Geodesic neoconservative empire

[R.A. Hettinga]

For the most part, I'm going to answer this (mostly) seriously, though I
expect it wasn't asked in the same fashion.

At 9:17 PM -0700 10/28/04, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
>Is this geodesic neo-conservativism?   Where can I start
>bearer-document goose-stepping?

Impedance mismatch. You're using a (now) cryptocommie codeword for Jewery
("neo-conservative") with Nazi imagery. Everybody knows that Jews are
communists, right? ;-). Except, of course, to a cryptocommie, *everyone*'s
a fascist. Must be like eskimos and 19 different names for snow, or
something.

It has always amused me that libertarians and anarcho-capitalists insist on
using the language of the left to describe the things they don't like. One
of the reasons that the right in this country has been so successful has
been their development of a useful analytic apparatus, and corresponding
language, over the past 50 years, certainly more so than the left, which is
nothing but marxism, dilluted or otherwise.


>Whatever happened to leaving the barbarians to kill themselves,
>and getting the fuck out of family spats?

When they can't seem to kill themselves fast enough, it's time to help them
along a bit, especially when they start killing *you*? :-).

At the moment force-monopoly is, by definition of monopoly, a hierarchical
market. Hence the "dance with the girl that brung ya" bit. They have
already *stolen* my money, they might as well be doing something with it
that goes back to their existential principle ("a bandit who doesn't move"
as Mancur Olsen says), i.e. the use of force itself instead of bread and
circuses, and furthermore in killing people (and their friends, and the
camel they rode in on) who now have a demonstrated ability to kill me,
personally.


Sure, there's something to be said for the notion that terrorism is some
form of geodesic warfare, but, notice, when you take out certain
nation-states, terrorism subsides. Or, at least, it returns to that
nation-state, where terrorists can be killed faster. Better there than
here, certainly.

So, I would say that geodesic war consists of (bearer settled :-)) cash
auctions for force. That exists in certain, um, informal markets, but
transaction costs aren't low enough for general use yet. I think we're
we're going to get there, though.

Cheers,
RAH


-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'