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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.politics,can.politics
Subject: Re: Libertarians considered psychotic
Message-ID: <4304@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Sep-84 16:55:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.4304
Posted: Tue Sep 11 16:55:49 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Sep-84 16:55:49 EDT
References: <5140@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 26

> ............................................... for a society to be a useful
> construct, there must be a means of deciding on goals on *some* level.

I have two questions:

	(1) Why?  Let's be realistic:  societies do not "have goals",
		individuals do.  The question is whether specific
		individuals should be allowed to impose their goals
		on disagreeing people, and if so, under what conditions
		this should be allowed.  My contention is that a major
		(perhaps the *only* major) legitimate role of society
		is precisely to minimize the incidence of such coercive
		practices.  (I do not contend that they can be eliminated
		entirely.)

	(2) How?  I see no evidence that any recent Canadian government
		has been able to set any goal other than re-election,
		which is clearly not particularly in society's interest.
		The Reagan administration, whatever one may think of it
		in other respects, at least seems to have some specific
		ideas of where it's going in some areas.

Food for thought...
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry