At 09:33 PM 03/10/2000 -0600, Aaron wrote:
>On Wed, 8 Mar 2000 20:22:35 +0000, Steve Mynott wrote:
> > and since blackmail is not an attack on life, library or property it
> > would not be a crime in a libertarian society.
>
>Doesn't this raise a red flag?
>Are libertarians now apathetic towards evil?
No, not at all (well, actually, yes, fairly often, but no more
than the rest of the public.)
It's just that initiating violence isn't an appropriate way
to deal with evil - hate speech is evil, but beating up the
people who do it isn't an acceptable solution, and hiring
guys in blue suits to beat them up isn't either.
Racism is somewhere between evil and stupid, depending on the racist,
but the solution to it isn't violence either.
Depending on your tastes and your level of intolerance for evil,
you might counter bad speech with lots more speech, or
try teaching evil people about love or respect for their neighbors,
or you might try organizing boycotts against them,
or, for crimes like blackmail, you might try outing them,
or outing their credit reports, home addresses, and bank accounts.
Somebody, I think Eric Hughes, once proposed that the right way to
deal with libel in a society where untraceable communications is common
is to have a service that you hire to libel you frequently and publicly
("Sure, somebody falsely claimed that I'm sleeping with Alice,
but net-flamers also claimed I'm sleeping with Bob, Carol, Dana, and Elvis,
so why should anyone believe this one?") Or as Vinge's characters said,
"They don't call it the Net Of A Million Lies for nothing."
Thanks!
Bill
Bill Stewart, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF 3C85 B884 0ABE 4639
