec 31 2014 04:41. Posts 1723

by monopolizing violence...

Diversify or fossilize! 

Baalim   Mexico. Dec 31 2014 04:43. Posts 34250


  On December 30 2014 22:44 mnj wrote:
i'm pretty pro anarchy but think there is a need for minimal government. i think this is one of those issues not really worth discussing. there is a lot of content out there that some people will read with and agree with and some people who will never go out and read these books because these questions or thoughts never occurred.

anyway regardless the government is here to stay and will prob only get bigger.



In USA the founding fathers were very emphatic in keeping the government as small as possible because the foresaw the potential problems of a big one, what they didnt predict is that no matter the size of your government it will always keep growing, more powerful and hungrier every year and their creation is the perfect proof of it, the smallest of governments turned into this Behemot with a vice grip on the entire world

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fira   United States. Dec 31 2014 04:59. Posts 6345

so essentially the government protects ppl from companies who are willing to use violence for profit. at the same time the government itself is kind of a 'company' willing to use 'violence' for profit if ppl are disobedient. not as bad as like, a total dictatorship though, since it needs to be not super evil or it'd get overthrown?

i guess the current government exists in order to keep something worse from taking over? like in an anarchic society, cant some evil geniuses come together, secure a massive amount of power (money, land, whatever) and start doing really bad things and no one would be able to stop them because they have too much power? in a sense, they'd become the new government?


dnagardi   Hungary. Dec 31 2014 05:39. Posts 1776

i think anarchy is not achievable

lets say u set anarchy into the world. Eventually ppl will form groups for securing themselves, these small groups will join together, then those aswell etc etc growing and in the end u will have that we now call authority. Simply because ppl need someone to look after them and make them feel safe. Be it god, government, parents etc. U cannot overwrite the human mindset.


traxamillion   United States. Dec 31 2014 06:50. Posts 10468

fda is not a good thing wake up people. they regulate the drug markets driving up costs and like baal said overegulate to the point of costing lives (aids and AZT) for $. FDA doesn't stop bs from hitting the market they might just not give it the approval stamp. The food we eat in this country is all garbage unhealthy GMO crud in spite of, or because of, the FDA. maybe in a free unsubsidized, unlobbied, unregulated food industry we would have more good, competitive, healthy, local food.

i think Baal is right in most everything he says

gnarly stop trolling; noone is talking about natural law, we are discussing contemporary government organizations as assembled by man.


traxamillion   United States. Dec 31 2014 06:55. Posts 10468

'
Well there you fucking go, so stop pretending the government solves those things, because its extremely inefficient and unjust when it comes to crime.'

-baal


Amen


Spitfiree   Bulgaria. Dec 31 2014 07:01. Posts 9634


  On December 30 2014 22:44 mnj wrote:
i'm pretty pro anarchy but think there is a need for minimal government. i think this is one of those issues not really worth discussing. there is a lot of content out there that some people will read with and agree with and some people who will never go out and read these books because these questions or thoughts never occurred.

anyway regardless the government is here to stay and will prob only get bigger.



I absolutely agree, however a government should be super decentralized and should actually represent people, unlike nowadays. I m not quite sure how to build such a system though so can't say more than that on this, cause even in countries like Switzerland where people vote online on many different topics @ referendums still show biased results

However this should be the main issue everyone discusses. We re all getting dust splashed in our eyes because a few people managed to get monopoly on most important sectors ( don't get me wrong even in sectors with good competition different corporations would still have the same goals and would just have a diverse monopoly ).

I'd say there isn't much worse that could take over, we have the planet getting chopped, we have a bunch of countries that starve to death, we have a bunch of countries that were destroyed due to wars so countries like the USA/ Russia can profit off them and we have people getting brainwashed by their TVs to believe that such actions are actually quite benefiting for them.... There was some american president that said that every generation should have a revolution ( too lazy to google him) and he was quite right imo, since a revolution would be a " reset " button in a way for the system


Gnarly I cant argue with the likes of you because you are narcissistic, you would dismiss any of my arguments mainly because you are uneducated and egocentric, that would be a time waste for me, i've tried presenting very legitimate arguments on many different topics, trying to explain very basic stuff to you and the result was always the same. Only an idiot would repeat the same mistake so many times.

P.S.
I forgot the most important name "Noam Chomsky" get your hands on anything this guys has published, said on tv or w/e. He s a genius

 Last edit: 31/12/2014 07:06

traxamillion   United States. Dec 31 2014 07:13. Posts 10468


  On December 31 2014 03:07 Gnarly wrote:
Show nested quote +



>corporations are in anarchistic societies

There you go, thinking your personal definition of anarchy is that without a public enforcer of government. Try using the original etymological use of the word, please.

Also, a "corporation" would be imposing it's own authority, publicly enforcing it's own shitty products, to try to stay alive. This can be done by slander campaigns or through more violent methods. Like, the amount of cognitive dissonance is to the extreme in your post.


Lol how can a company "enforce" products? A company offers products. A customer than has the option of whether or not to buy.

Am i talking to a 3 year old?


Gnarly   United States. Dec 31 2014 08:48. Posts 1723

In a state of "anarchy" the company would have the option to violently impose its own authority over the consumer. It can be a farm in a community and that farm is run by a family and that family decides, "Fuck it, we're going to be the ONLY farm around here, so let's go fuck shit up for the other guys." Eventually, they own the entire market and their market happens to be food. They won't let anyone grow their own food. The only way to get it is through them. Otherwise, starve to death or die through violent means.

The US govt already wants to say that growing your own food is more dangerous than good along the lines of you don't know what the fuck you are doing and you could sell your faulty product to someone and they could get hurt. This is why selling lemonade in your own yard is illegal unless you have proper licensing and whatnot.

Diversify or fossilize! 

brambolius   Netherlands. Dec 31 2014 11:31. Posts 1708

How's about we already live in an anarchic world, with people who have the means to tell other people what to do, do so.



Heat......EXTEND 

chris   United States. Dec 31 2014 11:46. Posts 5503

baal all you have done is insult me, but havent offered any counter points, whatsoever, and you didnt send me links, and i know a little bit about how the roads were built in NJ, at least.

also, do you mind minding your manners please? i thought this was a discussion, not for you to hurl insults.

anarchy is by definition a chaotic environment. if you mean an absence of government, please explain, with examples, how society would continue to function in a well adjusted manner without any form of government.

also, when i made the point about vigilante justice, you say i am stupid and then go on to make a point to counter me, USING MY EXACT SAME POINT!

I not wish to insult you, but you seem incapable of communicating anything without insulting me. i think this is perhaps why a good chunk of the community does not like you (i am not among them).

i think it is great we can discuss philosophical ideas about not having a government and the merits of one existing or not existing, but jesus, show your intelligence instead of hurling faeces.

lastly, i will ask again - can you provide A SINGLE EXAMPLE of people functioning well in a society with out any form of government?

If you and I were alone, no government, etc, you would, as you have here, try to have me adhere to your views. The stronger of the two of us would impose his beliefs on the other, and voila, we have a power based structure, winner became the chief. even with animals this is true (and i can point out examples - mating among lions, bucks locking horns for mating rights, etc. and large cats protecting and marking their territory over others, on and on).

5 minute showers are my 8 minute abs. - Neilly 

chris   United States. Dec 31 2014 11:48. Posts 5503


  On December 31 2014 05:55 traxamillion wrote:
'
Well there you fucking go, so stop pretending the government solves those things, because its extremely inefficient and unjust when it comes to crime.'

-baal


Amen




dude i didnt say it was perfect. but i will say this....trax, you were going to help my friend overdose on heroin and take his money. everything you write, i have to read with a grain of salt.

i did not pretend the government "solved" these things, it can be inefficient and unjust, but it is currently better than nothing. we do not live in a utopia.

5 minute showers are my 8 minute abs. - Neilly 

chris   United States. Dec 31 2014 11:53. Posts 5503

again, with anarchy, there is no authority to uphold any type of law. there is no money, we are on a barter system. there is little to no tech development, because there is no incentive - no money or reward, anything can be stolen.

no one has to do shit.

if you say "oh, anarchy is just the absence of government, everything else stays the same" i would love some example or reasoning outside of "haha you are stupid because you do not agree with me! i have a huge internet penis!"

I would love to read something that could sway my opinion.

and to follow up - just because i, personally, have not had 'justice' through the court system, and some innocents have been punished, or there have been unfair sentences, it does not mean that many others haven't had justice served or harmful criminals locked up. i think you should look at the larger picture....


also, if i may ask, why not libertarian vs anarchy? kind of a neat thread so far, if you can remove some trolling and insults

5 minute showers are my 8 minute abs. - Neilly 

chris   United States. Dec 31 2014 11:53. Posts 5503


  On December 31 2014 10:31 brambolius wrote:
How's about we already live in an anarchic world, with people who have the means to tell other people what to do, do so.







pretty cool idea

5 minute showers are my 8 minute abs. - Neilly 

Spitfiree   Bulgaria. Dec 31 2014 12:18. Posts 9634


  On December 31 2014 10:53 chris wrote:
again, with anarchy, there is no authority to uphold any type of law. there is no money, we are on a barter system. there is little to no tech development, because there is no incentive - no money or reward, anything can be stolen.

no one has to do shit.



Read Brand's book he himself is an anarchist and so are the occupy movement leaders he talked to. They present the idea of anarchy in a way which could actually work even in current society. Anarchy does not necessarily mean lawless system where. He also presents the socialism in a workable way ( nothing to do with Russia's socialism, and socialism isn't really a terrible word as we are all taught ). I would explain it myself, but honestly i'm far from capable to do so in English.

There are so many absurd stuff happening even in the most developed countries. Why is anything connected to medical attention so expensive in the USA, we re not talking like 10-20% more expensive than Europe for example, we re talking 10x times ? Why are pharmaceutical companies allowed to pay doctors to use their meds?

I just remember how probably the most used powder for cold ( at least in Europe ) - Fervex got pulled out of the market 2 years ago because of insane violations of regulations ( found toxic bacteria in a batch, however they didnt renew the production seems fishy doesnt it ? ) after like what.. 10 years of existance? They sold it to people for at least a decade and people including myself possibly poisoned ourselves. Why isn't something as basic as weed legalized worldwide although it shows significant help in curing cancer ?

Why are automobile companies allowed to sell large batches of vehicles that have defects and they end up getting pulled out of the market after like 10 deaths through a large portion of time, do they really not have the technology to do better? Why do they sell vehicles that are made in a way that they should be repaired after xxxx kms ( don't get me wrong i don't expect 1 car to be able to go through 1mil kms without repairs, but you know what im talking about anyway ) ?

How is it that people like Khadaffi/Hussein are governing countries while the oiil companies have use of him, but the moment they go against them they get destroyed in the blink of an eye ? Were they not the same monsters before that ? Why is the USA allowed to have tens of thousands of drones above the air territory in the Mid East and just bomb any possible target not minding the innocent casulties "cause its the battle against terror" ?

Oh and I'd say most importantly all classified documents should be published. We are taught to believe that those documents are only classified because the masses wouldn't be able to accept the things that are hidden, that its for "our own good", while this might be true its absolutely retarded. Plus most of those documents are only hiding the things that the certain organization has done and are covering their own asses. Fuck them, we should be able to figure out things on ourselves, we dont need a fucking babysitter to decide for us.

Things like those are just on the top of my head of the absurdity and they are all absolutely unacceptable.
I'm not saying we should expect anything to just change by itself while we are shaking our feet on our comfortable chairs. Plus in order for anything to change we must first change ourselves from within otherwise its all predestined to fail before it has even begun. But we must start asking those questions

 Last edit: 31/12/2014 12:23

Spitfiree   Bulgaria. Dec 31 2014 12:33. Posts 9634

Btw doesn't it sound absurd to you guys that you think the government is the only body of authority that stops people from going out and looting rioting etc.? Really, Ferguson anyone ? How exactly could they stop that if the masses decide to do so ? Drop bombs on them ? Gas them to death ? What exactly ?

The thing is its not in our nature to be violent, we are only provoked to be so. I've heard ( well Bill Gates recommended it ) that this book explains pretty well on that topic http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/1491518243

I still think that we are far from developed as a society to be living governmentless, but there should be a change in current system anyway since we re not progressing in that direction either

 Last edit: 31/12/2014 12:35

RiKD    United States. Dec 31 2014 12:37. Posts 8552


  On December 31 2014 07:48 Gnarly wrote:
In a state of &quot;anarchy&quot; the company would have the option to violently impose its own authority over the consumer. It can be a farm in a community and that farm is run by a family and that family decides, &quot;Fuck it, we're going to be the ONLY farm around here, so let's go fuck shit up for the other guys.&quot; Eventually, they own the entire market and their market happens to be food. They won't let anyone grow their own food. The only way to get it is through them. Otherwise, starve to death or die through violent means.

The US govt already wants to say that growing your own food is more dangerous than good along the lines of you don't know what the fuck you are doing and you could sell your faulty product to someone and they could get hurt. This is why selling lemonade in your own yard is illegal unless you have proper licensing and whatnot.



You are describing the current systems not anarchy.

The difference is the large farms are protected by the government and corporate interests. Unethically farmed mutant animals, high fructose corn shit, soyshit are protected by government subsidies and corporate lawyers and lobbyists. It is extremely difficult to carve out a living farming ethically. Ethical farmers are not subsidized and constantly being attacked by corporate lawsuits and shenanigans. The big farm shit ends up in the big box grocer. 90% of the food in there is all the same: subsidized corn shit, soy shit, mutant animal shit that is killing people and the environment for profit.

So, how to protect against this in future systems?

Stream of consciousness, off the top of my head thoughts:

#1 - Education based in truth on the current system.

My vision of how it would work is unfortunately based in truthful education, press. Farming on a more local, community level. Farm what makes the most sense based on culture, sustainability, climate, etc etc etc. Anti-shipping of mutant food thousands and thousands of miles. Smart, intelligent 1% charitable subsidies to the farming that makes sense. France and Italy are lucky in climate but they are also ahead of the curve in this regard. In France, baguettes, cheese, wine, mustard, all the foods that have been cherished in their culture for thousands of years are subsidized. People educated to make informed, intelligent, ethical choices when shopping for food. Not constantly being bombarded and seduced by junk food that is subsidized and produced to grab as much money out of the pocket before illness and death with no regard for the only planet in the universe we can currently inhabit.

This is the difficult caveat of anarchy: It requires ethical, moral, and spiritual growth within the individual and the community. Maybe it is coming off a bit hippie dippie but attempting to bring awareness and discussion on a lot of these issues out of love and a willingness to help is something I have found more meaningful than a lot of other occupations.


Romm3l   Germany. Dec 31 2014 12:50. Posts 285


  On December 30 2014 19:43 Spitfiree wrote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_%28book%29

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Revolution-Russell-Brand/dp/1780893051




Anarchy has nothing to do with what 99% of people think it is. It doesn't mean you should not respect people and go out on the street killing anyone on sight and riot and destroy stuff.

I'm glad people like RikD are starting to question things.

Romm3l please the way you are talking about things are a result of a system which was designed to serve us the human population, but instead is turned around and only serves a few hundred thousand ( at most ). You have absolutely no idea how brainwashed we are, you should read about Bernays and then you should read the things he's written. It ll take a bunch of time though cause the way he writes makes me feel like i'm a retard.

To be honest there is way too much on this to just put it up in a topic, and even the 2 books above are just a slim part of the things everyone should read. And if i try to put out the ideas out of them I would just look like a conspiracy theorist, mostly cause my english isn't good enough to transmit their messages


We have alternatives, the main problem is, and i think here is where Brand's major mistake is, that people fear big changes unless it absolutely necessary to do them i.e. WW2 Hitler's regime etc.etc.


And honestly, Baal is probably years ahead of reading materials and way of thinking compared to most of you on this topic ( me too probably ) his ideas are legit. You guys should really start educating yourself and stop listening to mainstream nonsense whose only purpose is to bring more propaganda to the masses more.



Show nested quote +



good job bro, while you do that there are about 1 500 000 000 people that are living in absurd conditions and barely have things to eat, and another 2 000 000 000 that are close to the same path

but you are living in western europe and don't give a fuck so way to go

quality of your life will be as good as corporations want it to be, you re just another slave you just get to be on the brighter part of it

Why did the rich get a 30 trillion bailout @ 2008 but the common man got to get kicked out of his house and lose his job. Do you know that world hunger is estimated at 30 billion / year ( ofc that number will start to fall off with time of something is done about it ) thats absolutely nothing

Why does this kid have to go through all this trouble and struggle to get funding to do something good :




Why do people vote? Do you know that every USA president so far in history is the one that got the most funding ( most likely things will be the same in any "democratic " country ) ? They can just make it a fund raiser and highest one gets to be president.

And most of all why is LOBBYING still legal ? Answer to this last question with a morally legit answer and don't be bothered by it i dare you

if you want to participate in large-scale coordination of activity within a large society then there has to be a well-designed, credible and enforceable system of rules in place for it to be sustainable. if you want to call playing by the rules being a slave then go ahead, but in that case to live in a 'free' society is to build your own shelter and hunt/scavenge/barter for stuff you need because larger communities aren't sustainable without a credible and stable system of rules in place. unfortunately for those billions they don't live in places that have had stable institutions with well-designed rules in place over a long period. the proof is out there: look at the correlation between countries with strong legal institutions stable over time and some level of defence spending, and their prosperity. strong correlation.

i dont see how bank bailouts, corrupt politicians, illusion of democracy, and propensity of people to be fooled by PR invalidates any of this common sense. no govt is perfect because perfection is impossible. we only need govt to be good enough to enforce stable, reasonably designed rules which people have confidence will be enforced, so peoples' behaviour can be changed/naturally selected over time in such a way that the magic happens: extreme specialisation of labour, efficient trade and finance, incentives for innovation, welfare safety net, etc etc. bam, everyone's better off.


RiKD    United States. Dec 31 2014 13:02. Posts 8552


  On December 30 2014 19:34 Romm3l wrote:
I dont know if we live in the same world. I live in western europe and things are pretty damn good here. there aren't any russians or chinese invading. I can walk down the street without fear of being knived for my pocket change because there is a credible deterrent in place. People generally specialise and do their jobs because they expect they will be paid and able to spend their money in a stable system. people innovative and come up with quality of life enhancing things all the time because they have confidence the system will let them profit from their innovations through a patent system. productivity is high and im enjoying a standard of living superior to anyone in past human history.



"Domesticated paradise, palm trees and pools
The water's blue, swallow the pill
Keepin' it surreal, whatever you like
Whatever feels good, whatever takes you mountain high
Keepin' it surreal, not sugar-free
My TV ain't HD, that's too real
Grapevine, mango, peaches, and limes, the sweet life

So why see the world, when you got the beach
Don't know why see the world, when you got the beach
The sweet life"

It is easy to make that post as someone in the 1% that pays minimum taxes on gambling winnings.

