DriftWood:Their will, whatever it may be, will be the law of the land. The laws will be respected out of fear. However once there is a monopoly on violence, there is laws, police and peace. When there is peace people can trade, when people trade they grow wealthy, when people are wealthy they can bribe the authority to get more freedoms and eventually change the system to be less oppressive.
You're suggesting that people will bribe the authorities to gain freedom? If that's the case then why doesn't that happen now? Why is the exact opposite happening?
People will bribe the authorities for their own good.
What you're suggesting isn't a solution, it's just giving any company that may gain a monopoly on defense a headstart.
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"
Bob Dylan
I think it was when i read some summary book of the wealth of nations.. that i came across an explanation of how the live owned surfs gained their freedom from their (war) lords. The automatic mechanism behind it just made so much sense. It went something like this:
The war lords controlled some territory. By fighting with other wars lords they haf gained a monopoly on violence over some specific piece of land. They considered everything on this land as belonging to them, the land itself, the farms, the animals, the people. The will of the lords was the law of the land. The lord could do whatever it wanted with its property, it could steal from and kill the people without much explanation. Anyway this relationship between the surfs and their lords was not competely one sided. Some surfs actually voluntarily gave themselves to the lords.. because as a surf you avoided starvation, and you got protected from being killed by other war lords. The surfs got protection from violence, and food. Being a slave, beats being dead. Anyways this sounds like a pretty horrible state off affairs. How did the surfs manage to break free of their slavery, how did that kind of society turn into the freer societies that are european countries today?
Thats the uplifting part.. okay, so the surfs no longer had to fear being killed, they had to work on the farm and give the food to the lord. They could feed themselves on some of the food that they grew. The lord could not stop this. All he could do is kill them if they ate some of the crops and if thge lord did that it would not have any farmers.. and the lords themselves would starve.. so the lord just raided and plundered the farmers once in a while, and took anything of value. The farmers started expecting this and voluntarily started gathering the food and put it on the lords doorstep. This way they would not get beaten or killed buring the raids. This method was also better for the war lords, as they could concentrate on killing other war lords, and expanding their territory, instead of killing and raiding their own farmers all the time. Well once the farmers had the power to collect the lords cut of the food.. well then they had the power to keep more to themselves, without the lord finding out. A slave will work harder for himself than his owner.. you cant really fight this as its just human nature to look out for number one first. The farmers started trading the stuff thy had when the lord was not looking.. trading creates wealth.. and as the farmers/merchants grew wealthier, more money was also given to the lord. This kept the lord happy and let the farmers and merchants do their thing. The farmers and merchansts grew wealthier wich meant that they could give a smaller and smaller cut of the profits to the lord.. to keep him passive. You see? Its an amazing reversal of power. Eventually the fate of the lords was so dependent on the farmer and merchants ability to grow wealth.. that the merchants had the lords eating out of their hands. That is how the serfs grew out of their slavery, and how the lords grew into servants. At this point the people did not kill their lords.. as they still neeed them the lords for the protections from violence services. There always needs to be someone with a monopoly on violence, and the pople will pay whoever this is protection money for it services (taxes). Without a monopoly on violence, there is not one law, not one country but many. Borders between countries are needed because, that is where one law system, one monopoly on violence stops, and another one begins. There can be no mixing, as that would be a conflict between different authorities, it would mean civil war.
It goes something like this. Anarchy -> Slavery -> Peace -> Trade -> Wealth -> Self ownership
You cant stop this amazing force of human nature. The simple fact that people look our for themselves first and foremost, that slaves will work harder for themselves than for their owners.. the simple fact of individuals selfishness given enough time, will lead to a society where all individuals have about the same amount of power and freedom.
Cheers
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