[more excruciatingly enlightening grandiloquence] Responding to msg by Phil Karn: . . . . how can one create a government that rises above the petty illiberalism of the people it governs to protect the rights of the individual? ................................................... It appears that being given a position in charge of upholding abstract ideals makes some people forget whose interest or which ideal it is that they are supporting, and they take too seriously the opportunity to lord over others. When someone has been given responsibility over others, they seem to suddenly lose their perspective and propose all sorts of things contrary to what they claimed to think prior to assuming that office. I think there will come a time when business enterprises will completely replace 'government' functions. Most people see both society and political systems as means to practical ends. These two organizations have pragmatic functions which individuals see as advantageous to their own comfort and advancement. When neither of these deliver on the promise of the desired benefits, all of those who were depending upon them complain that their expectations were betrayed. It remains to 'overthrow' these organizations or raise hell at least, but still conditions remain largely unsatisfactory. A business enterprise is more precisely a tool for the realization of the kind of benefits which people are looking for from each other. It also has the advantage of flexibility - it can be modified to suit or disbanded altogether without affecting uninvolved parties in the same way as must happen when attempting to "improve" a society or a government. A company does not recognize an individual in the same way that a society or a government does in terms of a comprehensive ideal, but it can better provide the means to achieve personal goals & ambitions, and I think is thus better suited as a tool for providing (read 'creating') what individuals could want from the world while living in co-existence with strangers. Blanc