On Fri, 13 Apr 2001, John Sheehy wrote:

On Fri, 13 Apr 2001, V. Alex Brennen wrote:

These barriers have gotten worse throughout history. In the 18th Century one could challenge a "protection provider" through direct action with muskets and little else. Today one needs significantly more resources (advanced weaponry -- RPGs, SAMs, etc) to effectively challenge a 'protection provider' through direct action.

It's not so much about weaponry, I don't think. It's about organization and communication. Muskets, in the hands of people who actually know where to point them and when, are still just as effective against mafia (et al) as they have always been. But it has become far more difficult to keep track of where to point them and when -- partly as a result of advances in surveillance and the availability of information about people that is beyond their physical control, threats against an individual can originate from far more quarters and in far more ways than ever before. These days I don't think of physical weapons as the appropriate tools of the revolutionary. And face it; the "barriers to entry" are sufficiently large that they cannot practically be overcome on that score. If you go pointing guns at government types, or even mere mafiosi, then sooner or later you will die. Because of the immediate response to weapons, the only resources you will take down first are those defined as expendable - police officers, treasury agents, low-level legbreakers, whatever. These are resources that the organization can replace instantly and painlessly, and which will not cause it any real pain. But these organizations have hierarchies. Because they are not fully distributed, there are resources within each organization that serve a role or function, or have privelege, that is not the same as that of other resources. If you pick things that are extremely hard to replace, and things in the absence of which the system will not function, then a very few moves can cripple the organization. Sometimes such moves can be made with a musket, if one has sufficient intel. But just as often a pen or a camera or a tape recorder will do.

Ideally, governments need to be decoupled from geographical territories, so that an individual has a freedom to exercise their right to choose the best government no matter where she is located.

You are not speaking of government-as-we-know-it. You are speaking of something which you envision that may replace government. Bear