I’d like to resurrect this thread because I finally looked over Retopper’s Centinel’s “logical” arguments. Here they are again:
It seems that the first proposition is really just a sub-case of the second proposition. However, there can be no objectivity attributed to the phrase “more costly”. Whether a person thinks peaceful exchange is more costly than the use of armed force is up to him - that is, it’s his subjective judgement. The same applies to the third proposition. So Retopper’s Centinel’s position can be restated as the following: at all times, there exists at least one person and at least one resource for which 1) the person considers peaceful exchange to be more costly than the use of physical force to take the resource, and 2) the person’s perceived/expected benefits from possessing the resource exceed the perceived/expected costs of acquiring it by using physical force.
The only problem I have with about the above is that it’s impossible to prove that at least one such person and resource exist at all times. If one simply treats the proposition as a premise, however, proof is unnecessary. Even then, however, it’s impossible to predict just which people and which resources the proposition holds true for at any given time.
Essentially, Retopper’s Centinel’s argument is that, because men aren’t angels (or, at the very least, not all men are angels), a monopoly over the legitimate use of coercion is necessary. I fail to see how this follows. As I’ve stated before, I think coercion (here defined as “the use or threat of violence”) is sometimes legitimate. However, that in no way means to me that such legitimate coercion must be monopolized - as it’s done, by definition, by the state.