> If somebody breaks into your house, do you start your
> own investigation and hunt him down, or do you call the
> police?

If someone's breaking into my house and I'm HOME, I get out the Kimber and if necessary shoot him dead. If I call the cops and wait for them to show up, my family and I will be laying bleeding to death in a pool of our own blood and the attacker will be long gone.

Self-defense cannot be delegated. That individuals think it can be is a symptom of insanity, nothing less.

Police are relatively good at tracking down and taking care of criminals once a crime has been committed. They are not in the business of personal defense, nor is it reasonable to believe they can be everywhere all the time. Nor, legally, are they oblidged to be.

Protecting me and my family is not the police's job. Tracking down and arresting the criminals after they've done the deed is their job.

Protecting myself and my family is MY job.

> If someone's car is repeatedly blocking access to your
> garage, do you tow it away yourself or do you call the
> police?

Interesting that you're bring that up, as one of my co-workers has this problem. Contacting the police was ineffectual; ultimately, he called a towing company and had the car hauled away.

> What you are calling for is wild West.

No, what he's calling for is a moral response to initiated force.

> Theses times are over. Prosecution and law enforcement
> have to be in the hands of the government.

Only if you want to ensure that only the rich and powerful have the ability to write and enforce laws, since only the rich and powerful can afford to buy government representatives. And by "rich and powerful" I'm also referring to PACs and labor unions as well as wealthy individuals.

Self-defense cannot be delegated. It's time everyone realized the truth of this and stopped placing an irrational faith in the cult of the omnipotent state to take care of things for them.

> This is one of the characteristics of a civilized state.

It is not. Delegation of one's self-defense is a characteristic of a delusionary state in which the delusionary individual actually believes that government can solve his problems for him.

> And this applies to the real world and cyberspace as
> well.

On this we can agree. ;)

> And no, I don't have a solution for the problem you are
> talking of. It took a long time until we reached our
> current state of order in the real world. Why should we
> give up this achievement now in cyberspace?

It's not an achievement. It's a step toward chaos and tyranny. Fortunately, we are in the process of avoiding this misstep in cyberspace.

Bill Stone

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