(urth) Gene Wolfe's Politics
Adam Thornton
adam at io.com
Tue Mar 31 14:50:16 PDT 2009
On Mar 31, 2009, at 4:45 PM, brunians at brunians.org wrote:
>> On Mar 31, 2009, at 4:37 PM, brunians at brunians.org wrote:
>
>>> What do you think the main purpose of government is, David, if not
>>> to
>>> maintain the military?
>
>> To protect the weak from the strong.
>
> But the government is normally the strongest entity around. How does
> that
> work?
There's a continuum here. It is the government's job to make sure
that something unpleasant happens to Bob if he kills me simply because
he has the ability to (being stronger) and without otherwise-just
cause. This functions as a deterrent, which therefore enables the
mostly-functioning of a mostly-civil society.
See Mogadishu for a counterexample.
Adam
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