The Crypto Winter

[Petro]

On Saturday, November 17, 2001, at 05:49 PM, David Honig wrote:

> At 03:15 PM 11/17/01 -0800, Karsten M. Self wrote:
>> on Sat, Nov 17, 2001 at 01:36:32PM -0800, alphabeta121
>> (alphabeta121 at hotmail.com) wrote:
>>> what does C-A-C-L stand for?
>>
>> Crypto-Anarcho Capitalist Libertarian, per archives.  Shorthand for a
>> common, if not prevailing, political viewpoint among active 
>> listmembers.
>>
>
> That label is
>
> 1. inconsistent (libertarian & anarchy)

	Not necessarily. It is argued both that Libertarians are 
chicken-shit anarchists (afraid to take the last step)  or that 
Anarchists are just extreme Libertarians.

	Also, keep in mind that there are many "anarchist" philosophies, in 
fact almost as many as there are anarchists, and all of them (well most 
of them) have rules or laws.

> 2. redundant ('capitalist' and libertarian)

	No. Libertarians are for "free markets", which are inherently 
capitalistic in nature, but the reverse is not true.  There are many 
*wealthy* capitalists who are all for strongly regulated markets and 
high barriers to entry. One could argue that they are not Capitalists.

> 3. nonsensical --cryptography is a neutral technology with debatable  
> social consequences

	The "Crypto-" part of "Crypto-Anarchist" may in fact have nothing 
at all to do with cryptography.

> 4. one poster's label; and anyone can post here
> Your milage may vary.

	Not by much. It's almost always between 48 and 51 MPG.

--
"Remember, half-measures can be very effective if all you deal with are
half-wits."--Chris Klein