What is a cypherpunk?
ken
bbrow07 at students.bbk.ac.uk
Thu Feb 10 03:36:03 PST 2005
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.
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