"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ~ H.L. Mencken
Assassination Politics Launches
It appears that someone has finally gone ahead and put this 1990s idea into motion, most likely assessing that the technology is now equal to the task. We shall see. And it's been covered by Forbes magazine, no less (as an aside, they have been publishing many anarchy-curious and even anarchy-friendly pieces in recent months):
Read the article here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/11/18/meet-the-assassination-market-creator-whos-crowdfunding-murder-with-bitcoins/
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Well spotted, Alex. I see good news and bad news here, with the latter winning.
AP uses violence, which is our enemy's weapon and is morally repugnant; strike one. Strike two, it doesn't even pretend to do the job (of abolishing government); it merely makes government less repulsive, less disrespectful of public opinion.
The good news though is that this development will certainly draw out the maximum possible statist effort to destroy technologies like Bitcoin and Tor, and if (when?) those efforts fail, the world will have a private way to communicate and trade that is exhaustively tested and totally robust.
I think it's really sad, that some of our friends want to resort to murder. There is a perfectly peaceful way to end the government era that could hardly be easier or cheaper to use, nor faster in effect; yet some are so idiotic as to neglect it.
I must say your view on this has undergone a distinct sea change -- but there is of course good reason: I recall that some 12 or 13 years ago you'd asked me what I thought of Jim Bell's idea, and you'd remarked something to the effect that you thought it was merely an example of clear thinking. But TOLFA wasn't around then, of course. And in the absence of such, AP might've seemed the sole available option. As for how it does play out, now that someone has actually moved forward with it, we will see now whether we wish to or not.