Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 v7 ucbtopaz-1.8; site ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!ucbtopaz!mwm From: mwm@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA (Mike (I'll be mellow when I'm dead) Meyer) Newsgroups: net.politics.theory Subject: Re: Slippery slope nightmares Message-ID: <1033@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> Date: Thu, 25-Jul-85 04:43:38 EDT Article-I.D.: ucbtopaz.1033 Posted: Thu Jul 25 04:43:38 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 26-Jul-85 07:23:11 EDT References: <991@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> <245@ubvax.UUCP> <1642@dciem.UUCP> Reply-To: mwm@ucbtopaz.UUCP (Mike (I'll be mellow when I'm dead) Meyer) Organization: Missionaria Phonibalonica Lines: 17 In article <1642@dciem.UUCP> mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) writes: >I haven't seen this challenge before, but it seems a funny one. Surely >it is impossible, almost by definition, to design a society in which >there is a guarantee against any particular arbitrary law, or against >a group of people being able to impose their arbitrary will *given enough >time*. I tend to agree: I don't think such a society can be built. However, I can't prove that it can't be done, so every once in a while I try again, or ask others to take a crack at it. The basic problem seems to be that organizations are run for the benefit of those who run them (statists please note), and gathering more power into their hands is to their benefit. The best that can be done is put stringent restrictions on such action to delay the decay into totalitarianism.