A succinct embodiment of all that is wrong with the self-assumed authority of the modern nation-state, which, at its core, is based upon a monopoly of violence.
I don't really want to engage with this (it's a really common talking point and it won't change anyone's mind who didn't already agree) -- but your phrasing made me for the first time realize what exactly the alternative is: a free market for violence. Is that what you're advocating?
I don't really want to engage with this (it's a really common talking point and it won't change anyone's mind who didn't already agree)
Oh right, and being trite with a false dichotomy is supposed to be more constructive? Sheesh. I suspect if you were, say, homeless or wrongly jailed for awhile then you'd come out far less dismissive of criticism of government.
No, seriously, it's such a common talking point that if you google the words "monopoly of force" you'll find the argument hashed out, extremely we'll, by both sides, thousands of times. So there's literally I reason to do it again, instead of just linking to one of those.
My question was also literal, not rhetorical: is a free-market for force what you intended to advocate? If not, what are you advocating? Explain how force should be divvied up, if a monopoly is suboptimal.
I wasn't trying to roadmap a solution, merely highlight the excellence of the example. However, I'll bite. I believe states are essentially post-WWI (ie. passport era) anachronisms largely propped up through the UN and ISO who prevent new states from succeeding. I believe that any group should have the full right to succeed from the existing state at any time without any hard to obtain consent thereof. I also believe that geographical proximity to a state, for instance at birth, should not endanger one's capacity to travel beyond its borders or seek meaningful membership of other social groups providing competing avenues of service to its members. Critically, they should also have the ability to use any form of currency they see fit, and thus to subvert poorly performing governments by replacing present-era state mandated taxation systems with alternatives that may be more responsive to local conditions in terms of service provision and social priorities. Obviously, such changes will require significant re-organization within market and supply systems, however I also believe that owing to technological change we are entering an era in which such a direction, despite its complex and untested nature, is becoming more feasible.
