Posted by: Dale Eastman
« on: September 16, 2020, 12:39:31 PM »Quote
> "What do you mean by authority?"
Authority in this context means: the right to rule and the duty to obey. Political authority.
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I'm glad I checked your FB page.
I now know you are not a Statist.
So instead of what I was going to write, I'm just going to chide you for using Statist thoughts and terms in your {satire?} post.
I'm also going to use your post as a segue to post a link to my website. Enjoy.
Image: http://www.synapticsparks.info/g
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? There is nothing remotely statist in my post: "Authority in this context means: the right to rule and the duty to obey. Political authority."
That is simple the definition of political authority used by e.g. Michael Huemer and other political philosophers.
http://www.ozarkia.net/bill/anarchism/library/PPA/1-1.html#2
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Wow!
Not the reaction I expected.
I actually read that entire page you linked.
"What we've got heah is failure to communicate.."
Voltaire's Admonition: If you wish to communicate, define your terms.
So, IMO, that means a bit of negotiating of the terms and their meanings intended.
I reject the meaning supplied by Mr. Huemer and used by yourself.
Here's why:
Can anybody delegate (give) an authority that they themselves do not have?
If all humans are alleged to be born with equal rights, then is it true that no human can be born with automatic authority over another human?
Doesn't being born with this lack of automatic authority include any humans called government?
Doesn't being born with this lack of automatic authority include any humans called The Voters?
Doesn't this mean that the only way authority over any specific individual human can be delegated is for that human to specifically delegate authority over them self to another?
When did you delegate such authority over yourself to The Voters?
When did you delegate such authority over yourself to those called government?
What evidence do you have to prove that I delegated authority to The Voters or those called government?
Isn't it true that if no human has authority over any other human, then that missing authority can not be delegated?
Now to read your other linked page.
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you seem to be using the same definition I gave, so I fail to see your objection. If you have a different definition of authority, please give it. You seem to want to ask questions before defining terms.
Anyway, I liked your Examining Government essay so much that I webbed it and also posted it in the Anarcho-Capitalist Review.
http://www.ozarkia.net/bill/anarchism/library/ExaminingGovernment.html
If you have a better picture of yourself, send it.
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Here it is on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ancapism/posts/3661250493907736?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARCKGthRCoecmk1RxmdjPmYbB6SdZtejfnt53T9_GXQAxChqus4fYWo_PWrQCDz8hxKJWD9tV5FR1Z6bl7ta8iApquubGWZC0joQHDmBfINdlwYZdwrqrnFPLwnMera7UXH_STWAMyAYCCn_Hk-loVrf3Nnbsu_91sQfjVAFzvwzYS_DmfCHoKwDRwyW3LvPPKIP-V25lAzX18OqBbcElOqHV1FOxLhq6alya8kf5KpxJUJuAkm_hyrB7sOkxDZurzbV7Mm_v9iquAHn3Ejxn9hsP6Qg9GvClSgvRI2xORpckhVXi8B_clHp6zFjq8Rs6PMUuT4rOEGNEx8M6hKF_NKNww&__tn__=-R
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Another related term is "moral autonomy." I like this quote by Robert Wolff:
"The defining mark of the state is authority, the right to rule. The primary obligation of man is autonomy, the refusal to be ruled. It would seem, then, that there can be no resolution of the conflict between the autonomy of the individual and the putative authority of the state. Insofar as a man fulfills his obligation to make himself the author of his decisions, he will resist the state's claim to have authority over him. That is to say, he will deny that he has a duty to obey the laws of this state simply because they are the laws. In that sense, it would seem that anarchism is the only political doctrine consistent with the virtue of autonomy." - Robert Paul Wolff, In Defense of Anarchism
http://www.ozarkia.net/bill/anarchism/library/DefenseAnarchism.html
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➽ If you have a better picture of yourself, send it.
I'm tempted to ask you to remove the picture. {Shrug}
I'm not important. {Shrug again.} My words... Maybe. Thanks for the (broadcast) syndication as feedback that somebody finds my words of use.
➽ you seem to be using the same definition I gave, so I fail to see your objection.
➽ Authority in this context means: the right to rule [...]
If all are born with equal rights, all are born with equal lack of authority over anyone else.
If all are born with equal rights, all are born with equal lack of a right to rule anyone else.
Authority over others does not exist. Rights to rule others do not exist.
What exists is usurpation, indoctrination and extortion: Do what you are told or you will be hurt.
Compare when two persons point a gun at a motorist and yell, "GET OUT OF THE CAR!". What's the difference if the first is a car-jacker and the second is a cop?
Whether a cop or a car-jacker, neither owns you. Whether a cop or a car-jacker, the same question applies, Who made them the boss of you or anyone? If nobody owns you; If nobody has authority over you; Then nobody can make either the cop or the car-jacker the boss of you. It's that simple.
Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
-- Mao Zedong --
Both the cop and the car-jacker are growing political power out of the barrels of their guns. Both the cop and the car-jacker are extorting your compliance with their demands.
Political power is not authority, because extortion is not authority.
Do what I tell you to do or I will hurt you is extortion. No amount of indoctrination will ever change threat, duress, and coercion into authority...
➽ You seem to want to ask questions before defining terms.
Hat tip to Marc. Never make claims. Always ask leading questions.
My rhetorical essay and treatise questions are meant to challenge the reader to think about the logic of the points presented.
Meet them on their map of the world.
Get them to give their definitions and then ask them questions about their "definitions" of the terms they use.
That helps expose their "beliefs"... Sometimes.
By "beliefs" I mean indoctrinated, brainwashed, Pavlovian Conditioning, Prussian Method of Schooling, rote superstitious beliefs.
I then attempt to get them to answer questions about those beliefs.
Socratic Method. Ask questions about inconsistencies in their claims, statements, beliefs, and opinions.
That's it until Friday evening.
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authority (political) - the right to rule and the duty to obey
I will take your reply to mean that you agree with this definition. Then you draw some inferences about it.
> "If all are born with equal rights, all are born with equal lack of authority over anyone else.
Authority over others does not exist. Rights to rule others do not exist."
Yes, both of those are valid inferences. I take "does not exist" in this context to mean "is not legitimate." Obviously States exist, and so do sheeple who obey it. The phenomenon of political authority exists. (But not as an entity.)
"From all these indignities, such as the very beasts of the field would not endure, you can deliver yourselves if you try, not by taking action, but merely by willing to be free. Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break into pieces." - Étienne de la Boétie, The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, http://www.ozarkia.net/bill/anarchism/library/DiscourseServitude.html