Take that, Greenies!

"The environmental movement maintains that science and technology cannot be relied upon to build a safe atomic power plant, to produce a pesticide that is safe, or even to bake a loaf of bread that is safe, if that loaf of bread contains chemical preservatives. When it comes to global warming, however, it turns out that there is one area in which the environmental movement displays the most breathtaking confidence in the reliability of science and technology, an area in which, until recently, no one—not even the staunchest supporters of science and technology—had ever thought to assert very much confidence at all. The one thing, the environmental movement holds, that science and technology can do so well that we are entitled to have unlimited confidence in them is forecast the weather—for the next one hundred years!"(source)

An excellent point

Today I sat a lecture with Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe on behalf of the Copenhagen institute. The topic was Private Law society, e.g. a society without a State. In such a society, law is enforced by individuals, private protection agencies and insurance companies (that is our idea today anyway - who knows what individuals in a free society will come up with to produce security and protection?).

As always when this topic comes up, all kinds of questions arise from those who cannot think outside the box (before today, I was more or less one of those).

The following question was raised, which goes something like this: Could not the mafia (or a mafia-like organization) decide to make its area of dominion a mini-State so that no-one else can operate there in the field of protection?

Hoppe's answer was brilliant and goes something like this: Are we afraid to give up the State because there is a theoretical risk of a mini-State arising? Then why not give up the State to begin with?

This answer should more or less eliminates all what if-questions about the anarcho-capitalist ideology of a State-free society. If people accept the argumentation that declares that no State can be justified, then the next step should be clear: Drop the State altogether, because the worst thing that could happen is for a State to arise again! Don't refuse the cure because you might get sick again. A lesson learned now.

Education: Free and Compulsory - Mises Institute: "Savagery is uniformity. The principal distinctions are sex, age, size, and strength. Savages … think alike or not at all, and converse therefore in monosyllables. There is scarcely any variety, only a horde of men, women, and children. The next higher stage, which is called barbarism, is marked by increased variety of functions. There is some division of labor, some interchange of thought, better leadership, more intellectual and aesthetic cultivation. The highest stage, which is called civilization, shows the greatest degree of specialization. Distinct functions become more numerous. Mechanical, — commercial, educational, scientific, political, and artistic occupations multiply. The rudimentary societies are characterized by the likeness of equality; the developed societies are marked by the unlikeness of inequality or variety. As we go down, monotony; as we go up, variety. As we go down, persons are more alike; as we go up, persons are more unlike, it certainly seems … as though [the] approach to equality is decline towards the conditions of savagery, and as though variety is an advance towards higher civilization…."