The nature of anarchism (Lefty Despair etc.)

[Gordon Fitch]

Gordon:
> >This is generally a return to the argument from efficiency.
> >Efficiency is the ratio of cost to production, but by itself
> >it does not state some ultimate value of what it is that is
> >being produced, or its costs.  So many measures of efficiency
> >omit significant costs and byproducts.  Thus, while a monopoly
> >postal service may be a good thing by itself in terms of
> >getting one's mail, no evaluation has been provided as to
> >whether this convenience outweighs the cost of class and class
> >war, which are necessary to sustain a state and its agencies,
> >as well as the other products of the State, such as war in
> >the conventional sense, political repression, police violence,
> >economic oppression, and so on, which arise directly out of
> >class war or are resonances of it.

Justin Schwartz:
> You misunderstand. The point is not that the post office has to be 
> amonopoly maintained by force, but that it's a public good which won't 
> exist at all without a public authority. And if the choice is a state with 
> all it's problem, including the risk of abuse and oppression by state 
> authorities, and no public goods--no roads, passenger trains, no universal 
> education, no post office and telephone service, etc., I jnow how 99.99% of 
> humanity will choose.

I understand the theory that coercion is more efficient than
freedom, but you haven't answered the objections I make to
that theory (right above).  The fact that a large majority
do not agree with me is hardly an argument at all and I
don't know why you've introduced it.

-- Gordon