[lbo-talk] Democratic Communism

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Mon Nov 10 14:06:31 PST 2003


Michael Dawson -PSU wrote:
>
> >
> And, for that matter, who would really want to give up the state? How would
> a stateless society respond to a major earthquake?

I don't have the slightest idea as to whether there is ever going to be a stateless society, but if you want to debate it you should at least define it accurately.

"State" and "Government" are not the same. The government and other public institutions would handle an earthquake in a hypothetical stateless society just as they would today. Replacing the army and the police with an armed citizenry would be on the road to a stateless society.

More importantly, the purpose in roughing out a vision of the future is not to propose goals but to better understand the present. And for this purpose it is essential to envisage a stateless society (but not one in which government had disappeared).

It's not a topic in which I'm very intested at this time, however.

Carrol



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