Silk Road founder arrested ...

Lodewijk andré de la porte l at odewijk.nl
Wed Oct 2 16:12:55 PDT 2013


Ted

> On Wed, 2013-10-02 at 22:31 +0200, Lodewijk andré de la porte wrote:
> > If you say anarchy is part of cypherpunkism (if that's a thing) I
> > simply disagree with you.
> You're wrong as a matter of historic fact.
> Are you one of the people that was too afraid to be on the al-qaeda list
> or something?


At first I frowned and wondered why. Then I thought it was likely a joke
and if it wasn't then what's the problem with al-qaeda? Also a distinct
lack of right-to-left garbage spewing at me.

Of course putting things into the people's hands (truly and irrevocably) is
something that's very cypherpunk. In that sense it's also very anarchist,
as permission from anyone is not required to take that power.

Yet I'd maintain that laws a very much part of every *software *ever
written. Bitcoin is a system mired in laws really, the amount of
restriction on what you can and what you can't is precise and unforgiving.
There's no space for seperatists as the blockchain forces the richest (iow:
the biggest miner) to win any contest of what set of rules is *the* set of
rules.

As it has been stated "The code is the law". Yet the code is to be agreed
upon, lest splintering of code recreates law differences as it does in
nations.

2013/10/2 Juan Garofalo <juan.g71 at gmail.com>

> I think you need to research the ABC of political theory before saying
> anything about anarchy. Your belief that anarchy is chaos is as unfounded
> as it is laughable.


Anarchy as a word does not mean a thing. It's the people in it that shape
it. This is as much as risk as it is a feature. From chaos men makes
shapes, structures. These structures must, by the very absence of it,
reimplement what otherwise a government does. Of course the extends and all
will depend upon the people.

Economically I can fairly say that every function will be taken over by the
group that can do the task as financially efficient as possible. Combining
that with the historic fact that kingdoms and empires, due to people's
ignorance, are the easiest structures to conjure. And that ease makes it
have a good return.

So. My thinking is that anarchy that remains anarchy is in fact quite
chaotic, as no real leaders are permitted to arise. Of course it's possible
to have discussions together, to rule as a non-forcible collective. That's
a very unstable situation however. Just like chaos.

Now if you'd be so kind to tell me why your tone was so insulting and the
reasons for thinking the way you do, then perhaps this can become an
interesting conversation.
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