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Comment by CJKinni | Hacker News Reader

I couldn't tell when this was written. It appears to be from 1993:

http://www.alamut.com/subj/ideologies/manifestos/cryptoanarc...

Edit: See comments below. Turns out it's from 1988.

Yep. I remember when it was published. I was on the Cypherpunks list back then, and it was a fascinating group for a while.

Tim May was a vocal, eloquent proponent of anarcho-capitalism[1], and believed that crypto and the net were crucial tools that would tip the balance of power between the individual and the state, cause an erosion of tax-collection powers, and eventually tip the world into a mode of 'voluntary' interaction that others, myself included, argued is indistinguishable from feudalism.

[1] For those of you who are aware of the various minute distinctions made around these schools of thought, May proposed a very "hard" form, arguing that 'voluntary' agreement to slavery and whatnot were perfectly acceptable.

> a mode of 'voluntary' interaction that others, myself included, argued is indistinguishable from feudalism

Good thing you've got The State extorting and enslaving you then, to protect you from that "feudalism".

I'd rather a democratically elected state than a cabal of wealthy warlords.

What about a democratically elected state that creates wealthy warlords with tax dollars and then wages war on their behalf?

Interesting that you see a difference. Who do you think the democratically elected are? "Wealthy ..."

Its telling that you don't see a difference.

And An-Caps never seem to understand why nobody takes them seriously.

I'm not an anarchist myself. But what exactly do you think we have now, in many Western countries? There is more than one way to end up with a Rumsfeld or Cheney in power.

I'm actually sympathetic to your viewpoint, but there is a very real difference between hereditary despots-for-life and imperfectly-constitutionally constrained, term-limited assholes-in-chief.

Indeed. I fear though that one is a stepping stone to the other.

1988, actually: The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto by Timothy C. May - http://nakamotoinstitute.org/crypto-anarchist-manifesto/

Yeah, the mention of 'ISDN' kinda threw me off at first; I was wondering if there was some new ISDN acronym that I was unaware of. Nope, they mean the old school ISDN.

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