(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



More information about the Urth mailing list