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Entry: The Wrongs of "Rights" Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_wrongs_of_rights#7712 Post contents: You seem to be rather one-tracked in the sense of being fixated on a single issue. Perhaps some localities in a decentralized system would allow the kinds of practices you mention. Perhaps some would practice racial discrimination or gay discrimination or impose gun control or ban the use of alcoholic beverages. Perhaps some would have compulsory religious observance or permit late-term abortion. Once again, the arguments you employ for a strong central goverment could just as easily be used to justify a world government. You seem to believe that the first if not only purpose of politics is to prevent pedophilia. That's a rather novel position. All states exist first and foremost to protect a ruling class and its territorial and economic interests, with "the worst getting to the top." The protection of children is usually rather low on the list of priorities. Your hypothetical six year old could likewise be used as an argument for a massive socialist state. Why should the six year old care about liberty when she can have state of the art day care, plush kindergartens, multimillion dollar playgrounds paid for by Uncle Sam? Why should the poor want to keep the state at bay when they can have full employment with a guaranteed government job? This is a circular and reductionist argument. Politics necessarily involves trade offs with the realization that perfection is not an option. The desire to prevent every last incident of child molestation, every last incident of violent crime, every last incident of economic deprivation, every last case of drug addiction, every last case of adolescent suicide, every last remant of racial prejudice, etc., has to be balanced with what is possible and realistic given the limitations of human nature and the need to keep concentrated power under control. The destructiveness of war and modern genocides have escalated in direct proportion to the growth of the state over the last century. I encounter arguments similar to these all the time from those who think the massacre of six hundred thousand Americans in the Civil War was justified to prevent slavery from lasting another twenty years or so before falling apart for economic reasons. One of the reasons that I am in favor of a decentralized system is that I believe it would be easier for those who are oppressed or persecuted to form separatist, autonomous enclaves for themselves. For instance, in American history blacks who were oppressed in the south could help themselves be migrating north or towards urban centers where the racial caste system was not a deeply ingrained. This has much to do with why we have the large black populations in cities today. I really don't think perfection is an option, however. Sent at: 2008 07 08