Re: [SLUG] tcwo

From: Chad Perrin (perrin@apotheon.com)
Date: Thu Aug 26 2004 - 02:58:02 EDT


Robin 'Roblimo' Miller wrote:

> I'll leave
> on-the-spot "justice" to Somalia and other extreme libertartian
> countries. I do not want it here.

Not to be pedantic, but I think you've badly abused the term "libertarian"
there. Maybe "libertine" is more what you're looking for.

At the heart of libertarian philosophy is the principle that nobody has the
right to initiate force against another person. Pay careful attention to the
word "initiate": it's crucial. Responding with force to force initiated by
someone else is not necessarily prohibited by libertarian ethics. In any case,
execution based on wild assumption is prone to error, and such errors would
constitute an initiation of force. Thus, your characterization of Somali street
"justice" as "libertarian" is facing about 180 degrees off-target.

I, by the way, describe myself as libertarian, and find myself regularly arguing
with people that don't agree with me when I say that it's better to let a
hundred guilty men go free than to wrongly punish an innocent man. My ethical
basis for that opinion is grounded in libertarian principles.

That having been said, some looters should be shot. Whether or not one has the
right (legal or ethical) to do so is another matter entirely.

-- 
Chad Perrin (apotheon .com .net .org)
http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/S/sig-block.html
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