I am not entirely sure what to say. My motive in making this thread was not to be a confrontational asshole but rather to raise some awareness and thought and discussion. You obviously are not the problem. If I am speaking honestly I would urge anyone to get involved in communities and charities they believe in but the most important community is the family structure and neighbors. I find absolutely nothing wrong in someone living a simple life working towards a happy family. From my experiences, that is actually the life that makes the most sense ethically, morally, and spiritually and is the most sustainably rewarding.

For me though, I go through spurts when I just want to yell at the universe about local ethical farming, crypto currencies, government corruption, corporate corruption, et al. The nice thing about LP is I do not really have to censor myself in an open discussion format and there are a handful of other people that share my feelings and values and want similar things. We all kind of want similar things at the end of the day anyway. Cheers. Happy New Year.


Gnarly   United States. Dec 31 2014 15:42. Posts 1723


  On December 31 2014 11:18 Spitfiree wrote:
Show nested quote +



Read Brand's book he himself is an anarchist and so are the occupy movement leaders he talked to. They present the idea of anarchy in a way which could actually work even in current society. Anarchy does not necessarily mean lawless system where. He also presents the socialism in a workable way ( nothing to do with Russia's socialism, and socialism isn't really a terrible word as we are all taught ). I would explain it myself, but honestly i'm far from capable to do so in English.

There are so many absurd stuff happening even in the most developed countries. Why is anything connected to medical attention so expensive in the USA, we re not talking like 10-20% more expensive than Europe for example, we re talking 10x times ? Why are pharmaceutical companies allowed to pay doctors to use their meds?

I just remember how probably the most used powder for cold ( at least in Europe ) - Fervex got pulled out of the market 2 years ago because of insane violations of regulations ( found toxic bacteria in a batch, however they didnt renew the production seems fishy doesnt it ? ) after like what.. 10 years of existance? They sold it to people for at least a decade and people including myself possibly poisoned ourselves. Why isn't something as basic as weed legalized worldwide although it shows significant help in curing cancer ?

Why are automobile companies allowed to sell large batches of vehicles that have defects and they end up getting pulled out of the market after like 10 deaths through a large portion of time, do they really not have the technology to do better? Why do they sell vehicles that are made in a way that they should be repaired after xxxx kms ( don't get me wrong i don't expect 1 car to be able to go through 1mil kms without repairs, but you know what im talking about anyway ) ?

How is it that people like Khadaffi/Hussein are governing countries while the oiil companies have use of him, but the moment they go against them they get destroyed in the blink of an eye ? Were they not the same monsters before that ? Why is the USA allowed to have tens of thousands of drones above the air territory in the Mid East and just bomb any possible target not minding the innocent casulties "cause its the battle against terror" ?

Oh and I'd say most importantly all classified documents should be published. We are taught to believe that those documents are only classified because the masses wouldn't be able to accept the things that are hidden, that its for "our own good", while this might be true its absolutely retarded. Plus most of those documents are only hiding the things that the certain organization has done and are covering their own asses. Fuck them, we should be able to figure out things on ourselves, we dont need a fucking babysitter to decide for us.

Things like those are just on the top of my head of the absurdity and they are all absolutely unacceptable.
I'm not saying we should expect anything to just change by itself while we are shaking our feet on our comfortable chairs. Plus in order for anything to change we must first change ourselves from within otherwise its all predestined to fail before it has even begun. But we must start asking those questions




>occupy movement

Nope.gif. They would give the law to the most oppressed people, then those who are more privileged would be held to a higher standard of laws. This is taken from the way they had their discussions in which the most oppressed people were allowed to speak first, and the more privilege you had, the less likely you were even able to voice an opinion.

Diversify or fossilize! 

Gnarly   United States. Dec 31 2014 15:42. Posts 1723


  On December 31 2014 11:33 Spitfiree wrote:
Btw doesn't it sound absurd to you guys that you think the government is the only body of authority that stops people from going out and looting rioting etc.? Really, Ferguson anyone ? How exactly could they stop that if the masses decide to do so ? Drop bombs on them ? Gas them to death ? What exactly ?

The thing is its not in our nature to be violent, we are only provoked to be so. I've heard ( well Bill Gates recommended it ) that this book explains pretty well on that topic http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/1491518243

I still think that we are far from developed as a society to be living governmentless, but there should be a change in current system anyway since we re not progressing in that direction either



>it's not in our nature to be violent

That's why we are the most violent species in the world, right?

Diversify or fossilize! 

Gnarly   United States. Dec 31 2014 15:54. Posts 1723


  On December 31 2014 11:37 RiKD wrote:
Show nested quote +



You are describing the current systems not anarchy.

The difference is the large farms are protected by the government and corporate interests. Unethically farmed mutant animals, high fructose corn shit, soyshit are protected by government subsidies and corporate lawyers and lobbyists. It is extremely difficult to carve out a living farming ethically. Ethical farmers are not subsidized and constantly being attacked by corporate lawsuits and shenanigans. The big farm shit ends up in the big box grocer. 90% of the food in there is all the same: subsidized corn shit, soy shit, mutant animal shit that is killing people and the environment for profit.

So, how to protect against this in future systems?

Stream of consciousness, off the top of my head thoughts:

#1 - Education based in truth on the current system.

My vision of how it would work is unfortunately based in truthful education, press. Farming on a more local, community level. Farm what makes the most sense based on culture, sustainability, climate, etc etc etc. Anti-shipping of mutant food thousands and thousands of miles. Smart, intelligent 1% charitable subsidies to the farming that makes sense. France and Italy are lucky in climate but they are also ahead of the curve in this regard. In France, baguettes, cheese, wine, mustard, all the foods that have been cherished in their culture for thousands of years are subsidized. People educated to make informed, intelligent, ethical choices when shopping for food. Not constantly being bombarded and seduced by junk food that is subsidized and produced to grab as much money out of the pocket before illness and death with no regard for the only planet in the universe we can currently inhabit.

This is the difficult caveat of anarchy: It requires ethical, moral, and spiritual growth within the individual and the community. Maybe it is coming off a bit hippie dippie but attempting to bring awareness and discussion on a lot of these issues out of love and a willingness to help is something I have found more meaningful than a lot of other occupations.


Farms weren't always protected. There was a very, very, very long time in which they weren't. You say unethically farmed animals, I say give me proof of that as an standard average in the industry that isn't some propaganda by the very industry itself. Where I live, there are plenty of farms that do things "ethically". They raise their animals and tend to their crops like most humans have done so in history. >killing the enviroment I supposed you think that wind power is a viable option? Too bad, cause you need to do your research. If we were really out to destroy the environment for profits, we wouldn't be doing things like they do in the logging industry where they protect the environment to protect their profits. They only log certain areas in strips at a time allowing these strips to grow after they have cut down the trees.

Your vision, or what authority you wish to impose on others, if asinine because honesty isn't always the best policy. The public doesn't have the ability to govern itself because they believe in stupid shit without actually having done any research or lived any first-hand experiences. This is why America is a republic, where we elect people who are knowledgeable in certain areas.

Out of all the restaurants I've worked at and all the people that I know that own and operate their own places are able to buy food locally very easily. I mean, cmon, the food HAS to be bought locally otherwise it wouldn't be fresh. Chipotle will go and personally visit the "smaller" farms and personally inspect the livestock and how the animals are treated and whatnot. I've seen it first hand.

>farm
>sustainability

We could double the world's population and still have easily enough space on this planet to farm for even more.

You need to look up what the etymology of the word anarchy is, instead of using your own personal definition. Communities can't exist without a chief. Each individual has a self-government over themselves. The idea that anarchy is actually attainable is a farce, as we will always seek to replace order once it's gone. And again, you would still like to impose your own authority over others.

Diversify or fossilize! 

sniderstyle   United States. Dec 31 2014 16:50. Posts 2046

I think people desire anarchy or voluntarism because it's a reaction to the failures of the status quo. If the status quo were more in line with the nature of human passions and desires, there would be no need for that.

It's when you see it can be done faster, simpler, better, while being in the moral and ethical high ground yet you're forced into a worse system.

If the system was fixed, we could do greater things as a group than the individual could do in its own. The only way to fix it is to at first start over. Then create better rules with the mindfulness of what went wrong. Corruption and money in politics. And allow individuals to innovate. If the system gets in the way of innovation then it is not a good system.

It is important to Give people like Elon Musk and all the greater Internet innovators room to do what they do.

Genginho: lose today 100 dollar only because of fishs they called and had luck on river 

Baalim   Mexico. Dec 31 2014 18:33. Posts 34250


  On December 31 2014 03:59 fira wrote:
so essentially the government protects ppl from companies who are willing to use violence for profit. at the same time the government itself is kind of a 'company' willing to use 'violence' for profit if ppl are disobedient. not as bad as like, a total dictatorship though, since it needs to be not super evil or it'd get overthrown?

i guess the current government exists in order to keep something worse from taking over? like in an anarchic society, cant some evil geniuses come together, secure a massive amount of power (money, land, whatever) and start doing really bad things and no one would be able to stop them because they have too much power? in a sense, they'd become the new government?



A total dictatorship IS a form of government, dont equate government to a democratic 1st world country state, because that is the less vicious form through out history, but only because it has adapted to more civilized times dont think that its not the root of most of worlds problems.

So the government prevents evil geniues from taking power and do terrible things right?


+ Show Spoiler +




No my friend, the government does exactly the opposite, the state only puts evil people hungry of power in positions of undeserved enormous power

Ex-PokerStars Team Pro Online 

Baalim   Mexico. Dec 31 2014 18:55. Posts 34250


  On December 31 2014 10:46 chris wrote:
baal all you have done is insult me, but havent offered any counter points, whatsoever, and you didnt send me links, and i know a little bit about how the roads were built in NJ, at least.

also, do you mind minding your manners please? i thought this was a discussion, not for you to hurl insults.

anarchy is by definition a chaotic environment. if you mean an absence of government, please explain, with examples, how society would continue to function in a well adjusted manner without any form of government.

also, when i made the point about vigilante justice, you say i am stupid and then go on to make a point to counter me, USING MY EXACT SAME POINT!

I not wish to insult you, but you seem incapable of communicating anything without insulting me. i think this is perhaps why a good chunk of the community does not like you (i am not among them).

i think it is great we can discuss philosophical ideas about not having a government and the merits of one existing or not existing, but jesus, show your intelligence instead of hurling faeces.

lastly, i will ask again - can you provide A SINGLE EXAMPLE of people functioning well in a society with out any form of government?

If you and I were alone, no government, etc, you would, as you have here, try to have me adhere to your views. The stronger of the two of us would impose his beliefs on the other, and voila, we have a power based structure, winner became the chief. even with animals this is true (and i can point out examples - mating among lions, bucks locking horns for mating rights, etc. and large cats protecting and marking their territory over others, on and on).




Sorry if I insulted you, its a habit hard to get rid of, for that I apologize.

could you try to focus on one or two points or questions in your post because otherwise its really hard to reply without a wall of text.

An example of a working anarchic society? Yes I can show many examples but on very small scale, many people did it in the 60s living outside of the system but usually this ideology is very threatening to the state so they are swift in crushing it.

There are some places like Christiana in Norway, its an anarchic society with no form of government, since it has no drug laws it a haven for all the drug trade so its not the best of examples, but as a anarchy it works fine the problem its the situation on drugs.

The best example of anarchy if actually Somalia, a few years ago Somalias government was overthrown with nobody to take over and they lived in a chaotic and anarchic state, and to the surprise of everyone the country fluorished in almost every single area, and it has the biggest economy growth any african country has seen in history.

And this is the worst for anarchy, sudden and violent and the country went into chaos after the organization collapsed, but after a while people started to build energy plants, ports and everything privately:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Somalia_(1991%E2%80%932006)

Read that article and see how in most cases the governments and regulations were actually a hindrance to progress.


I dont like linking to books since its kind of condesendent but this book explain the practical questions of Anarchy like how would roads get built, who would handle police and courtrooms etc: http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/practicalanarchy.pdf

Ex-PokerStars Team Pro OnlineLast edit: 31/12/2014 18:57

Baalim   Mexico. Dec 31 2014 19:00. Posts 34250

Ex-PokerStars Team Pro OnlineLast edit: 31/12/2014 19:00

Baalim   Mexico. Dec 31 2014 19:05. Posts 34250


  On December 31 2014 10:53 chris wrote:
again, with anarchy, there is no authority to uphold any type of law. there is no money, we are on a barter system. there is little to no tech development, because there is no incentive - no money or reward, anything can be stolen.

no one has to do shit.

if you say "oh, anarchy is just the absence of government, everything else stays the same" i would love some example or reasoning outside of "haha you are stupid because you do not agree with me! i have a huge internet penis!"

I would love to read something that could sway my opinion.

and to follow up - just because i, personally, have not had 'justice' through the court system, and some innocents have been punished, or there have been unfair sentences, it does not mean that many others haven't had justice served or harmful criminals locked up. i think you should look at the larger picture....


also, if i may ask, why not libertarian vs anarchy? kind of a neat thread so far, if you can remove some trolling and insults



Money has absolutely nothing to do with government, for example... what government has to do with Bitcoin?

In fact governments are terrible for money since they control its supply through central banks they can do whatever they want... print some bills, give it to your corrupt buddies, devaluating everybody elses money, just like it happened in the USA with the bailouts and that is one tiny example of thousands of times government abuse this power to control the money supply.

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Baalim   Mexico. Dec 31 2014 19:14. Posts 34250


  On December 31 2014 11:50 Romm3l wrote:
but in that case to live in a 'free' society is to build your own shelter and hunt/scavenge/barter for stuff you need because larger communities aren't sustainable without a credible and stable system of rules in place. unfortunately for those billions they don't live in places that have had stable institutions with well-designed rules in place over a long period. the proof is out there: look at the correlation between countries with strong legal institutions stable over time and some level of defence spending, and their prosperity. strong correlation.



Why do you insist relating anarchy with huts and scavenging, how would anarchy destroy our technology and infrastructure?.

There is a strong correlation between defense spending and prosperity? Here is a list of the biggest defense spenders per %GDP

1 Oman 11.4
2 Qatar 10
3 Saudi Arabia 10
4 Iraq 8.6
5 Jordan 8.6
6 Israel 7.3
7 Yemen 6.6
8 Eritrea 6.3
9 Macedonia 6
10 Syria 5.9

So much prosperity

http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?v=132

Ex-PokerStars Team Pro OnlineLast edit: 31/12/2014 19:15

dogmeat   Czech Republic. Dec 31 2014 19:35. Posts 6374

hurrrr but who would build the roads? derp.

ban baal 

Spitfiree   Bulgaria. Dec 31 2014 20:30. Posts 9634


  On December 31 2014 11:50 Romm3l wrote:

if you want to participate in large-scale coordination of activity within a large society then there has to be a well-designed, credible and enforceable system of rules in place for it to be sustainable. if you want to call playing by the rules being a slave then go ahead, but in that case to live in a 'free' society is to build your own shelter and hunt/scavenge/barter for stuff you need because larger communities aren't sustainable without a credible and stable system of rules in place. unfortunately for those billions they don't live in places that have had stable institutions with well-designed rules in place over a long period. the proof is out there: look at the correlation between countries with strong legal institutions stable over time and some level of defence spending, and their prosperity. strong correlation.

i dont see how bank bailouts, corrupt politicians, illusion of democracy, and propensity of people to be fooled by PR invalidates any of this common sense. no govt is perfect because perfection is impossible. we only need govt to be good enough to enforce stable, reasonably designed rules which people have confidence will be enforced, so peoples' behaviour can be changed/naturally selected over time in such a way that the magic happens: extreme specialisation of labour, efficient trade and finance, incentives for innovation, welfare safety net, etc etc. bam, everyone's better off.



Once again please start reading about this by people that have spent a good amount of their lives researching this topic, then you ll see how all those things are connected and how it has nothing to do with hunt/scavenge. Don't expect me a 23yo that has read a few thousand pages about it to shift your perception

Edward Bernays, Russel Brand, Noam Chomsky, David Gruber you can start off with them

or at least think about the things Baal has written, he might be capable to do so

 Last edit: 31/12/2014 20:33

Gnarly   United States. Jan 01 2015 02:04. Posts 1723


  On December 31 2014 17:33 Baalim wrote:
Show nested quote +



A total dictatorship IS a form of government, dont equate government to a democratic 1st world country state, because that is the less vicious form through out history, but only because it has adapted to more civilized times dont think that its not the root of most of worlds problems.

So the government prevents evil geniues from taking power and do terrible things right?


+ Show Spoiler +




No my friend, the government does exactly the opposite, the state only puts evil people hungry of power in positions of undeserved enormous power




The jews declared "war" on Germany in the 30s, baal. You really, really, desperately need to do your own research. Germany was raped by ww1, they were being forced to pay out money that was killing their own people every single day. You don't think there would be a national hero to rise up during their dark times? Hitler was a reaction to what germany was facing.

Diversify or fossilize! 

Gnarly   United States. Jan 01 2015 02:10. Posts 1723


  On December 31 2014 18:14 Baalim wrote:
Show nested quote +



Why do you insist relating anarchy with huts and scavenging, how would anarchy destroy our technology and infrastructure?.

There is a strong correlation between defense spending and prosperity? Here is a list of the biggest defense spenders per %GDP

1 Oman 11.4
2 Qatar 10
3 Saudi Arabia 10
4 Iraq 8.6
5 Jordan 8.6
6 Israel 7.3
7 Yemen 6.6
8 Eritrea 6.3
9 Macedonia 6
10 Syria 5.9

So much prosperity

http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?v=132


>how would anarchy destroy our tech and infrastructure

Well, first off, no one would be paid to maintain things like bridges or tunnels or pipelines or internet infrastructure. Buildings would dilapidate and eventually start collapsing.

The question I ask you is: how would our tech and infrastructure NOT be destroyed by anarchy?

Diversify or fossilize! 

Gnarly   United States. Jan 01 2015 02:12. Posts 1723


  On December 31 2014 19:30 Spitfiree wrote:
Show nested quote +



Once again please start reading about this by people that have spent a good amount of their lives researching this topic, then you ll see how all those things are connected and how it has nothing to do with hunt/scavenge. Don't expect me a 23yo that has read a few thousand pages about it to shift your perception

Edward Bernays, Russel Brand, Noam Chomsky, David Gruber you can start off with them

or at least think about the things Baal has written, he might be capable to do so


what kind of response is this? "oh, well, you need to read these specific personally authoritative figures cause you don't have the right mindset as baal." Try to actually reason shit out yourself and quit resorting to appeals to authority.

Diversify or fossilize! 

