Comments on: The Power of Fear http://blog.bennettandbennett.com/2007/07/power-of-fear.html the tao of criminal-defense trial lawyering Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:39:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Anonymous http://blog.bennettandbennett.com/2007/07/power-of-fear.html/comment-page-1#comment-235 Anonymous Tue, 17 Jul 2007 07:02:00 +0000 http://bennettandbennett.com/blog/?p=198#comment-235 Yes, sir, they surely did. I was too zoomed in on that one passage. Yes, sir, they surely did. I was too zoomed in on that one passage.

]]> By: Mark Bennett http://blog.bennettandbennett.com/2007/07/power-of-fear.html/comment-page-1#comment-233 Mark Bennett Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:01:00 +0000 http://bennettandbennett.com/blog/?p=198#comment-233 Correct. I thought my allusion to the mob in that paragraph and my later reference to the protection "racket" made that point.<br/><br/>People are natural predators and systematizers. Because of this, governments are inevitable even if they are not necessary and though they are not good. Correct. I thought my allusion to the mob in that paragraph and my later reference to the protection “racket” made that point.

People are natural predators and systematizers. Because of this, governments are inevitable even if they are not necessary and though they are not good.

]]> By: Anonymous http://blog.bennettandbennett.com/2007/07/power-of-fear.html/comment-page-1#comment-232 Anonymous Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:48:00 +0000 http://bennettandbennett.com/blog/?p=198#comment-232 "What are governments selling us? They're selling us protection."<br/><br/>Excellent point. However, a rhetorical point: the government "sells" us protection by threatening us with violence if we resist. I am reminded of economist Murray Rothbard writing about sociologist Franz Oppenheimer:<br/><br/>Oppenheimer pointed out that there are two and only two mutually exclusive means for man to obtain wealth. One, the method of production and voluntary exchange, the method of the free market, Oppenheimer termed the "economic means"; the other, the method of robbery by the use of violence, he called the "political means." The political means is clearly parasitic, for it requires previous production for the exploiters to confiscate, and it subtracts from instead of adding to the total production in society. Oppenheimer then proceeded to define the State as the "organization of the political means" -- the systematization of the predatory process over a given territorial area. <br/><br/>[Franz Oppenheimer, The State (New York: Vanguard Press, 1926), pp. 24-27 and passim.] “What are governments selling us? They’re selling us protection.”

Excellent point. However, a rhetorical point: the government “sells” us protection by threatening us with violence if we resist. I am reminded of economist Murray Rothbard writing about sociologist Franz Oppenheimer:

Oppenheimer pointed out that there are two and only two mutually exclusive means for man to obtain wealth. One, the method of production and voluntary exchange, the method of the free market, Oppenheimer termed the “economic means”; the other, the method of robbery by the use of violence, he called the “political means.” The political means is clearly parasitic, for it requires previous production for the exploiters to confiscate, and it subtracts from instead of adding to the total production in society. Oppenheimer then proceeded to define the State as the “organization of the political means” — the systematization of the predatory process over a given territorial area.

[Franz Oppenheimer, The State (New York: Vanguard Press, 1926), pp. 24-27 and passim.]

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