I wrote:
Governments are in the business of violence.
Jason W Solinsky writes
A government is something that makes laws, enforces laws and punishes offenders. I don't see why guns would determine whether or not something is a government.
And if I wish to conduct business in a shopping mall, either as customer or shopkeeper, I have to abide by the mall rules. This does not make the mall a government.
Why not?
Because if you fail to obey the mall rules you will get thrown out. (Possibly by men with guns.) If you fail to obey the government rules men with guns will come and kill you, imprison you, or take away your property at gunpoint. That is why the shopping mall is not a government and that is why your "cyberspace governments" are not governments, they are private escrow agencies. We do not call malls governments and we do not call private escrow agencies governments. So we should not call your "cyberspace governments" governments. It is not rules and enforcement that make a government a government - every organization, every group of people, have rules and enforcement, usually informal, sometimes formal. It is killing, violence, and extortion that make government organizations different from non government organizations. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of the kind of animals that we James A. Donald are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state. jamesd@netcom.com