Why libertarianism is so dangerous.

[wufwugy]

Spoon made a great post about the 48 laws of Power in his AMA than got me reading it. It's an incredible book that samples from an unreal range of historical sources about Kings and courtiers and art dealers and conmen. I think it'll show you that libertarianism doesn't exactly explain the lay of the land.

It definitely doesn't in most of the world. Most of the world is a dirt poor technological backwater with little commerce. You can go pretty much anywhere in Africa with guns and take over, but if you did that in Silicon Valley, even if the US military didn't exist, you'd find contracted security forces with bigger guns sent to kill you and keep the flow of commerce intact.

I think the paradigm shifts only when commerce creates enough cooperation and technology for marauders to be weaker than security interests.

[a500lbgorilla]

It definitely doesn't in most of the world. Most of the world is a dirt poor technological backwater with little commerce. You can go pretty much anywhere in Africa with guns and take over, but if you did that in Silicon Valley, even if the US military didn't exist, you'd find contracted security forces with bigger guns sent to kill you and keep the flow of commerce intact.

I think the paradigm shifts only when commerce creates enough cooperation and technology for marauders to be weaker than security interests.

It's about what powerful people do behind closed doors. It's a very modern belief that the power is with the people. Maybe that isn't the entire story.