Will the Warlords Take Over?

—–Original Message—–
From: WLB
Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2016 5:49 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: How do the non-violent enforce arbitration?

Dear Sir; I have read your writings for many years with great interest, and generally find myself in agreement with your positions and arguments. I do have one question I must ask, purely as a matter of practical function… History has shown that there are people eager to use violence against others in order to benefit themselves. It seems to be a subset of humanity that is not likely to disappear. So, in a world of private adjudication and presumably enforcement, and absent of some sudden onset of angelic human nature, how do we hope to avoid private armies simply enforcing the will of their employer? That is, how do we avoid a sort of new, technologically advanced, feudal system? Please understand I am genuinely interested and puzzled by this, having been a student of history for most of my now advanced years. Thank you in advance if you take the time to respond. Thank you in any case for the excellent and well reasoned articles I’ve already read. Best Regards; WLB

Dear WLB: Thanks for your kind remarks. For the Communists, when they take power, there will be “Commie Man” who will be perfect in every way. In contrast, when libertarianism is the order of the day, unhappily, some small percentage of people will still be criminals: murderers, rapists, kidnappers, thieves, etc. That seems to be a realistic assessment of the human condition. Hopefully, there will be fewer such uncivilized people when freedom reigns, but there will still be some. How, then, to avoid people like that amalgamating into “private armies simply enforcing the will of their employer”? I won’t answer this now, since there is a large literature on this very thing. Please dig into it. I would start with Bob Murphy’s excellent essay on Warlords taking over.

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6:53 pm on August 27, 2016