Spitfiree   Bulgaria. Jan 01 2015 07:13. Posts 9634

Gnarly don't bother replying to my posts, as i've already said i wont reason with narcissistic dumbasses that live in their dream world. Its no wonder you would put such reply too, you d rather have something that takes thousand of pages to explain to be shortened to a forum post, at least you amuse me with your stupidity


Romm3l   Germany. Jan 01 2015 08:23. Posts 285


  On December 31 2014 18:14 Baalim wrote:
Show nested quote +



Why do you insist relating anarchy with huts and scavenging, how would anarchy destroy our technology and infrastructure?.

There is a strong correlation between defense spending and prosperity? Here is a list of the biggest defense spenders per %GDP

1 Oman 11.4
2 Qatar 10
3 Saudi Arabia 10
4 Iraq 8.6
5 Jordan 8.6
6 Israel 7.3
7 Yemen 6.6
8 Eritrea 6.3
9 Macedonia 6
10 Syria 5.9

So much prosperity

http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?v=132

doesn't make sense to isolate defence spending as you have and in this case % of gdp measures don't make sense either.

reason i mention defence spending is that to deter other countries from messing with you is necessary for stable institutions over time. this condition is necessary but not sufficient for prosperity. for sake of illustration imagine a country with tiny gdp and 10 inhabitants spending 90% on defence. The big % of gdp measure doesn't change the fact the country is at the mercy of larger powers.

what a prosperous country needs is for the right incentives to be in place for good, productive behaviour that creates prosperity over time. these incentives have to be stable over time and people have to have confidence in their stability going forward. you talk about people in western countries being 'morally better' but this is just a consequence of stronger institutions with the right incentives over time. people who behave undesirably are selected out of the population over time in such an environment. none of the countries in your list have had much stability or good incentives.

tolstoy seems to have it right that a moral revolution could solve the bad incentives problem and reduce the need for state. but since humans would clearly not act ideally under anarchy, a state remains pretty necessary. even if such a moral revolution miraculously happened and we could do without a lot of what govt is necessary for, we would still need a smaller govt to address market failures like public goods and missing markets.


Romm3l   Germany. Jan 01 2015 08:24. Posts 285


  On January 01 2015 06:13 Spitfiree wrote:
Gnarly don't bother replying to my posts, as i've already said i wont reason with narcissistic dumbasses that live in their dream world. Its no wonder you would put such reply too, you d rather have something that takes thousand of pages to explain to be shortened to a forum post, at least you amuse me with your stupidity


in general the clearest sign that someone doesn't really understand well what they're talking about is if they're unable to distil their thoughts and arguments in simple, concise language.

arguments like "too complicated and too many pages for me to explain" or "you have to read these works by other people to get it" is just about the clearest way to auto-lose an argument by not being able to even participate in it


sniderstyle   United States. Jan 01 2015 14:39. Posts 2046

Genginho: lose today 100 dollar only because of fishs they called and had luck on riverLast edit: 05/01/2015 09:34

Spitfiree   Bulgaria. Jan 01 2015 14:52. Posts 9634


  On January 01 2015 07:24 Romm3l wrote:
Show nested quote +


in general the clearest sign that someone doesn't really understand well what they're talking about is if they're unable to distil their thoughts and arguments in simple, concise language.

arguments like "too complicated and too many pages for me to explain" or "you have to read these works by other people to get it" is just about the clearest way to auto-lose an argument by not being able to even participate in it


and responses like this one is the easiest ways of staying ignorant although someone clearly shows you how to widen your perception of the system we live in, i'm not here to argue at all, i didn't write any of the posts in order to get a bigger internet penis, i'm simply showing you a different point of view
I understand that i might come off weak, I don't give a fuck though since i've pointed the way to legitimate sources that are far more capable than me, I'd rather come off weak than try to explain things in a silly way and not in full depth. Point is I've given you a way, its your own decision if you want to follow it or continue to "win" arguments on the internet

Edit: Tbh I've explained the core of the problem pretty well

Meanwhile

 Last edit: 01/01/2015 14:57

Romm3l   Germany. Jan 01 2015 14:53. Posts 285

cute and holds for a lot of stuff but you just need a single counterexample to disprove any "this always holds" statement.

you see someone dying of thirst and take the action of deciding not to give him your bottle of water. no force or fraud is committed.


Gnarly   United States. Jan 01 2015 15:03. Posts 1723


  On January 01 2015 06:13 Spitfiree wrote:
Gnarly don't bother replying to my posts, as i've already said i wont reason with narcissistic dumbasses that live in their dream world. Its no wonder you would put such reply too, you d rather have something that takes thousand of pages to explain to be shortened to a forum post, at least you amuse me with your stupidity



>muh appeal to authority

Keep riding that special high horse of yours and keep thinking you're smarter than everyone else here.

Diversify or fossilize! 

Gnarly   United States. Jan 01 2015 15:06. Posts 1723


  On January 01 2015 13:52 Spitfiree wrote:
Show nested quote +



and responses like this one is the easiest ways of staying ignorant although someone clearly shows you how to widen your perception of the system we live in, i'm not here to argue at all, i didn't write any of the posts in order to get a bigger internet penis, i'm simply showing you a different point of view
I understand that i might come off weak, I don't give a fuck though since i've pointed the way to legitimate sources that are far more capable than me, I'd rather come off weak than try to explain things in a silly way and not in full depth. Point is I've given you a way, its your own decision if you want to follow it or continue to "win" arguments on the internet

Edit: Tbh I've explained the core of the problem pretty well

Meanwhile




>russel brand

Keep riding on Baa's dick, dude.

Diversify or fossilize! 

Romm3l   Germany. Jan 01 2015 16:20. Posts 285


  On January 01 2015 13:52 Spitfiree wrote:
Show nested quote +



and responses like this one is the easiest ways of staying ignorant although someone clearly shows you how to widen your perception of the system we live in, i'm not here to argue at all, i didn't write any of the posts in order to get a bigger internet penis, i'm simply showing you a different point of view
I understand that i might come off weak, I don't give a fuck though since i've pointed the way to legitimate sources that are far more capable than me, I'd rather come off weak than try to explain things in a silly way and not in full depth. Point is I've given you a way, its your own decision if you want to follow it or continue to "win" arguments on the internet

Edit: Tbh I've explained the core of the problem pretty well

Meanwhile



i dont want to resort to ad hominem attacks but your citing russell brand as a legitimate and highly capable source is kind of embarassing and doesn't give me confidence engaging with you any further is going to lead to any kind of productive outcome


Spitfiree   Bulgaria. Jan 02 2015 13:04. Posts 9634

Stop embarrassing yourself, you obviously don't know anything about the guy. You see this is were I would've been if I tried to do what you are doing. Russel Brand himself is just the face of the whole idea at this point. However he s talking to the brightest minds on the planet which makes him more than highly capable. He s helping promote a very important idea and its working. The fact that he was able to "win" an interview against Paxman, Paxman being able to push every mistake, every spot that wasn't quite clear or came off as weak and having 25 years of experience in that field only shows how capable Brand is. And the fact that you wrote such a hilarious post only shows how little you've read on the subject. In fact you're right this wont lead to anything productive since you're refusing to open your eyes, one can do only so much to help another.

P.S. I bet this "argument " seems weak too since you're uneducated on the topic, but try to argue about it, such a lovely situation you've put yourself in


Gnarly   United States. Jan 02 2015 13:09. Posts 1723


  On January 02 2015 12:04 Spitfiree wrote:
Stop embarrassing yourself, you obviously don't know anything about the guy. You see this is were I would've been if I tried to do what you are doing. Russel Brand himself is just the face of the whole idea at this point. However he s talking to the brightest minds on the planet which makes him more than highly capable. He s helping promote a very important idea and its working. The fact that he was able to "win" an interview against Paxman, Paxman being able to push every mistake, every spot that wasn't quite clear or came off as weak and having 25 years of experience in that field only shows how capable Brand is. And the fact that you wrote such a hilarious post only shows how little you've read on the subject. In fact you're right this wont lead to anything productive since you're refusing to open your eyes, one can do only so much to help another.

P.S. I bet this "argument " seems weak too since you're uneducated on the topic, but try to argue about it, such a lovely situation you've put yourself in



Dude, Russell Brand isn't going to take you to bed tonight. Your "argument" which is really riding the dick of another man is weak because you've provided not a single original thought of your own. You need to appeal to authority and you don't even realize how closed your eyes are.

User was temp-banned for this post.

Diversify or fossilize! 

Romm3l   Germany. Jan 02 2015 16:19. Posts 285


  On January 02 2015 12:04 Spitfiree wrote:
Stop embarrassing yourself, you obviously don't know anything about the guy. You see this is were I would've been if I tried to do what you are doing. Russel Brand himself is just the face of the whole idea at this point. However he s talking to the brightest minds on the planet which makes him more than highly capable. He s helping promote a very important idea and its working. The fact that he was able to "win" an interview against Paxman, Paxman being able to push every mistake, every spot that wasn't quite clear or came off as weak and having 25 years of experience in that field only shows how capable Brand is. And the fact that you wrote such a hilarious post only shows how little you've read on the subject. In fact you're right this wont lead to anything productive since you're refusing to open your eyes, one can do only so much to help another.

P.S. I bet this "argument " seems weak too since you're uneducated on the topic, but try to argue about it, such a lovely situation you've put yourself in



lol at calling others uneducated while citing books you haven't actually read yourself:

  On December 31 2014 11:33 Spitfiree wrote:
The thing is its not in our nature to be violent, we are only provoked to be so. I've heard ( well Bill Gates recommended it ) that this book explains pretty well on that topic http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/1491518243


what's hilarious is that if you had actually read this book as I have then you would know one of the major reasons it finds for why people got less violent over time was the emergence of big all-powerful state ("Leviathan" ) with a monopoly on force, and how that changed the incentives. basically my argument is exactly mirrored in this book and i suggest you actually read it before responding again.

 Last edit: 02/01/2015 16:20

Spitfiree   Bulgaria. Jan 02 2015 16:37. Posts 9634

Nope im citing books i've read and i exclusively said i didn't read the one above, but it was recommended by Gates and the quote above is a guess. I've gone through Brand's book, I've gone through several works of Chomsky's best being a speech about the control of the masses through the media, I am going through Bernays although that's probably the hardest read in my life. You're right about the second part, you re way off on first part where lies most of your argument which is a casual guess gone wrong

Well and tbh Brand's book isnt something incredible but its pointing in the right direction and its a good start

 Last edit: 02/01/2015 16:38

Romm3l   Germany. Jan 02 2015 16:53. Posts 285

i agree brand correctly identifies a lot of problems with our society. corporate influence on the political process sucks. moral hazard in financial risk taking sucked. it's where he starts to propose his own solutions of mystical revolution that things get full retard. chomsky is pointing out things that are wrong too, media influences, manipulates and serves powerful interests. nobodys arguing with any of that.

the problem is suggesting anarchy as a viable improvement of the status quo when history suggests otherwise


Gnarly   United States. Jan 02 2015 18:26. Posts 1723


  On January 02 2015 15:37 Spitfiree wrote:
Nope im citing books i've read and i exclusively said i didn't read the one above, but it was recommended by Gates and the quote above is a guess. I've gone through Brand's book, I've gone through several works of Chomsky's best being a speech about the control of the masses through the media, I am going through Bernays although that's probably the hardest read in my life. You're right about the second part, you re way off on first part where lies most of your argument which is a casual guess gone wrong

Well and tbh Brand's book isnt something incredible but its pointing in the right direction and its a good start



you know that part in the movie "good will hunting" where they are in the bar, and they want to pick up some chicks, so one of the guys tries to impress her, and then some alpha-wanna-be shuts his friend down, and then matt damon comes on over like a bad ass and tells the guy that he has no original thought for the books he's read, he's just simply appealing to authority and can only regurgitate what's been feed to him?

anarchy can't happen. a monopoly on force will always sought to be had.

Diversify or fossilize! 

Baalim   Mexico. Jan 02 2015 19:48. Posts 34250


  On January 01 2015 07:23 Romm3l wrote:
Show nested quote +


doesn't make sense to isolate defence spending as you have and in this case % of gdp measures don't make sense either.

reason i mention defence spending is that to deter other countries from messing with you is necessary for stable institutions over time. this condition is necessary but not sufficient for prosperity. for sake of illustration imagine a country with tiny gdp and 10 inhabitants spending 90% on defence. The big % of gdp measure doesn't change the fact the country is at the mercy of larger powers.

what a prosperous country needs is for the right incentives to be in place for good, productive behaviour that creates prosperity over time. these incentives have to be stable over time and people have to have confidence in their stability going forward. you talk about people in western countries being 'morally better' but this is just a consequence of stronger institutions with the right incentives over time. people who behave undesirably are selected out of the population over time in such an environment. none of the countries in your list have had much stability or good incentives.

tolstoy seems to have it right that a moral revolution could solve the bad incentives problem and reduce the need for state. but since humans would clearly not act ideally under anarchy, a state remains pretty necessary. even if such a moral revolution miraculously happened and we could do without a lot of what govt is necessary for, we would still need a smaller govt to address market failures like public goods and missing markets.



It is absolutely ridiculous to refuse acknowledging a defense/GDP and try to say its total defense budget and that holds no weight since big prosperous countries have big budgets for everything.

Also in total military spenditure you will see that its not direclty related to prosperity as many prosperous countries have small armies and some with huge armies like China or Russia are not.

For the third time... why do you equate anarchy with unestability, before making these assumptions you have to explain in which way it would be less stable than in a society with a state.

It makes no sense to say say since human dont act ideally anarchy cannot be and then claim a goverment would, when this government is run by these same faulty humans.

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Baalim   Mexico. Jan 02 2015 19:52. Posts 34250


  On January 02 2015 15:53 Romm3l wrote:

the problem is suggesting anarchy as a viable improvement of the status quo when history suggests otherwise



Is that so? please tell us how history suggests otherwise

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Baalim   Mexico. Jan 02 2015 19:55. Posts 34250

BTW since the mods arent doing their job banning Gnarly im going to ignore and never reply to him again and I encourage everyone else in this thread to do the same.

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Gnarly   United States. Jan 02 2015 20:29. Posts 1723


  On January 02 2015 18:55 Baalim wrote:
BTW since the mods arent doing their job banning Gnarly im going to ignore and never reply to him again and I encourage everyone else in this thread to do the same.



nice counterpoint
10/10 would debate again
much skill

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Spitfiree   Bulgaria. Jan 02 2015 23:04. Posts 9634


  On January 02 2015 15:53 Romm3l wrote:
the problem is suggesting anarchy as a viable improvement of the status quo when history suggests otherwise


I'd say the problem is we think there is a problem. In order to work anarchy has to come close to utopia and for that to happen we d have to drop nowadays perception of what utopia is, cause it sure as hell isn't bling-blings,bitches & fast cars( well explained shallowly at least ) . The biggest problem however is that the masses are easily controlled by the media and considering corporations control the media, you cant really promote an idea that would fuck corporations. Propaganda is far more deadly than any other weapon.

A bit of off-topic, but quite the interesting read considering how we're practically in an extended Cold War situation : http://chomsky.info/articles/20140805.htm

Considering I've not read everything Chomsky has published what are you suggesting he s wrong about?

 Last edit: 02/01/2015 23:06

Baalim   Mexico. Jan 03 2015 03:29. Posts 34250


  On January 02 2015 22:04 Spitfiree wrote:
Show nested quote +


I'd say the problem is we think there is a problem. In order to work anarchy has to come close to utopia and for that to happen we d have to drop nowadays perception of what utopia is, cause it sure as hell isn't bling-blings,bitches & fast cars( well explained shallowly at least ) . The biggest problem however is that the masses are easily controlled by the media and considering corporations control the media, you cant really promote an idea that would fuck corporations. Propaganda is far more deadly than any other weapon.

A bit of off-topic, but quite the interesting read considering how we're practically in an extended Cold War situation : http://chomsky.info/articles/20140805.htm

Considering I've not read everything Chomsky has published what are you suggesting he s wrong about?


What does anarchy have to do with corporations? unless you are advocating some kind of socio-anarchy which is ridiculous and just as narrow-sighted as regular socialism/communism

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Liquid`Drone   Norway. Jan 03 2015 07:25. Posts 3093

I'm mostly just curious as to like, how positive anarchy can be achieved? Because I certainly think it sounds pretty awesome to have a society free of hierarchy and where you can do whatever you want as long as people aren't too pissed off by it, but I'm not sure I want to concentrate my efforts towards something I think is completely impossible to achieve? Does it require like, some sort of grand collective enlightenment followed by a democratic vote to abolish government (where one party would be campaigning on not governing? ) or does it require a violent revolution? Can one country become anarchist by itself (and like, I'm Norwegian, so I'd be concerned about whether or not we can maintain our current standard of living, because there's no way our population goes for something that fails in that regard), or does it have to be a global movement?

I mean I get that the abolition of borders (which I totally support, I just don't understand how it can be accomplished) is kinda in conflict with the concept of a country, but like, how is society organized? Will anarchy require us to make everything smaller, like do we need to just live in smaller communities (as anarchy is very dependent on trust to work, there being no external power forcing certain types of behavior) or can you still have global companies and organizations? If companies and organizations can be huge - how can you avoid them exploiting their power when there is no more powerful body that answers to the population?

Like, I totally see many of the same societal flaws as anarchists do, but it seems like the leading anarchist intellectuals are more apt at describing how our current society is flawed and how the state is the culprit than at describing how we can progress forward towards our dream society - and how exactly that would look..

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Spitfiree   Bulgaria. Jan 03 2015 08:11. Posts 9634


  On January 03 2015 02:29 Baalim wrote:
Show nested quote +


What does anarchy have to do with corporations? unless you are advocating some kind of socio-anarchy which is ridiculous and just as narrow-sighted as regular socialism/communism

My perception of anarchy is full decentralization of power in current system and redistribution of it well (by saying well I'd say that ll be the hardest thing to do ) among people.
That's the core of it, all of follow ups like treating the planet better, investing in self-redeemable energy etc.etc. come as a result, and corporations have everything to do with it since they re the ones that profit the most from current system and abuse it to its full capacity.
Nobody wants socialism, I just want them to carry the consequences. Companies like Monsanto, Philip Morris, GSK are pretty much criminals and they re just on the top of my head. However you cant expect them to change atm considering they re paying governments through lobbying and campaign funding.
Whatever the change goes to you cant have someone abuse it to the fullest cause we ll just end up at the same place. Well Brand even suggested that those companies wealth should just be redistributed among their workers so they run the company, which is not necessarily a great idea, but its not a bad one, sounds like a communistic move( pretty sure thats how cooperations were done in Russia ) , however considering how the current leaderships are just blasting the population with toxic products and lying to them about it, then it doesn't sound so bad
Also as Drone said you cant have giant organizations amassing power

@Drone I don't think there are a lot of people that have figured it out fully. I used to think that revolutions without blood spilled don't lead to any results whatsoever. That's I'm guessing what most people think and its wrong. Historically speaking there aren't many revolutions that really worked, and most in the history books are just meh, they end up becoming what they went against, just named it differently. Gotta say that anarchy looks a lot like socialism, except there isn't the government to push you, which changes whole lotta things.

