Dennis Claxton wrote:
>
>
> I wasn't talking about reaching people, I was talking about if you
> have an idea you want to see things set up and run differently, then
> you should have an idea about how you would handle very basic things
> like criminal justice.
>
> >[Cox] And does anyone seriously believe that the proposition "Thou shalt not
> >kill" has ever changed anyone's behavior.
>
> DC] Again, I'm saying we should have an idea about what to do when it does happen.
No! Not only do we not _need_ to have an idea about what to do (50 years from now) "when it does happen," but it is positively WRONG, reactioary, totalitarian, to have such ideas.
You don't trust or believe in democracy, because you believe that the individual needs protection against the tyranny of the many. But freedom (as opposed to individual liberty) can only be achieved in a democracy. When you ask for an idea of how to handle murder in a socialist socviety, you are saying that we can't trust the people of that society to choose the right way to handle murder unless we dictate to them. And yet you know that even if we do dictate, they will, ineffect, tell their dead ancestors with their stupid plans and scenarios to go fuck themselves.
I'm beginning to udnerstnd what some of us have referred to as a contradiction in libertarian thought. On the one hand they want extreme individual liberty, on the other hand they support police power. But that isn't a contnradiction at all. The premise is individualism, namely that all good things and all bad things come from individuals. All bad things are individual crimes. Hence the need for strong police. But if you are not commmiting a crime, then it is wrong to control your behavior by social pressure. That is why "political correctness" ranks so high among the bad things in the libertarian philosophy, and why leftists wh are still libertarian at heart also have so often joined that libertarian chorus.
The political unit is neighborhood of at most a three thousand. It is responsiblbel for the behavior of its own members. No trials but political debates as in ancient Athens. That of course raise endless questons, each of which will raise another thousand questions, and so on. It is impossible to change the wrorld without a pattern or recipe and a pattern raises insoluable questions so it is impossible to change the world except to fiddle around with the present structure.
Trust the people. And if you don't, trust the capitalist courts and prisons.
Carrol
Carrol