Actual Problems with AnCap - page 4.

JoelKatz

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Democracy is vulnerable to a 51% attack.

Quote from: justusranvier on September 10, 2012, 10:26:58 AM

Quote from: bb113 on September 09, 2012, 10:37:51 PM

1) Such a society may have difficulty organizing in the face of an external threat.

Iraq faced a significant external threat in the form of a vastly militarily superior enemy with virtually unlimited resources.

Was government-organized defense more effective or was spontaneously-organized resistance more effective at preventing this external enemy from achieving its goals?

Great example. What's interesting about this example is that part of the reason the resistance was so effective was that it didn't have a command and control structure that could be seized. If you had to capture an AnCap society house by house, that would be a daunting task compared to just seizing the government of an already-conquered people.

Plus, it might not matter too much to people who rules them. If people don't see much difference between the two governments, then does it really matter that you were conquered. On the other hand, any conquering force would be a profound loss of freedom to an AnCap society. So there's more motive to defend. (For example, would Greek people care if France took them over? Maybe out of pride, but as a practical matter, there wouldn't be much difference.)

I don't know what "national defense" would look like in an AnCap society. But I have no reason to think it would be particularly difficult to come up with a way to do it.

justusranvier

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Quote from: bb113 on September 09, 2012, 10:37:51 PM

1) Such a society may have difficulty organizing in the face of an external threat.

Iraq faced a significant external threat in the form of a vastly militarily superior enemy with virtually unlimited resources.

Was government-organized defense more effective or was spontaneously-organized resistance more effective at preventing this external enemy from achieving its goals?

JoelKatz

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Activity: 1596

Merit: 1012

Democracy is vulnerable to a 51% attack.

Quote from: bb113 on September 09, 2012, 10:37:51 PM

1) Such a society may have difficulty organizing in the face of an external threat.

Every problem in an AnCap society is an opportunity for someone to find a solution to that problem. And even every solution is an opportunity for someone to come up with a cheaper solution. If you think an AnCap society wouldn't be able to organize to expend real resources on preparation for a threat that might not materialize, I would just point out that no known society is immune to that problem. But the general solution is to get as rich, prosperous, and technologically advanced as possible and hope that will make any problems, expected or not, easier to solve.

If you look at the relationship of governments to each other in our world, it's somewhat like an AnCap society. There isn't really any "super government" that rules them. And the UN and similar organizations are voluntary associations among those countries that can be abandoned by their members at any time. There isn't really any socially-accepted world policeman with any kind of monopoly and countries use both their economic and military might, both through threats and actions, to 'persuade' each other. The analogy isn't perfect, but it does give you an idea of how these kinds of things might go both wrong and right in an AnCap society.

myrkul

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FIAT LIBERTAS RVAT CAELVM

A relatively realistic, albeit fictional account of an AnCap society resisting an external threat can be found here.

But I agree that unless such a contingency is planned for, it would be a problem. Which is why it would be planned for.

bb113

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1) Such a society may have difficulty organizing in the face of an external threat.

Topic: Actual Problems with AnCap - page 4. (Read 4815 times)