 Last edit: 03/01/2015 08:20

Romm3l   Germany. Jan 03 2015 14:24. Posts 285


  On January 02 2015 18:48 Baalim wrote:
Show nested quote +



It is absolutely ridiculous to refuse acknowledging a defense/GDP and try to say its total defense budget and that holds no weight since big prosperous countries have big budgets for everything.

Also in total military spenditure you will see that its not direclty related to prosperity as many prosperous countries have small armies and some with huge armies like China or Russia are not.

For the third time... why do you equate anarchy with unestability, before making these assumptions you have to explain in which way it would be less stable than in a society with a state.

It makes no sense to say say since human dont act ideally anarchy cannot be and then claim a goverment would, when this government is run by these same faulty humans.


again, ability to defend yourself is necessary but not sufficient for prosperity. ability to defend yourself is clearly more correlated with total spending than % of gdp spending.

anarchy being less stable than a leviathan state seems almost too obvious to have to explain but here's a quick try-
with no govt people choose between producing and trading ('cooperate' option in prisoners dilemma) and using force or fraud to steal the fruits of others' labour ('defect' option). Everyone cooperating leads to the best group result because total productive capacity is being maximally used and the benefits of specialisation and economies of scale are also fully realised. But in this state the individual payoffs to defect (use force or fraud) are enormous as there are no credible consequences other than breakdown of trust with counterparties, which human agents typically don't care about due to excessive hyperbolic discounting (short-term, instant-gratification mindset). In this environment larger scale organisations of specialised labour and trade become less and less viable because they require too many links of coordination, contracts and trust with no existing entity that can enforce contracts. More and more people switch to 'defect' in a repeated game where agents' strategies approximate tit-for-tat. The results are that overall productive capacity is utilised less and in a less efficient way over time.

History (explained well in Pinker's book: ) middle age europe was a feudal patchwork of baronies and fief principalities without any central power (this thread's definition of anarchy). Knights and feudal lords dominated peasants on their local turf and played zero-sum turf war games with each other for each others' spoils. Over time there was a consolidation of political units as more powerful users of force expanded and swallowed up more turf until one guy has control of the whole country. At that point knights causing violence and plundering becomes a nuisance to the king of the land because it diminishes productive capacity and state revenues, so it became in the soverign's interest to enforce the "king's peace" through superior force supported by superior resources (large tax revenue base funds armies with an expensive trained military force possessing gunpowder firearm technology and artillery). This changed the payoffs of the defect option and things generally got more prosperous and less violent.

Same thing in ancient China being a constantly warring bunch of patchwork states before Genghis Khan conquered and unified it all, and his descendants used their power and monopoly on force to form stable institutions and create prosperity over time. Kublai Khan's capital city was the best place on earth in its time and made big advances in technology and culture.


Gnarly   United States. Jan 03 2015 17:13. Posts 1723


  On January 03 2015 06:25 Liquid`Drone wrote:
I'm mostly just curious as to like, how positive anarchy can be achieved? Because I certainly think it sounds pretty awesome to have a society free of hierarchy and where you can do whatever you want as long as people aren't too pissed off by it, but I'm not sure I want to concentrate my efforts towards something I think is completely impossible to achieve? Does it require like, some sort of grand collective enlightenment followed by a democratic vote to abolish government (where one party would be campaigning on not governing? ) or does it require a violent revolution? Can one country become anarchist by itself (and like, I'm Norwegian, so I'd be concerned about whether or not we can maintain our current standard of living, because there's no way our population goes for something that fails in that regard), or does it have to be a global movement?

I mean I get that the abolition of borders (which I totally support, I just don't understand how it can be accomplished) is kinda in conflict with the concept of a country, but like, how is society organized? Will anarchy require us to make everything smaller, like do we need to just live in smaller communities (as anarchy is very dependent on trust to work, there being no external power forcing certain types of behavior) or can you still have global companies and organizations? If companies and organizations can be huge - how can you avoid them exploiting their power when there is no more powerful body that answers to the population?

Like, I totally see many of the same societal flaws as anarchists do, but it seems like the leading anarchist intellectuals are more apt at describing how our current society is flawed and how the state is the culprit than at describing how we can progress forward towards our dream society - and how exactly that would look..



the abolition of borders doesn't really matter because most borders are based off of natural borders such as oceans, lakes, rivers, mountains, etc.. when we used to live in tribes and villages and maybe very simple city-states before the first real civilization came about, we used to tell stories as a way to indirectly guide the behaviors of the tribe. Gilgamesh is a good example of this, as it is simply a person going across the river (ie: border) and slaying his enemies. (the people on the other side of the border)

society will always naturally organize, we are after all only animals. we adhere to our social nature and that is for the weak to serve the strong. those who are able to influence people and get their ways through cunning or sheer force will always be able to have a real vote in how things go. might DOES make right because if you can't fight back, what right do you really have other than to die?

we'd have to be invaded by mind-taking-over aliens for us to ALL believe in baal's personal definition of anarchy and to live by it, which would still not be anarchy as the aliens are the one's with the monopoly on force in that case. fact of the matter is, with billions of people on this planet which is ever increasing, anarchy just can't happen. of course, there is always that temporary time when empires fall or nations have civil unrest, but as always, that's temporary. order will always be restored as it always has been.

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Baalim   Mexico. Jan 03 2015 22:11. Posts 34250


  On January 03 2015 06:25 Liquid`Drone wrote:
I'm mostly just curious as to like, how positive anarchy can be achieved? Because I certainly think it sounds pretty awesome to have a society free of hierarchy and where you can do whatever you want as long as people aren't too pissed off by it, but I'm not sure I want to concentrate my efforts towards something I think is completely impossible to achieve? Does it require like, some sort of grand collective enlightenment followed by a democratic vote to abolish government (where one party would be campaigning on not governing? ) or does it require a violent revolution? Can one country become anarchist by itself (and like, I'm Norwegian, so I'd be concerned about whether or not we can maintain our current standard of living, because there's no way our population goes for something that fails in that regard), or does it have to be a global movement?

I mean I get that the abolition of borders (which I totally support, I just don't understand how it can be accomplished) is kinda in conflict with the concept of a country, but like, how is society organized? Will anarchy require us to make everything smaller, like do we need to just live in smaller communities (as anarchy is very dependent on trust to work, there being no external power forcing certain types of behavior) or can you still have global companies and organizations? If companies and organizations can be huge - how can you avoid them exploiting their power when there is no more powerful body that answers to the population?

Like, I totally see many of the same societal flaws as anarchists do, but it seems like the leading anarchist intellectuals are more apt at describing how our current society is flawed and how the state is the culprit than at describing how we can progress forward towards our dream society - and how exactly that would look..



Its not society free for hierarchy, its society free from the state, if you have a job, your boss will have hierarchy over you, but thats a choice you make, nothing is imposed over some bullshit implied social contract you have no say in.

It certainly is impossible to achieve in our lifetime, but isnt also end racism, religious fanaticism, war, hunger etc? and that doesnt stop us from trying, in fact its virtuous to fight for something selfless and for the good of mankind.

Anarchy wont be reached through revolution, we have had hundreds of those in our history, it will come from understanding and hopelessness, I once heard a good analogy about a bettered woman:

A battered woman wont leave his abusive husband out of rage, he will come home and take him back over and over believing he can change and it is not only when she realizes that violence is in the nature of his husband and when she no longer believes he can change that she will leave him.

In the same way, only when people truly understand what is the nature of government, and only when they lose hope that it can change that we will be able to simply walk away from it.


And no everything does have to be smaller, there will be big strong companies that could abuse their power... but the question is does the current state society prevents this? and the answer is NO.. if anything corporations are more powerful under the wing of the state, Apple has child labor, companies outsource to poor countries with shitty worker conditions and the worst company of all is the state, that is one that can abuse absolutely everyone with no consecuences.

Anarchy is not an utopia, it will be flawed because we are flawed, but its better than the structure we have today.


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Gnarly   United States. Jan 04 2015 02:10. Posts 1723

the nature of government is that it's made up of people, and people will always strive for order.

honestly, baal, you have no idea what the fuck you are talking about. you seem to constantly spout this idea that humans will somehow merge together on the same brainwaves and everyone will just magically start being good and moral, even though those are subjective terms which differ when you cross the river.

>hierarchy
>a job
>a choice
>social contract

That whole paragraph is a major what the fuck are you even trying to convey? if a company can be formed in anarchy, so can a government, using your own logic, since you say that governments are also companies.

Honestly, how the fuck do you even play poker with your backfuckingwards logic?

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Spitfiree   Bulgaria. Jan 04 2015 08:30. Posts 9634


  On January 03 2015 21:11 Baalim wrote:
Anarchy wont be reached through revolution, we have had hundreds of those in our history, it will come from understanding and hopelessness, I once heard a good analogy about a bettered woman:


I'd prefer to call it a "revolution of consciousness ", anyways thats what i forgot to add. Historically almost every revolution has been violent and has not worked


Gnarly   United States. Jan 04 2015 16:17. Posts 1723

>revolutions aren't the work of the govts themselves
>not worked

Revolutions can't happen without leaders. Occupy was the best witness to this, as they chose to be leaderless and then do their progressive stacks bullshit. It's way too easy to infiltrate an "anarchistic" society.

edit: oh wait, occupy did have some leaders, but they were also found to be agents and then the others had threats against them from the us govt. (if the released documents are true)

Diversify or fossilize!Last edit: 04/01/2015 16:17

RiKD    United States. Jan 04 2015 18:21. Posts 8552


  On January 02 2015 18:55 Baalim wrote:
BTW since the mods arent doing their job banning Gnarly im going to ignore and never reply to him again and I encourage everyone else in this thread to do the same.



Is there a way to formally click an "ignore" button that essentially makes a poster no longer exist? If not there should be. Either way, beyond asking that question I am def on the same page.

Beyond that:

I have been reading Russell Brand's "Revolution." I can definitely see how some of his spiritual tangents could turn some people off but I have found a lot of good stuff in there.

One small thing we can do which I found pretty awesome and thought provoking:

Disregard titles. Be respectful, yet firm. The Queen, who did nothing to become the queen besides pop out of the right vagina, should now be referred to as Mrs. Windsor or taking it a step further: Frau (whatever her family's German name was before they changed it to positively brand and distance themselves from Nazi Germany). Not, your Majesty, your Highness, etc. Everyone is a Mr., Mrs., Ms. Doctors, presidents, congressmen, judges, royalty appointed sirs and dames, etc etc etc are all Mr., Mrs., or Ms.

Beyond some of the awesome stuff in this thread so far and other literature and ideas I just thought I would add that as it is something easy that anyone could start doing immediately. I have already started and it can cause some interesting moments but we have to start somewhere.


Romm3l   Germany. Jan 05 2015 08:50. Posts 285


  On January 04 2015 17:21 RiKD wrote:
Show nested quote +



Is there a way to formally click an "ignore" button that essentially makes a poster no longer exist? If not there should be. Either way, beyond asking that question I am def on the same page.

Beyond that:

I have been reading Russell Brand's "Revolution." I can definitely see how some of his spiritual tangents could turn some people off but I have found a lot of good stuff in there.

One small thing we can do which I found pretty awesome and thought provoking:

Disregard titles. Be respectful, yet firm. The Queen, who did nothing to become the queen besides pop out of the right vagina, should now be referred to as Mrs. Windsor or taking it a step further: Frau (whatever her family's German name was before they changed it to positively brand and distance themselves from Nazi Germany). Not, your Majesty, your Highness, etc. Everyone is a Mr., Mrs., Ms. Doctors, presidents, congressmen, judges, royalty appointed sirs and dames, etc etc etc are all Mr., Mrs., or Ms.

Beyond some of the awesome stuff in this thread so far and other literature and ideas I just thought I would add that as it is something easy that anyone could start doing immediately. I have already started and it can cause some interesting moments but we have to start somewhere.

Doctors, presidents, congressmen, judges, royalty appointed sirs and dames have all done great things to deserve their honorifics. Since humans are motivated in part by wanting recognition and esteem, why not have devices such as titles that incentivise people doing great things? Whatever you have to do to become a Sir is surely better for the world than many other ways people might gain recognition, e.g. making as much money as possible and balling out of control, or beating up/killing other people.

Even the British royal family is +++ev for the world - they cost the british taxpayer nothing compared to what they bring in in tourism revenue, and if people are willing to pay for royal family related tourism, then that reveals they value it. Maybe a family creating an estimated 3/4billion usd/year in indirect tourism revenue deserves their title and lifestyle after all.

This post is mainly to show ideal solutions based on normative principles can end up being net worse in practice. One might accept pragmatism is better than idealism in the same way that one might accept capitalism is better than communism (or that anarchy would be terrible, lol)

 Last edit: 05/01/2015 08:56

Spitfiree   Bulgaria. Jan 05 2015 17:44. Posts 9634

I was quite struck by the family name change of the queen of England tbh, since - it was Frau Saxe-Coburgotha - we had a prime minister with the same family, short history -> we were monarchy @ early 20th century, we got a german king - obv same dinasty, however that dinasty also governed Spain too afaik, pretty much England, Spain & Bulgaria were ran by the same family - just an odd fact.

Anyway Romm3l thats exactly a thing we should rethink about our species. If we're motivated just so we can be able to tell to the other guy "Ha! I'm better " then, you might be better at a certain thing, but you definitely fail at being a decent human being. The thing is the titles themselves are not the problem, the problem is in our heads. It's easy to give them non existent value, because they imply certain deeds & struggles one has to go through to obtain them, while they certainly mean that "person X " has specific knowledge of something that does not mean he should have any authority upon anyone else just because of it. I'd say its a mind-trap and again that can be dealt with. On the other hand there are so many titles these days you can just buy its ridiculous, for example "Lord" title in UK is the most pathetic thing ever, there are like 128739128936392847 lords already.

And again i disagree about royal family. First of all I have never heard of anyone going to the UK so they can see the queen or some shit like that. The country has many other things to offer that actually have value. And no one deserves that much just cause the were born luckily, otherwise people like Hilton,Warren Buffet & Bill Gates wouldn't strip away their children of almost all of their inheritance ( Buffet case its absolutely everything I think ).Gates will leave some millions, but thats understandable. After all every parent wants their children to have some sort of a stability, but its nowhere near his billions and such amount of money are enough for them to try and do things they love and even if they fail a couple of times to be able to re-start and actually bring value to the world. Plus a child is the main concern of a parent so going something as extreme as leaving no inheritance at all is hardcore, at least to me, but quite understandable especially in Hilton's case


Romm3l   Germany. Jan 05 2015 18:12. Posts 285

man what i said about royal family tourist revenue is not my opinion, it's reported by the british tourism agency (pls use google and check facts instead of 'disagreeing' based on your rigorous statistical survey of people you know)

people are born with very different natural talent as well and some really talented people can get ridic rich with combination of their hard work and genetic gifts in a way that average people never could no matter how hard they work. where do you draw the line on what people 'deserve' based on birth advantages, financial or otherwise?


Baalim   Mexico. Jan 05 2015 21:38. Posts 34250


  On January 05 2015 07:50 Romm3l wrote:
Show nested quote +


Doctors, presidents, congressmen, judges, royalty appointed sirs and dames have all done great things to deserve their honorifics. Since humans are motivated in part by wanting recognition and esteem, why not have devices such as titles that incentivise people doing great things? Whatever you have to do to become a Sir is surely better for the world than many other ways people might gain recognition, e.g. making as much money as possible and balling out of control, or beating up/killing other people.

Even the British royal family is +++ev for the world - they cost the british taxpayer nothing compared to what they bring in in tourism revenue, and if people are willing to pay for royal family related tourism, then that reveals they value it. Maybe a family creating an estimated 3/4billion usd/year in indirect tourism revenue deserves their title and lifestyle after all.

This post is mainly to show ideal solutions based on normative principles can end up being net worse in practice. One might accept pragmatism is better than idealism in the same way that one might accept capitalism is better than communism (or that anarchy would be terrible, lol)



Doing great things? who has done a great thing to gain a sir title? Do you think the Beatles wrote songs to be sirs? come on, people who truly work hard for something never do it for some ridiculous meaningless title, they do it because they want to, its the passion, their calling or however you want to call it, not to gain the approval of some delusional ridiculous rich clown with a crown. Also the UK is one of the few countries who give those ridiculous titles, in the rest of the world that is seen as some medieval shit.

Also could you please cite sources of that revenue directly linked to royalty please? that sounds to me very hard to believe, and even if it were its one of the saddest justifications to have a monarchy in the 21st century.

Also I dont know how many times I have to repeat this, in order to keep saying things like its idealistic and not pragmatic you first have to say why stop just statings uninformed opinions as facts without even backing them up.

So why do you think Anarchy is idealistic and not pragmatical?

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Baalim   Mexico. Jan 05 2015 21:51. Posts 34250

Anarchy has absolutely nothing to do with equality, I dont know why I have to say this thing so many freaking times, why is hard to comprehend that Anarchy is about a stateless society, not about utopian communism, which is obv awful.


People have different talents and they will perform and therefore earn different in a free market society, people will still be born in privilege and there will be company managers and toilet scrubbers just without the parasitic presence of the state in our society.

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lebowski   Greece. Jan 06 2015 01:35. Posts 9205

I have been an active anarchist for several years in the past and I have to say that I've never met an anarcho capitalist in person. In fact every single anarchist I've met was hostile to the idea, so I haven't seen the idea presented extensively.

The other forms of anarchism I've seen, discussed or read do clash with pragmatism though. Without getting into it extensively for the time being, for me an easy indication of that would be the fact that anarchists rarely bother discussing details of an anarchist society and the obvious problems that arise while trying to establish it, there's no extensive literature or heated debates etc. I'd say that the majority of people (at least here in Greece) who call themselves anarchists are in essence anti authoritarians and have idealistic and psychological motivations behind their actions, something far from what even Chomsky stands for in his books (he also carefully tries not to call himself an anarchist, I presume for the same reason)
Of course anarchists around here usually don't like anarcho syndicalists too, for the same idealistic reasons; in civil war spain CNT got into the government to deal with big threats and generally worked through representation, which is morally repulsive for the anti authoritarians
Which reminds me of the title and OP (I don't even know what spiritual progression means after moral and ethical btw)
The morality of anarchism is generally very similar to christianity, Nietzsche wrote extensively of this in "antichrist"; for people who denounce god this certainly made me (even back then) raise an eyebrow. Of course it doesn't necessarily have to be this way and I'm certain a lot of anarchists are far from that morality and set of mannerisms, what I personally saw happening around me for a while in the movement in Greece confirmed this view though.
Stirner's anarchism that puts the individual above the herd is much more preferable to my own taste but seems to be lacking in pragmatism too and the old saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions again seems fitting

I could get into more details after Baal personally attacks me for no reason lol

new shit has come to light... a-and... shit! man... 

