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« on: July 12, 2016, 05:49:08 PM »
Hi, badfish. Learning to explain better the things we do understand, and to explore more the ones we don't, are why this part of the forum is here. Responses are slow in coming at present because the forum itself is too new to have attracted a large number of potential repliers. People are reading this and are interested, but you've offered so much to comment on and think about that going through it will take some time. Myself, I find it a bit intimidating -- in the good way --, but only at first. Thanks for asking these questions.
As for Adam, I'm not in touch with him myself but a look at his YouTube channel shows him to be presently busy dealing with harassment by people who think they've been appointed to tell him how, where, and whether to house himself and his loved one; and to be heavily compensated by him for their unwanted intrusions. In short, he's dealing with local permits, zoning, so on. I have seen him participate on the forum regularly when he's not as constrained.
My own time is limited. I can't begin to answer all or even to raise the obvious next questions. But I can restart the discussion with: "prison".
We've had prisons for a very long time now, so I ask you simply to provide -- either to yourself, or "out loud" here -- examples of the demonstrated positive good that comes from having prisons, or for that matter punishment per se of any kind.
I realize that my query seems to do nothing towards providing the voluntaryist explanation and apology you ask for. Thing is, it appears some disassembly of your questions is needed to get at specific, real-world premises that will help answer them. I hope this will be taken on over time by more people here.
A State that has assumed sovereignty over an area and its inhabitants is one form of government. An individual, organization, or firm that has been privately hired (no matter by how many or few) to control or to exact a penalty from someone else is still a government. It should also be said that one's own restraint from doing that which is harmful or unethical is a species of government. In this sense, it can rightly be said that the freed market itself will be a form of government; one with rules that are natural instead of artificially constructed, and with rewards and penalties that, also naturally, follow.
The debate between minarchists and anarchists is whether merely most or entirely all of the problems of coercive government are caused by trying to replace natural laws and effects. An anarchist is a minarchist who believes "min" equates to "zero". One who identifies directly as a minarchist usually assumes a small positive, rather than zero, value. The truth will only be demonstrated by trying the experiment of reducing the permission of force until the correct value is finally reached. I'm convinced zero is the magic measure, but do have remaining questions about the ethical and practical amount of time that should be used to get there. I'm similarly convinced that any delay whatsoever in pushing the experiment forward is unwarranted and dangerous to the point of being deadly. Theory that can aid in choosing the right path of experimentation is always good, so please keep asking the questions and offering thoughts. But as your personal situation and ethics allow present trial of ideas, rather do that.
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