What is a cypherpunk?

[ken]

James A. Donald wrote:

> If, however, you decline to pay taxes, men with guns will
> attack you.
> 
> That is the difference between private power and government
> power.

But in most places at most times the state is run at least partly 
by and for the rich and the owners of property and  supports and 
privileges their continuing private power.

And there are circumstances where private individuals send men 
with guns to attack you if you  cross them.    Quite a lot of 
them, from the feudal barons, to drug-dealers in modern cities, to 
  just about anywhere out of easy reach of the state's police.

And there are places where corporations do that as well. Even 
well-run respectable British or American corporations that have 
annual reports and  shareholder's meetings.

State power and private power are different but not distinct, and 
everywhere more or less mixed up with each other and involved with 
each other, and in most places the same sorts of people have both. 
Economic power is a kind of political power.