Baalim   Mexico. Jan 06 2015 03:40. Posts 34250

get into details, that is all ive been asking, I want people to stop saying shit like "oh it cannot work" and not say why, thats an idiotic way to argue.

Chomsky doesnt quickly label himself an anarchist (he has said it before tho) because its one of the most tainted and hijacked words in our vocabulary and this thread is proof of it, when people hear the word they think of huts, chaos and no-authority when it has nothing to do with that

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Liquid`Drone   Norway. Jan 06 2015 07:01. Posts 3093

of course anarchy has something to do with anti-authority. imo that's the by far most positive thing the political theory has got going for it.. In fact just like lebowski, I've hung around quite a bit with anarchists, but never anarcho capitalists, they've all been leftists, and usually the anarchist inside them is not really concerned with the economical side of it, but rather the social one, like a, "I should be allowed to do whatever I want as long as nobody is hurt by it". But I've never heard any of them talk about taxation.

Historically anarchists have been fighting fascists - which clearly makes it an anti-authoritarian movement as being pro-authority is the cornerstone of fascism. Anarchists fighting Franco in the Spanish civil war weren't fighting for their society to be governed by austrian economics, they were fighting against fascism, and they were allied with communists. During Spain's anarchist period they reorganized companies so they would have no bosses, and while Soviet wanted to support them with arms, there were significant problems relating to Stalin's (pro-authoritarian) demands.

Basically my impression of anarchist seems to be completely in line with lebowski's. I'm not equating it with chaos - although I think it'd be a likely outcome - but I have absolutely no support for baal's anarchy and I don't think any self-identifying anarchist I know would, either.

I just copy pasted this from wikipedia - seems like that backs up me and lebowski, and it also seems like anarchy has far too many strands for you to bombastically claim that it is only one thing and not the other.

"Anarchist schools of thought can differ fundamentally, supporting anything from extreme individualism to complete collectivism.[10] Strains of anarchism have often been divided into the categories of social and individualist anarchism or similar dual classifications.[21][22] Anarchism is usually considered a radical left-wing ideology,[23][24] and much of anarchist economics and anarchist legal philosophy reflect anti-authoritarian interpretations of communism, collectivism, syndicalism, mutualism, or participatory economics.[25]

The central tendency of anarchism as a social movement has been represented by anarcho-communism and anarcho-syndicalism, with individualist anarchism being primarily a literary phenomenon[26] which nevertheless did have an impact on the bigger currents[27] and individualists have also participated in large anarchist organisations.[28][29] Many anarchists oppose all forms of aggression, supporting self-defense or non-violence (anarcho-pacifism),[30][31] while others have supported the use of some coercive measures, including violent revolution and propaganda of the deed as means to achieve anarchist ends.[32] "

lol POKER 

Spitfiree   Bulgaria. Jan 06 2015 10:34. Posts 9634


  On January 05 2015 17:12 Romm3l wrote:
man what i said about royal family tourist revenue is not my opinion, it's reported by the british tourism agency (pls use google and check facts instead of 'disagreeing' based on your rigorous statistical survey of people you know)



You're right 2013 survey :

  But some British republicans -- those who want to abolish the monarchy -- say the actual cost is much higher, once you factor in things like security detail and the cost of preparing for royal visits. Their figure is about 200 million pounds, or $307 million.


Then :

  The British tourism agency has reported that the royal family generates close to 500 million pounds, or about $767 million, every year in tourism revenue, drawing visitors to historic royal sites like the Tower of London, Windsor Castle, and Buckingham Palace. The country's tourism agency says that of the 30 million foreign visitors who came to Britain in 2010, 5.8 million visited a castle .





I wonder if these numbers will drop significantly if there were no royal family, they surely will, but significantly? They have to drop by 40% in order for the royal family to be worth it. Thats basically their only argument, that people visit historical royal places. I wonder why people go to Egypt, there s no pharaoh, no use to go check the pyramids meh... I think you get my point.

Agree with the other part of your post though, but we re both wrong to some extend, its just another topic to be discussed. And I agree with Baal, I should probably widen my perspective more


lebowski   Greece. Jan 06 2015 10:51. Posts 9205


  On January 06 2015 02:40 Baalim wrote:
get into details, that is all ive been asking, I want people to stop saying shit like "oh it cannot work" and not say why, thats an idiotic way to argue.


The point was that the main body of anarchists today as well as historically doesn't share this vision of a stateless capitalism, so doubts/criticism here in lp no matter how vague are probably directed at multiple and more mainstream versions of anarchism; ones that I assume you reject too. I think that when you support a fraction of an already unpopular political view the most effective way to communicate would be to immediately focus on what makes said fraction different and better from what people will assume you refer to, instead of speaking up for the entire spectrum as if it were cohesive.

By focusing on what separates your version of anarchy from the ones that you too find non pragmatic those who challenge your view would find it easier to get into detail (and be convinced if you're right)

new shit has come to light... a-and... shit! man...Last edit: 06/01/2015 10:57

thewh00sel    United States. Jan 06 2015 13:12. Posts 2734

Using statistics for arguments is too easy on both sides because you can always find a stat backing you up if you dig deep enough. You have to argue from principle to get anywhere imo. Is it right for one human to use force against another human? At what point does it become justifiable?

Remember a government isn't a real thing. Know that and it will be easier to dissect if it is necessary. It's just a made up word for people with guns and people without guns. As far as practical solutions to people all following a set of guidelines I have heard of one essay for how it could work but before I present it I'd like to mention that in a competitive free market asking the question "how should we govern ourselves without force?" We will get a much more efficient answer than one person's idea of a possible free society.

The Stateless Society: an examination of alternatives by: Stefan Molyneaux
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2005/10/st...ciety-an-examination-of-alternatives/

Brief summary of the Dispute resolution organizations he suggests could work here:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispute_resolution_organization

A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. - Ayn Rand 

thewh00sel    United States. Jan 06 2015 14:16. Posts 2734

Also RE: people will come in and take over. Takeovers of countries are usually for resources and tax livestock. If there isn't already a structured tax system/police in place to enforce your threats then what are you taking over? If guns/etc are randomly distributed throughout the area you are attempting to take over then how impossible is that task? The cost will outweigh the benefits of taking over a free society.

A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. - Ayn Rand 

Stroggoz   New Zealand. Jan 07 2015 01:34. Posts 5297

i've been an anarchist for 3 years. Although, i think that if i knew about the political ideal when i was 10 i would have adopted it.


I do not think many anarcho-capitalists realize the consequences of their political ideals. What they are in fact advocating is that private power should rule the world. Now what follows from anarcho capitalism is the privitizing of all assets, getting rid of labour laws, ect. So roads would be privitized, people would soon start renting out their roads for people to use them, no one would get anywhere in a car. Then people would hire mercenaries to protect their roads..ect. And what would happen in a 'free' labour market? The laws which were put in place in the early 1800's that raised the working age to 12 years old would be abolished, (These laws at the time were understood to be an intervention in the free labour market, and industrial capitalists whined about it a lot.) corporations would exploit children from age 5 up until they die at 17, which was the average life expectancy of a worker in manchester in 1820. The fact of the matter is people are not really 'free' when their choices are limited to either starvation or exploitation. But anarcho capitalism would never happen, both the richest capitalists and the worlds population would find it intolerable. In our society as it exists at the moment, both want the state to intervene in some way.

Also, a lot of the political theorists you read about in school who are in the right and proclaim to either be anarcho-capitalists or 'libertarians' say they base their beleifs on the value system of classical liberalism. I spent this summer working my way through all the classical liberal texts and the political theorists you read about misrepresent them. First of all kant, wilhelm von humboldt, and adam smith to pick 3 of the classical liberals, were all developing their theories when capitalism was in its early stages.

kant for example in his political writings pointed out the difference between a passive and an active citizen. He said a passive citizen can be a person who creates something deliberately for someone else to buy. And a passive citizen should have no right to vote because of this, because they are a mere tool or a machine. Kant saw this as a person being used for a means to an end and hated this. On the other hand, he saw an active citizen as someone that was an artisan. Someone who created things out of their own creativity and enjoyment, but then could sell that creation later on.

Willhelm von Humboldt stated in his book 'limits of state action' that someone who creates something is the true owner of that creation than some voluptury who enjoys the fruits of that labour.

Adam Smith was the most anti-capitalist of them all, specifically stating 'division of labour turning people into creatures as stupid and ignorant as it possible for them to be.'

Early writings of Karl Marx expressed similar sentiment to Adam Smith in his theories of alienation.

What the anarcho capitalists and libertarians of the modern period like Friedman, Hayek, Nozick..ect, have done is deeply misrepresent the classical liberals. The thing they did represent them correctly on is that states should have limited power.

from my own interpretation classical liberalism was anti-capitalist, and that anarcho syndacalism grows out of this, along with a combination of labour movements in the early 19th century which grew into socialism, which then grew into french syndaclism in the early 1900's. These theories amalgamated into anarcho syndacalism which culminated in a social revolution in 1936 spain which is what liquid drone pointed out.

Although i am an Anarchist, i understand that some people who would want to use social democracy as a stepping stone towards anarchism have a very valid point. And in fact expansion of the state in a 'social-democrat' way could be a path towards anarchism. The anarchist party Syriza in Greece seem to be taking this path. And a society cannot just 'instantly' become anarchist, it needs education, activism, and many years of work before that can happen.

Anarchism these days has a broad spectrum of thought because its been tried in many different ways. For example Gandhi practiced it in ways he learnt from tolstoy, (they wrote letters to each other). Today most anarchists are involved in the global justice movement, opposing the world trade organization, international monetary fund, world bank and the so called 'free trade imperalism'. plus Austerity

One of 3 non decent human beings on a site of 5 people with between 2-3 decent human beingsLast edit: 07/01/2015 02:47

Stroggoz   New Zealand. Jan 07 2015 01:47. Posts 5297


  On January 02 2015 22:04 Spitfiree wrote:
Show nested quote +


I'd say the problem is we think there is a problem. In order to work anarchy has to come close to utopia and for that to happen we d have to drop nowadays perception of what utopia is, cause it sure as hell isn't bling-blings,bitches & fast cars( well explained shallowly at least ) . The biggest problem however is that the masses are easily controlled by the media and considering corporations control the media, you cant really promote an idea that would fuck corporations. Propaganda is far more deadly than any other weapon.

A bit of off-topic, but quite the interesting read considering how we're practically in an extended Cold War situation : http://chomsky.info/articles/20140805.htm

Considering I've not read everything Chomsky has published what are you suggesting he s wrong about?


Theres a really good book on anarchism called: anarchism: Theory and Practice, by Rudolf Rocker.

He thinks, and i agree with him, that anarchy is not a fixed, enclosed social system, but a definite trend in human history. That structures of illegitimate power throughout history have been overcome through realizing and whitling away at their illegitimacy.

My own view on utopia is that in many ways we are already living in one. For example womens rights are utopian compared to 150 years ago. And from this view i disagree with Romm3l. It is in fact anarchism that has shown itself not only viable and possible but very desirable when someone looks at history. In fact, part of the propaganda system has been to eliminate hope with the view pointed out by raegan and thatcher that 'there is no alternative'. So Baal when he says things will change when we are hopeless is wrong, and a terrible mistake to make. On the contrary, things will change when people realize how much liberty they have and how much they can do to change the world and make it a better place. Afterall, we face no threat of torture in the rich countries. And we can go around teaching people about anarchism and state violence, ect., just as people went around teaching others about the injustices of women as property 150 years ago. Many don't listen at first, but the numbers of listeners grows over time.

One of 3 non decent human beings on a site of 5 people with between 2-3 decent human beings 

traxamillion   United States. Feb 04 2015 09:51. Posts 10468


  On December 30 2014 15:57 Baalim wrote:

Also every culture around the world is rooted in religion and it doesnt make the concept of a god any less idiotic, governments exist because people have fought and risen to power in history and society trends to maintain the status quo



This is so fucking true. Think about the first people in the world to ever be "governed". Do you think they wanted it? Surely not. little groups of people got conquered and assimilated by other groups. i.e. Rome invading Nomadic territories. However over time, once these governments are initially established, people are born into them rather than truly free. It becomes standard and accepted because it is all that everyone has known their whole lives and from a young age taught is the optimal if not only way.

 Last edit: 04/02/2015 09:54

2primenumbers   United States. Feb 06 2015 17:10. Posts 199

I'm using the court system of the state to work at quashing some grossly mismanaging, investor capital wasting insiders

one advantage for some state power..

www.youtube.com/RichardGamingo - All of your commentated gaming entertainment. 

RiKD    United States. Feb 10 2015 20:09. Posts 8552

Greetings awesome people,

I recently found this amazing non-profit:

https://www.adbusters.org/

https://www.adbusters.org/about/adbusters

I now have a subscription in print and PDF. If anyone is interested I could send them the PDFs or post them to my blog if that is cool.

What I would like to share and discuss today is this:

Spark

Join Us!

Suddenly a hundred million of us start playing the corpo-killcap game!

Draw the line:

Exxon, BP, Chevron, McDondalds, Monsanto, Pfizer, Coca Cola, Dove, Nestle, Kraft, Kellog, Nike, Pepsico, Starbucks, Kimberley Clark, Proctor and Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, General Mills, Mattel, Bank of America


[yellow caution] Show some self discipline:

Malls, Supermarkets, Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo, Target, Chapters, Barnes and Noble, Microsoft, Car Co-ops, Tom's, American Apparel, Nature's Path [/yellow caution]

You know what to do:

Indie Shops, Coffee Houses and Bookstores, Farmer's Markets, Community-Supported Agriculture, Libraries, Co-op Housing, Sole Rebels, Fab Labs, Co-op Banks, Craigslist, Bitcoin, Airbnb, Tor Network, Open-Source, Kickstarter, Powell's Books, Bike Pirates, Intelligentsa Coffee, Trade School, Vegetarianism


Thoughts? Insights? Information?

How many of you are using Tor Network? Co-op banks? Bitcoin? (I currently do not and am looking to trial it out).

Experiences, Strength, and Hope?!

Love,

RiKD


brambolius   Netherlands. Feb 10 2015 20:29. Posts 1708


  On February 10 2015 19:09 RiKD wrote:


Draw the line:

Exxon, BP, Chevron, McDondalds, Monsanto, Pfizer, Coca Cola, Dove, Nestle, Kraft, Kellog, Nike, Pepsico, Starbucks, Kimberley Clark, Proctor and Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, General Mills, Mattel, Bank of America

Malls, Supermarkets, Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo, Target, Chapters, Barnes and Noble, Microsoft, Car Co-ops, Tom's, American Apparel, Nature's Path

Indie Shops, Coffee Houses and Bookstores, Farmer's Markets, Community-Supported Agriculture, Libraries, Co-op Housing, Sole Rebels, Fab Labs, Co-op Banks, Craigslist, Bitcoin, Airbnb, Tor Network, Open-Source, Kickstarter, Powell's Books, Bike Pirates, Intelligentsa Coffee, Trade School, Vegetarianism







Heat......EXTEND 

Baalim   Mexico. Feb 11 2015 07:39. Posts 34250


  On January 06 2015 06:01 Liquid`Drone wrote:
of course anarchy has something to do with anti-authority. imo that's the by far most positive thing the political theory has got going for it.. In fact just like lebowski, I've hung around quite a bit with anarchists, but never anarcho capitalists, they've all been leftists, and usually the anarchist inside them is not really concerned with the economical side of it, but rather the social one, like a, "I should be allowed to do whatever I want as long as nobody is hurt by it". But I've never heard any of them talk about taxation.

Basically my impression of anarchist seems to be completely in line with lebowski's. I'm not equating it with chaos - although I think it'd be a likely outcome - but I have absolutely no support for baal's anarchy and I don't think any self-identifying anarchist I know would, either.




Anarcho capitalism and anarcho-socialism are actually more similar to what you seem to grasp, we both recognize the State as the initiator of violence we just have different opinions on how to handle private property.

If you havent heard about taxation then you probably didnt have long talks with your anarchist friends or they have no idea what they are talking about, taxation is the first initiation of violence towards the individual and exactly how the government survives, no taxation, no government.

I know way more Rothbardians (anarcho capitalists) than socialist ones, usually the socialist ones simply watched the second Zeitgeist movie too many times.

Ex-PokerStars Team Pro Online 

Baalim   Mexico. Feb 11 2015 07:45. Posts 34250


  On January 06 2015 09:51 lebowski wrote:
Show nested quote +


The point was that the main body of anarchists today as well as historically doesn't share this vision of a stateless capitalism, so doubts/criticism here in lp no matter how vague are probably directed at multiple and more mainstream versions of anarchism; ones that I assume you reject too. I think that when you support a fraction of an already unpopular political view the most effective way to communicate would be to immediately focus on what makes said fraction different and better from what people will assume you refer to, instead of speaking up for the entire spectrum as if it were cohesive.

By focusing on what separates your version of anarchy from the ones that you too find non pragmatic those who challenge your view would find it easier to get into detail (and be convinced if you're right)


Well first of all people should recognize that the government is immoral, and the "how" its actually secondary.


If you were living in USA 200 years ago and saw slavery you would want to abolish it.... and people would tell you "but how will the crops survive, our economy depends on slavery!" and they would be right... but hopefully you would say Ï dont give a fuck, we will figure it out, but this is immoral and it has to stop"

You are born somewhere and for the state you at the moment of birth signed a "social contract" which means that you will give a big chunk of your income to the government so they can spend it however they see fit, for example... bombing the shit out of brown people in the middle east, you cant refuse to participate even if you dont plan on using the government resources, if you refuse the government will send armed men to put you in a cage, if you fight those men you will be killed.

Ex-PokerStars Team Pro Online 

RiKD    United States. Feb 11 2015 20:09. Posts 8552

Ding!

Just off the top of my head these are some things that a part of my income goes to support without any real say:

-Kidnapping and torturing brown people
-Using testimony from tortured brown people to justify wars.
-Mass murdering brown people with drones without any real accountability
-Bailing out robbing, deceiving cunt bankers (I typically do not like using the word cunt but there is really no better word to describe a lot of those fuckers)
-Subsidizing high fructose corn syrup, soybean oil, McDonald's, Coca Cola, General Mills, Monsanto, et al
-Subsidizing Boeing, National Defense, Halliburton, et al giving the State incentive to go to wars and keep weapon sales/consumption up

I could go on.

As Baal said:

The ways in which the laws are written:

I was in my mother's vagina. Then I was breathing in a hospital in what is deemed the United States of America. The instant I took my first breath a contract was signed for me with out my consent in which I owe the United States of America a given percent of my income. If I do not consent to that contract they use coercion through fear, force, violence, and torture. That is unethical and immoral, period.

