Open Source Government

[Guest Ethan Glover]

I wrote up a few ideas of "open source government" based on a book about open source software and the open source culture. You can find it here, tell me what you think.

[dsayers]

Isn't open-sourced government what we have now? There's a great big gun in the room and people continue to rewrite everything on a whim to be able to aim that gun in ways that are beneficial to them. It's the fundamental flaw of government. When you have government, you have all against all because there's a fictitious 2nd tier of personhood to ascribe to. You can't really model valid contracts onto coercive interaction.

[BennyHoward]

I've read it and I think it interesting stuff. It's an example of how a voluntary society might operate backed by real world examples. Some of the things mentioned sound a lot like the ideas in this YouTube video (

).

I hope I'm not misiterperating what you mean, but after reading you're section on minarchists I wonder if minarchists truly believe in the moral case for government as liberals seem to. It seems that they believe that it's immoral, but needed for utilitarian purposes. Thus if it can be shown how a voluntary society might work, as you had started to do, then the minarchists must accept the voluntary society position.

[Guest Ethan Glover]

I hope I'm not misiterperating what you mean, but after reading you're section on minarchists I wonder if minarchists truly believe in the moral case for government as liberals seem to. It seems that they believe that it's immoral, but needed for utilitarian purposes. Thus if it can be shown how a voluntary society might work, as you had started to do, then the minarchists must accept the voluntary society position.

 

Thanks Benny, and no you're not misinterpreting anything. Those references come from a few previous articles in which I questioned minarchists and liberals:

Arguments Against Libertarianism Philosophy (Big L, minarchism)

Liberalism Criticism, Part 1Liberalism Criticism, Part 2