At 12:36 PM 9/9/94 -0700, Doug Cutrell wrote:
I am trying to understand the arguments for these points of view... I consider myself to be extremely "liberal" in my political philosophy, and I have a lot of respect for the arguments of libertarians. But I am continually pulled back to the "test case" issue of racist employment practices. This is the case where the argument is most difficult for me to buy.
Cypherpunks is becoming "horrors" libernet. The only legitimate hook for this issue is the fact that many would oppose crypto anarchy (if they knew it existed) because it makes things like anti-discrimination laws possible. To avoid too much damage to the list, I will try and restrain myself to two observations on the subject of laws against racial discrimination (which libertarians do oppose): 1) Laws are enforced by threat of (or by actual) violence. Supporters of outlawing racial discrimination are in the position of arguing that non-violent social disagreements (the decision by someone not to deal with someone else on *bad* grounds) should be "solved" by sending armed men out to punish the person deciding to refuse to hire -- say -- whites. And of course to kill him if he resists his punishment. I would rather see deadly force limited to situations in which there has at least been a breach of the peace of some kind. 2) I have never met a person (and don't believe that there ever has been a person) who has not discriminated on all of the "prohibited" bases frequently. Has there ever been anyone who selected -- say -- their friends and lovers *purely* using random selection. Never discriminating on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, age, alienage, previous condition of servitude, marital status, sexual or affectional preference, handicap, etc. It would be hard to imagine someone who didn't use these prohibited classifications in their personal sexual lives. I observe little use of RNGs (see -- a cypherpunks technical reference after all) in social intercourse. Since it is legal (and indeed considered OK) to discriminate on all these grounds in our personal lives, libertarians believe that discrimination should at least be legal. Freedom of Choice in *everything*. DCF ************************************************************************* ATMs, Contracting Out, Digital Switching, Downsizing, EDI, Fax, Fedex, Home Workers, Internet, Just In Time, Leasing, Mail Receiving, Phone Cards, Quants, Securitization, Temping, Voice Mail.