Myself and most anarchists I speak with are not saying we can just get rid of the government and live in utopia tomorrow. The changes actually have to happen very gradually or else the next most violent and aggressive institutions will force themselves into power. It has to come from communities. It has to start on smaller, local scales. It really has to start with each individual and branch out. As the Dick Cheneys and Rupert Murdochs and Donald Sterlings start to die off and more and more people start to realize the truth through the internet and truthful and ethical information and education things will progress. No human being can ever be a saint. It is progression, not perfection. There are a lot of extremely complicated and entrenched issues that we all have to coexist with but if anyone would like to argue that progressing to a more fair, truthful, good place is not the right thing to do that is what this thread is for.

There are examples that States do not like to be brought up:

Portugal's legalization of drugs
Iceland not bailing out the banks
The revolution in Catalonia in the 1930s

I found them all fascinating and awesome if one has some time to do some research.


RiKD    United States. Feb 11 2015 21:17. Posts 8552

Cultural Revolution Is Our Business

We are a global network of artists, writers, environmentalists, teachers, downshifters, fair traders, rabble-rousers, shit-disturbers, incorrigibles and malcontents. We are anarchists, guerilla tacticians, meme warriors, neo-Luddites, pranksters, poets, philosophers and punks. Our aim is to topple existing power structures and change the way we live in the twenty-first century. We will change the way information flows, the way institutions wield power, the way the food, fashion, car, and cultural industries set their agendas. Above all, we will change the way we interact with the mass media and the way in which meaning is produced in our society.

-Kalle Lasn "Design Anarchy"

 Last edit: 12/02/2015 00:21

lebowski   Greece. Feb 11 2015 23:35. Posts 9205


  On February 11 2015 06:45 Baalim wrote:
Show nested quote +



Well first of all people should recognize that the government is immoral, and the "how" its actually secondary.


If you were living in USA 200 years ago and saw slavery you would want to abolish it.... and people would tell you "but how will the crops survive, our economy depends on slavery!" and they would be right... but hopefully you would say Ï dont give a fuck, we will figure it out, but this is immoral and it has to stop"

You are born somewhere and for the state you at the moment of birth signed a "social contract" which means that you will give a big chunk of your income to the government so they can spend it however they see fit, for example... bombing the shit out of brown people in the middle east, you cant refuse to participate even if you dont plan on using the government resources, if you refuse the government will send armed men to put you in a cage, if you fight those men you will be killed.



seriously Baal? You play the morality card?
This is amazing, I even referred to anarchists who think in Christian terms despite being atheists in the previous post from the one you quoted.
It's ridiculous to use morality as an argument because everyone has a different view on it, except maybe those who just say what their religion says.
To think that there perhaps exists a scientific view of things that could objectify morality (not saying you believe this necessarily, just expanding) would be even sillier; different people have different goals and needs and there's no God to objectify good and evil.On the contrary, the progress of science along with the industrialization of society has given objective morality a kick in the nuts; modernity and post modernity have given rise to individuality and morality can't escape the same fate.

People who had slaves weren't objectively immoral, they were the products of their times and you could def argue that they weren't hardcore humanitarians, but bringing ethics into this is like you demanding everyone in the known universe to accept your view of things as true when there is no judge to decide but the guys arguing. imfo if you want to convince over your view of social reconstruction start focusing on what is beneficial for those involved or how it would work, not on honorable duties.

new shit has come to light... a-and... shit! man...Last edit: 12/02/2015 13:13

Spitfiree   Bulgaria. Feb 12 2015 02:42. Posts 9634

Okay then, how about if he changes the word immoral with the word irrational ? Rationality is certainly something very strictly defined and it certainly describes the given case as well. You're right overall imo, but you went into an extreme

I can also argue about the morality of slave owners since not all of them were the immoral bastards everyone thinks they were and given the times they lived in I'd say it were pretty justified, then again slavery was something despicable so..

 Last edit: 12/02/2015 02:46

RiKD    United States. Feb 13 2015 19:11. Posts 8552

General Motors knew its ignition switches were ineffective, but for ten years they did not tell anyone - they kept it a secret. They were well aware that the faulty parts would cause deaths, but they decided to roll the dice and take their chances. If you or I did something like that - knowingly killing people - we would get dragged into court. We would get life, or even the death penalty.

GM should not be allowed to escape justice by paying a fine. The time has come for We, the People, to invoke that old American tradition of keeping corporations on a short leash - and demand that Attorney General Eric Holder charge General Motors with premeditated murder... and if GM is found guilty, its corporate charter must be revoked, which is the equivalent of a death sentence for a corporation. This would send a clear message to boardrooms and CEOs everywhere that criminality cannot be just another cost of doing business and that the death penalty hangs over their heads if they grievously break the public trust.

-Adbusters, Nov/Dec 2014


Minsk   United States. Feb 13 2015 22:23. Posts 1558

Everything is perfectly the way that it should be.


thewh00sel    United States. Feb 14 2015 06:38. Posts 2734


  On February 11 2015 22:35 lebowski wrote:
Show nested quote +


seriously Baal? You play the morality card?
This is amazing, I even referred to anarchists who think in Christian terms despite being atheists in the previous post from the one you quoted.
It's ridiculous to use morality as an argument because everyone has a different view on it, except maybe those who just say what their religion says.
To think that there perhaps exists a scientific view of things that could objectify morality (not saying you believe this necessarily, just expanding) would be even sillier; different people have different goals and needs and there's no God to objectify good and evil.On the contrary, the progress of science along with the industrialization of society has given objective morality a kick in the nuts; modernity and post modernity have given rise to individuality and morality can't escape the same fate.

People who had slaves weren't objectively immoral, they were the products of their times and you could def argue that they weren't hardcore humanitarians, but bringing ethics into this is like you demanding everyone in the known universe to accept your view of things as true when there is no judge to decide but the guys arguing.



Of course there are moral absolutes. Moral relativism is a total self-contradiction. The uiniversal rule 'anything goes' self-destructs, because it says that there is a universal rule that there are no universal rules. Just because something is commonly seen/done in one place (i.e slavery) doesnt make it moral. Of course the slave owners were objectively immoral. Is a rapist in a bad neighborhood where rape is more common less immoral than a rapist in an upscale neighborhood?

A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. - Ayn RandLast edit: 14/02/2015 06:40

Liquid`Drone   Norway. Feb 14 2015 16:23. Posts 3093

moral relativism does not mean anything goes. it's more a way of withholding judgement of the people who perpetuate what we consider immoral behavior, because we realize that we cannot possibly put ourselves in the position of the people we are judging.

For me, I certainly subscribe to moral relativism. (In fact, I recently described myself as an absolute moral relativist ). But that doesn't mean I don't consider certain actions immoral, it means that I don't consider the people who perpetuate said actions immoral.

To take rape as an example, we can look at two extremes. (normally I prefer to stay within the realm of reality, but when the topic is moral absolutes, extremes are very useful for establishing scenarios where most people can agree that it's much harder to judge the individual -> and then we've already established that moral absolutes don't exist. )
One is me. Raised in a loving, feminist home by stable parents. Never experienced real hardship through my life. Well educated, well read, pretty popular with girls and by no means sexually frustrated. Rape has never even really crossed my mind - it's so distant from me that I can easily laugh at, or even make, rape jokes.
Second is say, one of Genghis Khan's horsemen. These guys would be conditioned from a very early age into a very different life. Firstly, what can probably be considered brainwashing into having a combined set of ideas that make rape pretty much perfectly acceptable. For example; Guys and girls have different value, girl is property of man, if man cannot defend girl then she becomes property of other man. Hell, rape was also their only actual way of getting laid - which is a pretty basic human need. And frankly, through pre-modern history, this was largely how it was. Reading Xenophon's (whose remembrance signifies that he was exceptional in his time and age) account from a Greek raiding squad on Persia from like, 300BC, he passes no judgement on the soldiers who take sex slaves, no judgement on the pillaging of villages, no judgement on the idiotic leaders who avoid battle because the soothsayers claim that these particular goat entrails indicate that the gods are unfavorable, because all of this was so commonplace in his time an age that there was no question of its morality.

See,the thing is, when you examine individuals who deviate from society, it's easy to just judge those individuals as immoral. But when you examine entire societies who deviate from our definition of morality, then you can no longer judge the individuals. You can't hold people accountable for being brainwashed.

Frankly, moral absolutism in a world of changing morality is much more of a contradiction. If moral absolutism were real, then morality would be unchanging. But it changes across timelines and cultures, and even within such a narrow culture as "Norway from 1990 and onward" there are significant differences in people's perception of what constitutes moral behavior. Not that any Norwegians consider slavery moral anymore, no, because our society has achieved a sort of, collective maturation of thought, but there are great differences regarding say, to what degree we can exploit / harm animals for the benefit of people. It's not unlikely that 150 years from now, we can witness a similar shift as we have with slavery relating to say, industrial cattle farming - one way or the other.

Rejecting this, you choose to condemn virtually everyone who lived more than 150 years ago, because their views on morality would greatly differ from our own. Of course there are some exceptions - some of the great humanitarian philosophers who have shaped our way of thinking for the past millenia were people whose kindness were great outliers in their contemporary societies. Something mostly all of those people had in common was exceptional mind and ability, and the opportunity to spend their lives philosophizing rather than working. In segments of society where the population was bereft of this opportunity, there was little or no moral evolution, which also makes sense, and which you cannot judge the individuals who were part of that society for.

lol POKERLast edit: 15/02/2015 00:06

thewh00sel    United States. Feb 14 2015 19:21. Posts 2734

but to the victim the action is equally immoral. And that's the point. Im not saying to hold past immoral actions from dead societies against them. The people are gone.
I'm saying there is a correct way to behave (morality) and theories can be tested against it within its framework. That Universally Preferred Behavior exists. Morality doesn't "exist" in the real world, that's true. But the scientific method and numbers don't exist either. They're a framework to test if things are true or not.

A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. - Ayn RandLast edit: 14/02/2015 19:26

Liquid`Drone   Norway. Feb 14 2015 20:42. Posts 3093

the point is that once you establish the principle that people in the past cannot be judged for their immoral behavior because under their circumstances the behavior might not have been immoral, then that principle extends to the contemporary world as well.

I mean, take some Kony child rather than Ghengis Khan soldier, and take bodily mutilation rather than rape. Of course bodily mutilation is an absolutely abhorrent action, but you cannot judge one of the children who was forced to rape his mother with a machete before a month long drug infused brainwashing program started to make him continue down that path.

And in line with this, I also don't think you can judge the slave owners as immoral, because their behavior was in line with their contemporary surroundings and experiences they had thus far in life. It becomes less clear cut the less vicious the variables that make someone turn out the way they did are, but (from my perspective) the principle always holds true. I agree that we can talk of some type of universal morality (where a Golden Rule/silver rule is the basic simplified guideline), I just don't agree that anyone can be held accountable for not adhering to this, if anything it makes me want to pity them because I firmly believe that morality ties together with a good life - that people who live good lives are likely to be moral, and that people who are immoral are likely to live, and have lived, bad lives.

lol POKERLast edit: 26/02/2015 03:29

lebowski   Greece. Feb 14 2015 21:54. Posts 9205

"The desire for "freedom of will" in the superlative, metaphysical sense, such as still holds sway, unfortunately, in the minds of the half-educated, the desire to bear the entire and ultimate responsibility for one's actions oneself, and to absolve God, the world, ancestors, chance, and society therefrom, involves nothing less than to be precisely this causa sui, and, with more than Munchausen daring, to pull oneself up into existence by the hair, out of the slough of nothingness."
F. Nietzsche

Consciousness is epiphenomenal , people can't even control the thoughts that pop into their minds; the terms "free will" and even "self" are simplifications when used in everyday life.

How could a universally accepted morality ever exist when it's obvious that the differences between the people would make said morality harmful for some (and their personal goals)?
Under whose authority should (even a minority of) people accept a set of morals that they feel is harmful for themselves ? Science is a tool in the hands of the individual using it, it can't possibly be the way to reveal the universally ideal behavioral patterns, because these simply don't exist when holding a naturalistic view of the world.
Even on the basis of sincerely claiming to be humanitarians, people have behaved in completely different ways throughout history; a basis that isn't too common anyway.

Sure we can make laws and jails and prevent people from mannerisms that are widely accepted as wrong, in more modern societies the judges and lawmakers (hopefully) don't claim to be the voice of a universal principle though. Or at least they don't have to, because the main reason they are doing their jobs is far more practical.


  On February 14 2015 15:23 Liquid`Drone wrote:
Frankly, moral absolutism in a world of changing morality is much more of a contradiction. If moral absolutism were real, then morality would be unchanging. But it changes across timelines and cultures, and even within such a narrow culture as "Norway from 1990 and onward" there are significant differences in people's perception of what constitutes moral behavior.
.


good point, I'd like to add that there's also no compass to objectively claim a certain era's morality is superior, or that humanity is evolving morally. Sure it may seem that way to us, but that isn't enough to make a universal archetype out of a behavioral code. Our own taste is hardly something that we control after all and being brought up in this certain type of society inevitably makes us biased in favor of it

new shit has come to light... a-and... shit! man...Last edit: 14/02/2015 22:21

MyAnacondaDont   United States. Feb 14 2015 23:36. Posts 164

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”Last edit: 14/02/2015 23:37

thewh00sel    United States. Feb 14 2015 23:59. Posts 2734

people’s existing moral preferences are irrelevant to the science of morality, just as people’s existing beliefs that the world was flat was irrelevant to the physical sciences.

A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. - Ayn Rand 

lebowski   Greece. Feb 15 2015 03:25. Posts 9205


  On February 14 2015 22:59 thewh00sel wrote:
people’s existing moral preferences are irrelevant to the science of morality, just as people’s existing beliefs that the world was flat was irrelevant to the physical sciences.


explain how the science of morality would work, only thing I've heard of is some vague statements from Sam Harris (respect though)
How can you quantify life goals and personal meaning along with personal idiosyncrasies/weaknesses into some universal mathematical formula that will become mankind's behavioral compass?

Watch



and tell me Sam Harris wasn't destroyed in this video by the christian dude regarding his stance on morality, William Lane Craig asks the right questions, Harris gets cornered from the consequences of his disbelief in free will and reverts to attacking the ridiculousness of Lane's belief in God instead of answering convincingly.
Using terms like "avoiding the worst possible misery for everyone" , along with a weal health analogy, Harris is easily countered in Lane's rebuttal at around 45 min. (btw we've discussed this vid here in LP some time ago)

Some good reading material:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche-moral-political/

new shit has come to light... a-and... shit! man...Last edit: 15/02/2015 03:26

thewh00sel    United States. Feb 15 2015 04:47. Posts 2734

step 1: apply the non aggression principle to everything
Step 2: ????
Step 3: PROFIT

A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. - Ayn Rand 

lebowski   Greece. Feb 15 2015 16:22. Posts 9205


  On February 15 2015 03:47 thewh00sel wrote:
step 1: apply the non aggression principle to everything
Step 2: ????
Step 3: PROFIT


this aggression will not stand, man.
I must have missed the latest scientific discovery that proved aggression to be useless and immoral.

new shit has come to light... a-and... shit! man... 

Baalim   Mexico. Feb 17 2015 07:02. Posts 34250


  On February 15 2015 15:22 lebowski wrote:
Show nested quote +


this aggression will not stand, man.
I must have missed the latest scientific discovery that proved aggression to be useless and immoral.


[ ] useless
[x] immoral


What is this fucking ridiculous discussion of morality, killing is immoral fucking period, its not a slippery slope and the way the state operates does not fall into a grey area, the fact that people dont choose to see it it doesnt mean its not immoral just as slavery was.

The so called social contract where you have no choice and no reasonable alternative but to submit to whatever rules of the state is immoral, any initiation of force is immoral (non aggression principle). You can try to dig some weird exception but "give me your money and Ill spend it as I see fit and maybe some will help you or I will kill you" its not a fucking exception

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lebowski   Greece. Feb 17 2015 15:07. Posts 9205


  On February 17 2015 06:02 Baalim wrote:
Show nested quote +



[ ] useless
[x] immoral


What is this fucking ridiculous discussion of morality, killing is immoral fucking period, its not a slippery slope and the way the state operates does not fall into a grey area, the fact that people dont choose to see it it doesnt mean its not immoral just as slavery was.

The so called social contract where you have no choice and no reasonable alternative but to submit to whatever rules of the state is immoral, any initiation of force is immoral (non aggression principle). You can try to dig some weird exception but "give me your money and Ill spend it as I see fit and maybe some will help you or I will kill you" its not a fucking exception


everything alive in nature kills in one way or another for food, pleasure or dominance, aggression has been an asset for the survival and thriving of countless species on the planet,
yet here you dudes have apparently decided to label nature "objectively/scientifically" immoral because of your personal taste; the fucking cheetah doesn't care how much disney you've watched when you were young, it enjoys killing because it's in it's nature.

So either nature is inherently objectively immoral, in a very Christian outlook of the universe , or it is amoral and we too are also balls of mass/energy interacting with each other the best way we see fit through complex situations. The latter interpretation of the world leaves no room for bad conscience, as it presupposes that humans too, as a product of the bloody and slow evolutionary process , always do what they perceive as the best action for their growth and well being, no matter how stupid or fucked up their actions may seem; decision making processes on the brain have differences from person to person, not to mention how personal experience can produce vastly different behaviors.

So the only thing that seems to be ridiculous about this discussion is to demand that everyone accepts the non killing (or even non aggression, for a more new agey suggestion) principle as objective moral duty.We don't want needless killing so we agree to make rules to protect human life to make our own life better as we understand "better" to be; that doesn't mean we should label our own self centered bias as the objectively moral truth

People accept the state's existence as a necessary evil. Nobody likes paying taxes or to be told what to do, it's convinced otherwise ppl like yourself that should show how a stateless society could practically work and the ways it would be beneficial for most and I seriously doubt the moral imperatives will work even on the simplest of minds

new shit has come to light... a-and... shit! man... 

lebowski   Greece. Feb 17 2015 16:17. Posts 9205

Btw it's rare to see anarchists talking of "non aggression" principle or whatever this is . Are you saying that aggressive acts even vs tyrants are inherently immoral? How about killing a mass murderer? For food? Etc

new shit has come to light... a-and... shit! man... 

thewh00sel    United States. Feb 17 2015 18:41. Posts 2734

The Non-Aggression Principle – also called the Non-Aggression Axiom – is the idea that each person has the right to make his or her own choices in life so long as they do not involve aggression, defined as the initiation of force or fraud, against others. It is considered by many to be the defining principle of libertarianism. More technically, the principle asserts that aggression, a term defined by proponents as any encroachment on another person's life, liberty, or justly acquired property, or an attempt to obtain from another via deceit what could not be consensually obtained, is always illegitimate. According to some libertarians the NAP and property rights are closely linked, since what aggression is depends on what a person's rights are.[1] Aggression, for the purposes of NAP, is defined as initiating or threatening violence against a person or legitimately owned property of another.

