The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey

Zenaan Harkness zen at freedbms.net
Tue Sep 5 16:49:20 PDT 2017


On Mon, Sep 04, 2017 at 09:36:17PM -0400, grarpamp wrote:
> The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to
> Coerce and the Duty to Obey
> by Michael Huemer
> The state is often ascribed a special sort of authority, one that
> obliges citizens to obey its commands and entitles the state to
> enforce those commands through threats of violence. This book argues
> that this notion is a moral illusion: no one has ever possessed that
> sort of authority.
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/dp/1137281650
> infohash:6A92A77AF1DF21BD46FE7F5BF1EE324065A1FC58

On the list.

I've used the phrase "duty of care to our state" and this is easy to
misinterpret in hindsight.

The duty of care in any so-called "democratic" state can be said to
arise due to the individual's acceptance of the democratic state - to
the extent the individual accepts the "democratic" state, then s/he
has a duty of care arising.

But what is this duty of care?

The duty of care is to bring the state to heel, to hold the state
accountable, and ultimately to ensure the state remains as the
servant of the people.

I know, I know, laugh away, that's why we put "democratic" in scare
quotes!

When "the people" fail in their duty of care (which is ultimately to
themselves) to bring their rogue state to heel, then the people are
utterly failing in their duty of care towards "their own dang state".

Sadly most humans want to get on with their creative, productive, or
otherwise, survival, and to leave all "state" level problems up to
someone else.

In such circumstances, the "democratic" state gets literally 0wned by
those with the most money and lots of it, to create more money and
more control in order to create more money - i.e. the oldigarchs.

Except with a "benevolent dictator" who is actually benevolent (and
his definition probably won't match the individual's in all
respects), the state, apparently, deteriorates into despotism.
However I think a goodly part of this is simply in the nature of
humans and their typical unwillingness to improve much of anything -
let alone "their democratic or otherwise state".

Cest la vie,


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