Supporters of the NAP often appeal to it in order to argue for the immorality of theft, vandalism, assault, and fraud. Compared to nonviolence, the non-aggression principle does not preclude violence used in self-defense or defense of others.[59] Many supporters argue that NAP opposes such policies as victimless crime laws, taxation, and military drafts.

From wikipedia

A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. - Ayn RandLast edit: 17/02/2015 18:46

thewh00sel    United States. Feb 17 2015 19:26. Posts 2734


  On February 17 2015 14:07 lebowski wrote:
Show nested quote +


everything alive in nature kills in one way or another for food, pleasure or dominance, aggression has been an asset for the survival and thriving of countless species on the planet,
yet here you dudes have apparently decided to label nature "objectively/scientifically" immoral because of your personal taste; the fucking cheetah doesn't care how much disney you've watched when you were young, it enjoys killing because it's in it's nature.

So either nature is inherently objectively immoral, in a very Christian outlook of the universe , or it is amoral and we too are also balls of mass/energy interacting with each other the best way we see fit through complex situations. The latter interpretation of the world leaves no room for bad conscience, as it presupposes that humans too, as a product of the bloody and slow evolutionary process , always do what they perceive as the best action for their growth and well being, no matter how stupid or fucked up their actions may seem; decision making processes on the brain have differences from person to person, not to mention how personal experience can produce vastly different behaviors.

So the only thing that seems to be ridiculous about this discussion is to demand that everyone accepts the non killing (or even non aggression, for a more new agey suggestion) principle as objective moral duty.We don't want needless killing so we agree to make rules to protect human life to make our own life better as we understand "better" to be; that doesn't mean we should label our own self centered bias as the objectively moral truth

People accept the state's existence as a necessary evil. Nobody likes paying taxes or to be told what to do, it's convinced otherwise ppl like yourself that should show how a stateless society could practically work and the ways it would be beneficial for most and I seriously doubt the moral imperatives will work even on the simplest of minds


saying that morality doesn't exist naturally is silly because we are humans...who came to our current state...naturally. we live in social cultural states because it is our very nature to do so. Saying morality isn't natural is like saying hunting with tools or agriculture isnt natural.

So if you accept that humans can naturally evolve to use tools, grow our own food, communicate on wider scales, becoming closer and closer to "optimal" then you cannot deny that morality and other ethical ideas can be honed and become closer to optimal as well. And accepting that means that there is such a thing as optimal moral behavior or ideals.

A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. - Ayn Rand 

lebowski   Greece. Feb 17 2015 23:38. Posts 9205


  On February 17 2015 18:26 thewh00sel wrote:
Show nested quote +


saying that morality doesn't exist naturally is silly because we are humans...who came to our current state...naturally. we live in social cultural states because it is our very nature to do so. Saying morality isn't natural is like saying hunting with tools or agriculture isnt natural.

So if you accept that humans can naturally evolve to use tools, grow our own food, communicate on wider scales, becoming closer and closer to "optimal" then you cannot deny that morality and other ethical ideas can be honed and become closer to optimal as well. And accepting that means that there is such a thing as optimal moral behavior or ideals.



Never said that morality isn't natural, of course it exists as a human construct. Even for religious people, to refer to animals as "evil" would be pretty retarded, yet we claim humans could be objectively evil or good as if we are something other than nature, something of divine origin. I think people should seek for a personal moral code, the product of personal search for growth and tailored to their own needs. Notions of an objective morality are as naive as notions of the "perfect car" for all humans though; there would never be one that exactly fits everyone's needs and an average of everyone's wishes would just not be good enough for maximum growth.
The reference to "optimal" human beings or optimal human life/ "honing" morality is certainly rather vague and makes no sense if there can be no specific or objective purpose for humanity. Optimal for what?
One smokes weed all day the other one says fuck everyone I'm going to make the best sonatas.
Life goals can't be put under the microscope for objective evaluation, a perfect set of behavioral rules can't possibly be created.


  On February 17 2015 17:41 thewh00sel wrote:
The Non-Aggression Principle – also called the Non-Aggression Axiom – is the idea that each person has the right to make his or her own choices in life so long as they do not involve aggression, defined as the initiation of force or fraud, against others. It is considered by many to be the defining principle of libertarianism. More technically, the principle asserts that aggression, a term defined by proponents as any encroachment on another person's life, liberty, or justly acquired property, or an attempt to obtain from another via deceit what could not be consensually obtained, is always illegitimate. According to some libertarians the NAP and property rights are closely linked, since what aggression is depends on what a person's rights are.[1] Aggression, for the purposes of NAP, is defined as initiating or threatening violence against a person or legitimately owned property of another.

Supporters of the NAP often appeal to it in order to argue for the immorality of theft, vandalism, assault, and fraud. Compared to nonviolence, the non-aggression principle does not preclude violence used in self-defense or defense of others.[59] Many supporters argue that NAP opposes such policies as victimless crime laws, taxation, and military drafts.

From wikipedia


a bunch of people gather and make some decisions on what is right or wrong, I get it. It doesn't matter if one agrees or not, this has no basis to be called objective morality or scientific; it is one opinion among countless others throughout history. I am certain that even NAP supporters don't exactly agree on everything, especially when ill defined or clashing values such as liberty and "justly acquired property" are involved.

new shit has come to light... a-and... shit! man...Last edit: 17/02/2015 23:53

Baalim   Mexico. Feb 18 2015 03:08. Posts 34250


  On February 17 2015 14:07 lebowski wrote:
Show nested quote +


everything alive in nature kills in one way or another for food, pleasure or dominance, aggression has been an asset for the survival and thriving of countless species on the planet,
yet here you dudes have apparently decided to label nature "objectively/scientifically" immoral because of your personal taste; the fucking cheetah doesn't care how much disney you've watched when you were young, it enjoys killing because it's in it's nature.

So either nature is inherently objectively immoral, in a very Christian outlook of the universe , or it is amoral and we too are also balls of mass/energy interacting with each other the best way we see fit through complex situations. The latter interpretation of the world leaves no room for bad conscience, as it presupposes that humans too, as a product of the bloody and slow evolutionary process , always do what they perceive as the best action for their growth and well being, no matter how stupid or fucked up their actions may seem; decision making processes on the brain have differences from person to person, not to mention how personal experience can produce vastly different behaviors.

So the only thing that seems to be ridiculous about this discussion is to demand that everyone accepts the non killing (or even non aggression, for a more new agey suggestion) principle as objective moral duty.We don't want needless killing so we agree to make rules to protect human life to make our own life better as we understand "better" to be; that doesn't mean we should label our own self centered bias as the objectively moral truth

People accept the state's existence as a necessary evil. Nobody likes paying taxes or to be told what to do, it's convinced otherwise ppl like yourself that should show how a stateless society could practically work and the ways it would be beneficial for most and I seriously doubt the moral imperatives will work even on the simplest of minds



What a stupid argument seriously.

Obviously nature is immoral by human standards, killing the children and raping the mother is ok if you are a Lion, as a human guess what... surprisingly its immoral. If you think there is no such thing as morality then without any punishment you would go on a killing spree to steal pocket change? you are either sick or just arguing dumb things.

People dont accept the state as a necessary evil, they are simply born into it, educated by it and see no life outside of it, the same way religion is propagated, people dont objectivly think there is an invisible man in the sky very concerned about sexuality, they are simply born into it, most people simply dont question these kind of things.

Moral imperatives didnt eradicate slavery for thousands of hands simply because our society was too barbaric and obtuse to realize it was simply wrong and immoral, the same thing happens with the state.

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Baalim   Mexico. Feb 18 2015 03:12. Posts 34250


  On February 17 2015 17:41 thewh00sel wrote:
The Non-Aggression Principle – also called the Non-Aggression Axiom – is the idea that each person has the right to make his or her own choices in life so long as they do not involve aggression, defined as the initiation of force or fraud, against others. It is considered by many to be the defining principle of libertarianism. More technically, the principle asserts that aggression, a term defined by proponents as any encroachment on another person's life, liberty, or justly acquired property, or an attempt to obtain from another via deceit what could not be consensually obtained, is always illegitimate. According to some libertarians the NAP and property rights are closely linked, since what aggression is depends on what a person's rights are.[1] Aggression, for the purposes of NAP, is defined as initiating or threatening violence against a person or legitimately owned property of another.

Supporters of the NAP often appeal to it in order to argue for the immorality of theft, vandalism, assault, and fraud. Compared to nonviolence, the non-aggression principle does not preclude violence used in self-defense or defense of others.[59] Many supporters argue that NAP opposes such policies as victimless crime laws, taxation, and military drafts.

From wikipedia



Ditto.

its about INITIATION of force, not to never use force.

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lebowski   Greece. Feb 18 2015 13:59. Posts 9205


  On February 18 2015 02:08 Baalim wrote:
Show nested quote +



What a stupid argument seriously.

Obviously nature is immoral by human standards, killing the children and raping the mother is ok if you are a Lion, as a human guess what... surprisingly its immoral. If you think there is no such thing as morality then without any punishment you would go on a killing spree to steal pocket change? you are either sick or just arguing dumb things.

People dont accept the state as a necessary evil, they are simply born into it, educated by it and see no life outside of it, the same way religion is propagated, people dont objectivly think there is an invisible man in the sky very concerned about sexuality, they are simply born into it, most people simply dont question these kind of things.

Moral imperatives didnt eradicate slavery for thousands of hands simply because our society was too barbaric and obtuse to realize it was simply wrong and immoral, the same thing happens with the state.


the argument is not stupid, you are just a Christian and you don't even know it, or you somehow miss that we discuss objective morality. "Nature is immoral". This is a new low for the conversation especially if you mean objectively for all humans. Sure, and the sun is full of hate some days. The big bang especially was full of shit and humans have a natural inclination to sin and not just natural inclinations.
let me try to make a summary, give me an argument for the part you disagree with:

a) morality is a human construct,

b) your own understanding of good and evil is by no means exactly the same as everyone else's (subjective morality),

c) there's absolutely no sort of basis to claim that a person's own retarded ideas and values are the absolute morality to be embraced by everyone, objective morality is incomprehensible and unfounded on atheism (don't give me again the NAP or anti killing bs, where are these founded to be objective?)

d) if you think the concept of objective morality is what's really keeping people from going into killing sprees for pocket change, insert generic personal insult here (your style)

e) someone who doesn't even understand the concept of morality could never be objectively immoral; life that is not conscious will always be amoral and not immoral because moral obligations require free will to have any meaning whatsoever; free will is a concept that supposes the individual's brain works in ways other than the universe's, non deterministic and non probabilistic. It sprung from the obvious logical fallacies that came with the supposed existence of God (people get to "choose" stuff and be judged while God is all knowing and the source of everything else)

I agree on what you said about people being born into the state and not questioning it , they rationalize it by saying that it is a necessary evil, no contradiction here with what I said. Moral imperatives didn't work during slavery days because the state's influence on what most people see as ethical is huge. What you suggest is not really a great answer though; you want people to blindly follow your own perception of good and evil instead of everyone creating their own platform. You just make up an axiom that you think should be good for everyone "killing is evil" - like a commandment- and then whenever someone asks where do you base the objectivity of this statement you resort to personally attacking in the most sensationalist order ("you're sick or dumb if you don't get this" etc), something curiously enough even the great Sam Harris did in the debate I linked above.

Your own personal "gut" feelings, or mine, have nothing to do with the search for objectivity in morality. Kant tried much harder to prove objective morality and he started with moral intuition
as a basis; he then got relentless criticism on for his metaphysical prejudice by several philosophers. While his whole huge philosophical structure collapses without the metaphysical/dualistic element, at least he lived in the 1700s and made huge progress for his field, while you and I are in 2015 debating relevant subjects through the scope of atheism (lol)

Even if a unified anarchistic morality did exist and it was exactly what you had in mind, how would it enhance peoples' sense of autonomy and individuality to demand that everyone thinks that way because it is "right"

new shit has come to light... a-and... shit! man... 

RiKD    United States. Feb 18 2015 22:29. Posts 8552

"Men are united by error into a compact mass. The prevailing power of evil is the cohesive force that binds them together. The reasonable activity of humanity is to destroy the cohesive power of evil. Revolutions are attempts to shatter the power of evil by violence. Men think that by hammering upon the mass they will be able to break it in fragments, but they only make it more dense and impermeable than it was before. External violence is of no avail. The disruptive movement must come from within when molecule releases its hold upon molecule and the whole mass falls into disintegration. Error is the force that binds men together; truth alone can set them free. Now truth is truth only when it is in action, and then only can it be transmitted from man to man. Only truth in action, by introducing light into the conscience of each individual, can dissolve the homogeneity of error, and detach men one by one from its bonds."

-Leo Tolstoy, My Religion, Loc 2884-2885 (Chapter XII)

 Last edit: 18/02/2015 22:29

lebowski   Greece. Feb 19 2015 00:02. Posts 9205


  On February 18 2015 21:29 RiKD wrote:
" Error is the force that binds men together; truth alone can set them free. Now truth is truth only when it is in action, and then only can it be transmitted from man to man. Only truth in action, by introducing light into the conscience of each individual, can dissolve the homogeneity of error, and detach men one by one from its bonds."

-Leo Tolstoy, My Religion, Loc 2884-2885 (Chapter XII)


Tolstoy , a major Christian anarchist influence, could almost be citing Socrates here, the first guy to ever claim that truth is good/moral/divine and people should dedicate their lives finding it through internal search. .However, the concept of glorifying the truth as moral and noble had it's toll on the Christian dogma itself

"All great things destroy themselves by an act of self-cancellation. That's what the law of life wills, that law of the necessary "self-overcoming" in the essence of life – eventually the call always goes out to the lawmaker himself, "patere legem, quam ipse tulisti" [submit to the law which you yourself have established]. That’s the way Christianity was destroyed as dogma by its own morality; that’s the way Christendom as morality must now also be destroyed. We stand on the threshold of this event" -F. Nietzsche

By emphasizing on the objective truth (=good=moral) that Christianity claims to be, generations of western scientists were born and raised that highly prioritized truth seeking as a life goal, giving crippling blows to the validity of the Christian story; the way that it was told back then at least.

new shit has come to light... a-and... shit! man... 

Baalim   Mexico. Feb 19 2015 10:59. Posts 34250

No, I insist, the conversation is pretty retarded.

Well obviously morality is a human construct and its not absolute but as reasonable beings we can deduct what are good and bad things for a community, I dont remember a single civilization that condoned killing their own in non ritualistic activities, so basically every human on their own figured out that killing your neighbor for petty things its simply bad behavior or immoral.

There are many examples of reasonable morality rules like the golden rule, or the non aggression principle I have no fucking clue what this dull conversation has to do with anarchy.

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Baalim   Mexico. Feb 24 2015 06:50. Posts 34250

Are you arguing that without the state there will be no morality and we will go down into a spiral where fucking your sister chop her head off and using as a hat will be ok since morality is not absolute?

Or are you arguing that not everyone must agree objectively that what the government does is immoral?

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lebowski   Greece. Feb 24 2015 17:03. Posts 9205

^The first question is definitely a no.
The second one... well, I'm not sure what you mean. I'm saying that the state's existence can't objectively be proved to be immoral by atheistic standards, it obviously can be by metaphysical ones.

Regarding the first one in a bit of detail:

Finding pleasure in fucking and killing your sister certainly makes you special and dangerous for all the sisters out there but it's only immoral in the sense that society finds it threatening for it's well being, not some sort of divine compass that sits inside the head of each one of us like a spider sense. A clear indication for this is that society obviously doesn't think all killings are immoral and the ones that are considered moral change according to the historical period

The state isn't the source of values, it tries to make peoples' morals more homogeneous and closer to what the government considers best. Even without the state people rarely rank values in their heads in ways that would imminently threaten their own survival. It's not like we definitely need it now in order to have social peace, but it certainly has played a big role in what we consider moral social behavior:

In the beginning stages of social structuring the rules that discouraged what we now consider antisocial behaviour were extremely severe; if you stole something you lost an arm or you even became a slave/corpse (like the infamous Draconian constitution in early ancient Athens). Without extremely strict rules and their progressively softer versions that cultivated more and more socially suitable individuals the discussion we are now having would be impossible. Freud even suggested that by socially suppressing all the aggression we carry as biological organisms we internalize it and then inflict it on ourselves with the form of guilt; that means that we substitute the objects of our inner desire for "tyrannical" behavior with our own self and then claim that guilt exists because we failed to avoid our natural tendencies completely.

Even if, for the sake of making our lives better (or the current conversation), the state must become obsolete, it's important to realize that it was a necessary stepping stone that guaranteed social cohesion, even under the cruelest conditions.

Non aggression principle and the golden rule which you guys keep repeating are axioms that try to explore ways for bettering our lives, there is a huge distinction between objective morality and well being. If we somehow agreed that eg maximum liberty for the people was an objective moral good, a society that consists only of people that hate freedom would perform great by it's own standards but it wouldn't be moral.

This is exactly why science and logic can't help with identifying morality's "true" form, there's no objective scale on which to put values to see which is more important and they very often clash with each other. Our life's experience leads to certain biases and needs. Some people perform well under severe discipline, others feel like they have to be free from all restraining influences in order to thrive etc

  On February 19 2015 09:59 Baalim wrote:
Well obviously morality is a human construct and its not absolute but as reasonable beings we can deduct what are good and bad things for a community, I dont remember a single civilization that condoned killing their own in non ritualistic activities, so basically every human on their own figured out that killing your neighbor for petty things its simply bad behavior or immoral.


I'm glad we seem to agree on the non absolute of morality, think however how much difference in opinion there is and always will be on the term "petty things", it almost renders your last sentence meaningless.

new shit has come to light... a-and... shit! man...Last edit: 24/02/2015 17:19

lebowski   Greece. Feb 24 2015 17:16. Posts 9205

double post

new shit has come to light... a-and... shit! man...Last edit: 24/02/2015 17:18

Loco   Canada. Feb 24 2015 17:45. Posts 20963


  On February 15 2015 03:47 thewh00sel wrote:
step 1: apply the non aggression principle to everything
Step 2: ????
Step 3: PROFIT



My post isn't specific to the topic of anarchy so I apologize if it's a bit of a digression, but I want to respond to this more generally.

Let's imagine for a second that all of humanity were to apply the non-aggression principle to everything, without any discrimination. Humanity would quickly cease to exist. As Nietzsche rightly put it, "Life itself is essentially appropriation, injury, conquest of the strange and weak, suppression, severity, obtrusion of peculiar forms, incorporation, and at the least, putting it mildest, exploitation." Life can only be sustained through exploitation; exploitation necessarily involves aggression. The two most aggressive acts I can think of are that of killing an individual being and that of bringing an individual being into existence. Most people only think of the former as being an aggressive act, and this is where the main problem lies with your ethics: you are being selective while thinking that you aren't. Think on this simple fact: no one ever had a child in order to benefit that child, one procreates to benefit oneself, to satisfy one's own needs. The child is thrown into cosmic brutality and god knows how much suffering it will endure. All we know is that it certainly will suffer and die. How can such an act be proclaimed to be non-aggressive, or to be moral? But the act of imposing such hardship is selectively ignored by every NAPist I've seen argue for it. Why? Because life also involves pleasure? Kierkegaard: "Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth - look at the dying man's struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment."


You say you believe in moral absolutes. How could you have possibly come to the conclusion that it's absolutely good to commit an aggressive act in order to survive or to perpetuate your own DNA? Your reasoning is most likely something like this: "The species needs to survive, I as an individual need to survive." To which I can keep responding, "why? It's not absolute, it's relative to your own welfare and your own psychological needs." I would also ask you why it is you believe humancentric non-aggression is the proper goal to pursue but sentiocentric non-aggression is not (if that is what you believe)? Surely it isn't written into the fabric of the universe that humans should have dominion over other species and use them as they wish and in the process be absolutely moral. What informs your absolute judgments and from where does the imperative that we should all act in accordance with them come from? I would like to see what your favorite scientists of morality have to say in response. (Perhaps people who haven't deliberately avoided dealing with all of the well known literature written on the subject of ethics if possible.)

fuck I should just sell some of my Pokemon cards, if no one stakes that is what I will have to do - lostaccountLast edit: 24/02/2015 18:56

Loco   Canada. Feb 24 2015 19:31. Posts 20963


  On February 17 2015 06:02 Baalim wrote:
Show nested quote +





What is this fucking ridiculous discussion of morality, killing is immoral fucking period, its not a slippery slope and the way the state operates does not fall into a grey area, the fact that people dont choose to see it it doesnt mean its not immoral just as slavery was.



I take your "killing is immoral fucking period" as an absolute statement. If it's not, then you can disregard my post. If it is, then here are two hypotheticals for you Baal:

1) You wake up one day with the ability to read the mind of others at will. You can even know thoughts that they have previously had. You now work with the FBI in order to help them catch the right people. You find a serial killer who is obviously severely mentally damaged and who has no chance to be reformed. You have the choice to give him a painless lethal injection or to let him squander resources, rotting in jail for the rest of his life with awful living conditions. What's your choice and why?

2) You have the ability to predict the future with 100% certainty. You are witnessing a brutal concentration camp somewhere in the future. People have been abandoned to their fate and have no possibility of escaping. You know every single person there will come to die of starvation and illness. Many of them are religious and believe God will save them in time, so they will not commit suicide. They are still very much attached to life. You are powerless to change their fate, but you could secretly poison their only source of water with a chemical that will kill them in their sleep painlessly. What do you do? And if those people knew about your plan and they were begging you not to kill them, would it influence your decision? I guess I'll also throw this one in for fun: let's say that only one person is going to make it out if you do nothing, while none of them will if you proceed with the mercy killing of poisoning the water. Does it change your decision?

fuck I should just sell some of my Pokemon cards, if no one stakes that is what I will have to do - lostaccountLast edit: 24/02/2015 20:03

WhyYouKickMyDog   United States. Feb 24 2015 20:19. Posts 1623

I'd recommend reading The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris (as well as reading criticisms of it). I found it to be persuasive in arguing that objective morality exists, and that its a false dichotomy to say you're either an atheist who believes in subjective morality, or a theist who believes that morality is created by God.

"Killing is immoral fucking period" is obviously ridiculous, there are countless examples where killing is moral, and you don't even have to get into these insane hypotheticals to find them. It's especially ridiculous if "killing" meant any living creature instead of just killing other humans. Is that really something that anarchists commonly believe?


lebowski   Greece. Feb 24 2015 21:29. Posts 9205


  On February 24 2015 19:19 WhyYouKickMyDog wrote:
I'd recommend reading The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris (as well as reading criticisms of it). I found it to be persuasive in arguing that objective morality exists, and that its a false dichotomy to say you're either an atheist who believes in subjective morality, or a theist who believes that morality is created by God.

"Killing is immoral fucking period" is obviously ridiculous, there are countless examples where killing is moral, and you don't even have to get into these insane hypotheticals to find them. It's especially ridiculous if "killing" meant any living creature instead of just killing other humans. Is that really something that anarchists commonly believe?


I'm going to read that, but I think he didn't make good enough points on the debate I linked a few posts back. Have you seen it?

new shit has come to light... a-and... shit! man... 

lebowski   Greece. Feb 24 2015 21:35. Posts 9205

great, Loco's back. Now I don't have to be the only one writing walls of text

  On February 24 2015 18:31 Loco wrote:
Show nested quote +



I take your "killing is immoral fucking period" as an absolute statement. If it's not, then you can disregard my post. If it is, then here are two hypotheticals for you Baal:

1) You wake up one day with the ability to read the mind of others at will. You can even know thoughts that they have previously had. You now work with the FBI in order to help them catch the right people. You find a serial killer who is obviously severely mentally damaged and who has no chance to be reformed. You have the choice to give him a painless lethal injection or to let him squander resources, rotting in jail for the rest of his life with awful living conditions. What's your choice and why?

2) You have the ability to predict the future with 100% certainty. You are witnessing a brutal concentration camp somewhere in the future. People have been abandoned to their fate and have no possibility of escaping. You know every single person there will come to die of starvation and illness. Many of them are religious and believe God will save them in time, so they will not commit suicide. They are still very much attached to life. You are powerless to change their fate, but you could secretly poison their only source of water with a chemical that will kill them in their sleep painlessly. What do you do? And if those people knew about your plan and they were begging you not to kill them, would it influence your decision? I guess I'll also throw this one in for fun: let's say that only one person is going to make it out if you do nothing, while none of them will if you proceed with the mercy killing of poisoning the water. Does it change your decision?



I think he took the objective morality part back.
I consider it a surprising twist, even if he dissed the side debate as retarded

new shit has come to light... a-and... shit! man...Last edit: 25/02/2015 00:25

Baalim   Mexico. Feb 25 2015 02:26. Posts 34250


  On February 24 2015 18:31 Loco wrote:
Show nested quote +



I take your "killing is immoral fucking period" as an absolute statement. If it's not, then you can disregard my post. If it is, then here are two hypotheticals for you Baal:

1) You wake up one day with the ability to read the mind of others at will. You can even know thoughts that they have previously had. You now work with the FBI in order to help them catch the right people. You find a serial killer who is obviously severely mentally damaged and who has no chance to be reformed. You have the choice to give him a painless lethal injection or to let him squander resources, rotting in jail for the rest of his life with awful living conditions. What's your choice and why?

2) You have the ability to predict the future with 100% certainty. You are witnessing a brutal concentration camp somewhere in the future. People have been abandoned to their fate and have no possibility of escaping. You know every single person there will come to die of starvation and illness. Many of them are religious and believe God will save them in time, so they will not commit suicide. They are still very much attached to life. You are powerless to change their fate, but you could secretly poison their only source of water with a chemical that will kill them in their sleep painlessly. What do you do? And if those people knew about your plan and they were begging you not to kill them, would it influence your decision? I guess I'll also throw this one in for fun: let's say that only one person is going to make it out if you do nothing, while none of them will if you proceed with the mercy killing of poisoning the water. Does it change your decision?



Well I didnt elaborate much on that, I meant killing for selfish reasons is wrong, ofcourse killing in self defense or other exceptions like euthanasia are fine.

1) Id catch the serial killer before he commits a crime? Then I would defend others and I would let him choose whether he likes to live in confinement or die

2) Its their choice, they are able to reason even if they do it wrong, its not my place to make such decisions for them.

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Baalim   Mexico. Feb 25 2015 02:28. Posts 34250

But again why are we talking about the subjectivity of human morality in an anarchy thread?

How does that relate or justify the state?

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Loco   Canada. Feb 25 2015 08:41. Posts 20963

You don't have the option to catch him before he commits a crime. You gained the ability over night, he had already committed several slayings. And let's say your mind reading powers only work at close proximity, so you can't let him loose and prevent future crimes, unless you plan to dedicate your life to following a single criminal. (Cmon you were just supposed to humor me, it's an hypothetical!). Giving him the choice is a pretty noble decision; most people would want the punishment to fit the crime (but those people also believe in libertarian free will).

As for the second one, I think it's a harder choice than simply saying "it's not my place to decide for them". I think this sentiment is just our normal, humble intuitive moral sense speaking. But here you were given a godlike power and you definitely know better than they do. Appealing to their reasoning abilities is faulty when you know they are desperate, irrational animals doomed to a miserable death. Both options are unappealing, but it may very well be that it is more selfish to do nothing in such a scenario. Also, it has been proven in several studies that people are notoriously bad at knowing/wanting what would be good for them. I don't think it makes much sense to look at this data and just go with the thought, "they are self-directing agents, I should not interfere with their wishes, it is not my place". Again, I think there's a smuggling of a belief in free will in there. Just food for thought.

Actually, here's one more thought experiment that just came to my mind to sort of illustrate my point. Let's say you're a doctor and you're dealing with a couple where the woman is currently pregnant. You learn from screening tests that the baby will be born with some kind of non-trivial birth defect. It will suffer from this condition for all of its life. You know that both individuals are religious fundamentalists and they will want the baby as it is, regardless of its condition. They don't believe in evolution; they believe that if God made the child like this, then it's just part of His plan which we must not doubt. Now say you could reverse this condition permanently with medicine, but you knew that they would refuse. Would you respect their wishes? If you could use the medicine against their knowledge, would you not?

fuck I should just sell some of my Pokemon cards, if no one stakes that is what I will have to do - lostaccountLast edit: 25/02/2015 08:55

Loco   Canada. Feb 25 2015 09:02. Posts 20963


  On February 24 2015 19:19 WhyYouKickMyDog wrote:
I'd recommend reading The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris (as well as reading criticisms of it). I found it to be persuasive in arguing that objective morality exists, and that its a false dichotomy to say you're either an atheist who believes in subjective morality, or a theist who believes that morality is created by God.



fuck I should just sell some of my Pokemon cards, if no one stakes that is what I will have to do - lostaccount 

Baalim   Mexico. Feb 25 2015 10:48. Posts 34250


  On February 25 2015 07:41 Loco wrote:
You don't have the option to catch him before he commits a crime. You gained the ability over night, he had already committed several slayings. And let's say your mind reading powers only work at close proximity, so you can't let him loose and prevent future crimes, unless you plan to dedicate your life to following a single criminal. (Cmon you were just supposed to humor me, it's an hypothetical!). Giving him the choice is a pretty noble decision; most people would want the punishment to fit the crime (but those people also believe in libertarian free will).

As for the second one, I think it's a harder choice than simply saying "it's not my place to decide for them". I think this sentiment is just our normal, humble intuitive moral sense speaking. But here you were given a godlike power and you definitely know better than they do. Appealing to their reasoning abilities is faulty when you know they are desperate, irrational animals doomed to a miserable death. Both options are unappealing, but it may very well be that it is more selfish to do nothing in such a scenario. Also, it has been proven in several studies that people are notoriously bad at knowing/wanting what would be good for them. I don't think it makes much sense to look at this data and just go with the thought, "they are self-directing agents, I should not interfere with their wishes, it is not my place". Again, I think there's a smuggling of a belief in free will in there. Just food for thought.

Actually, here's one more thought experiment that just came to my mind to sort of illustrate my point. Let's say you're a doctor and you're dealing with a couple where the woman is currently pregnant. You learn from screening tests that the baby will be born with some kind of non-trivial birth defect. It will suffer from this condition for all of its life. You know that both individuals are religious fundamentalists and they will want the baby as it is, regardless of its condition. They don't believe in evolution; they believe that if God made the child like this, then it's just part of His plan which we must not doubt. Now say you could reverse this condition permanently with medicine, but you knew that they would refuse. Would you respect their wishes? If you could use the medicine against their knowledge, would you not?



I was trying to humor you, I thought the psycho didnt commit the crimes yet, I have no strong position on death penalty, I think both options are fine, since this guy has some kind of mental handicap letting him choose would be best, Id be more willing to kill people who commit non-passionate murders.

No I would not intervene and poison them, their free will is extremely important even if it comes at the cost of pain because of their ignorance, this happens all the time.

On the example of the child I would give the child the medicine since its a 3rd person they would be fucking up, usually we leave parents the decision because they are supposed to know best, but if for some reason I can know better than then then I will act in the best interest of the child since its not able to reason and make choices yet, but if the parents are the ones sick and refusing treatment Id let them suffer the consequences of their ignorant choices.

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thewh00sel    United States. Feb 26 2015 09:41. Posts 2734


  On February 24 2015 16:45 Loco wrote:
Show nested quote +



My post isn't specific to the topic of anarchy so I apologize if it's a bit of a digression, but I want to respond to this more generally.

Let's imagine for a second that all of humanity were to apply the non-aggression principle to everything, without any discrimination. Humanity would quickly cease to exist. As Nietzsche rightly put it, "Life itself is essentially appropriation, injury, conquest of the strange and weak, suppression, severity, obtrusion of peculiar forms, incorporation, and at the least, putting it mildest, exploitation." Life can only be sustained through exploitation; exploitation necessarily involves aggression. The two most aggressive acts I can think of are that of killing an individual being and that of bringing an individual being into existence. Most people only think of the former as being an aggressive act, and this is where the main problem lies with your ethics: you are being selective while thinking that you aren't. Think on this simple fact: no one ever had a child in order to benefit that child, one procreates to benefit oneself, to satisfy one's own needs. The child is thrown into cosmic brutality and god knows how much suffering it will endure. All we know is that it certainly will suffer and die. How can such an act be proclaimed to be non-aggressive, or to be moral? But the act of imposing such hardship is selectively ignored by every NAPist I've seen argue for it. Why? Because life also involves pleasure? Kierkegaard: "Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth - look at the dying man's struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment."


You say you believe in moral absolutes. How could you have possibly come to the conclusion that it's absolutely good to commit an aggressive act in order to survive or to perpetuate your own DNA? Your reasoning is most likely something like this: "The species needs to survive, I as an individual need to survive." To which I can keep responding, "why? It's not absolute, it's relative to your own welfare and your own psychological needs." I would also ask you why it is you believe humancentric non-aggression is the proper goal to pursue but sentiocentric non-aggression is not (if that is what you believe)? Surely it isn't written into the fabric of the universe that humans should have dominion over other species and use them as they wish and in the process be absolutely moral. What informs your absolute judgments and from where does the imperative that we should all act in accordance with them come from? I would like to see what your favorite scientists of morality have to say in response. (Perhaps people who haven't deliberately avoided dealing with all of the well known literature written on the subject of ethics if possible.)


I do think it is morally wrong to be aggressive toward any sentient being. Empathy informs my judgment. I agree that children are born against their knowledge. I won't say against their will because they are not sentient beings when they're sperm and egg, which cannot possibly categorize it into an aggressive action. I'll admit when you get as deep as you guys are getting that moral absolutes are both nonexistant and irrelevant...Yes I am being selective talking about humans, or sentient beings, but what the fuck? We're humans...and until something else comes along to show us empirically where we're fucking up our science of morality we have to use the EVIDENCE we have. And using evidence and hypotheses, and the scientific method on it, classifies different thoughts on morality as right or wrong. It is a science. That is all I was trying to say when I said there are absolutes in morality. That some theories for morality can be shown to be more correct/efficient/optimal than others for forming a successful human/personality/civilization. I guess absolute wasn't the right word, I'll go with objective morality then you semanticizers.

But, bringing us back to the topic at hand, there is no interaction that I can think of where the initiation of force is preferable to non-aggression. And when you get into men with guns telling everyone what to do (government), you are interfering with all competing offers on how to do everything, thus decreasing efficiency. Again, remember that government is not a real thing...it's a made up word for people with the threat of violence and death on you and your unborn children unless you give them money aka your time/productivity receiving nothing in return...other than the promise that they won't kill you until you stop.

A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. - Ayn Rand 

lebowski   Greece. Feb 26 2015 13:56. Posts 9205


  On February 26 2015 08:41 thewh00sel wrote:
Show nested quote +



I do think it is morally wrong to be aggressive toward any sentient being. Empathy informs my judgment. I agree that children are born against their knowledge. I won't say against their will because they are not sentient beings when they're sperm and egg, which cannot possibly categorize it into an aggressive action. I'll admit when you get as deep as you guys are getting that moral absolutes are both nonexistant and irrelevant...Yes I am being selective talking about humans, or sentient beings, but what the fuck? We're humans...and until something else comes along to show us empirically where we're fucking up our science of morality we have to use the EVIDENCE we have. And using evidence and hypotheses, and the scientific method on it, classifies different thoughts on morality as right or wrong. It is a science. That is all I was trying to say when I said there are absolutes in morality. That some theories for morality can be shown to be more correct/efficient/optimal than others for forming a successful human/personality/civilization. I guess absolute wasn't the right word, I'll go with objective morality then you semanticizers.

But, bringing us back to the topic at hand, there is no interaction that I can think of where the initiation of force is preferable to non-aggression. And when you get into men with guns telling everyone what to do (government), you are interfering with all competing offers on how to do everything, thus decreasing efficiency. Again, remember that government is not a real thing...it's a made up word for people with the threat of violence and death on you and your unborn children unless you give them money aka your time/productivity receiving nothing in return...other than the promise that they won't kill you until you stop.


I still don't see how you address Hume's "is" and "ought" distinction. You arbitrarily select one biological trait (empathy) that suits your personal taste as an axiom for morality and claim that science can be the tool that indicates whether human actions are moral or not, leaving out that that's only possible because you presupposed the goal with which science had to operate. At least Sam Harris has a wider starting point that attempts to bridge this gap : he proposes that a (vague) notion of collective well being could be objective and that when it comes down to it, morality is only about well being in the broader sense.

I don't want to further derail this thread so I'll just link Russel Blackford's review of The Moral Landscape and the essay that he judged as a winner for Sam's blog challenge on criticizing the book's main point, both make good food for thought:
http://jetpress.org/v21/blackford3.htm
http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-moral-landscape-challenge

on a last note, this moral debate on the side of OP's subject isn't as irrelevant and definitely not as stupid it's been accused of. Only fools would attempt to try to restructure society positively without a coherent grasp of what motivates the human psyche, or even wondering how the term "positively" could firmly stand the pressure of universality.

new shit has come to light... a-and... shit! man...Last edit: 26/02/2015 13:59

Baalim   Mexico. Mar 02 2015 02:41. Posts 34250

It is exactly coherent grarsp of what motivates the human psyche why I am an anarchist and why the state is always doomed to fail

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