Well rules exist like the State exists—in our minds. There isn’t actually anything preventing us from breaking the rules or forcing us to follow them. The consequences exist, however, in the same way norms exist—in physical reality. Besides, many people who break the rules turn out to acquire the most liberty and suffer the least rule-breaking-penalties. Rules (basically government laws, and religious laws/rules currently) seem to exist for the purpose of causing norms which limit competition for power. To me this sheds new light on the phrase “rules are made to be broken”.
Me: “Despite all the so called evil in history humanity has progressed and continues to progress, as evidenced by technology.”
You: “Technologies are tools.”
I’m agreeing with you here. Humans tend to make happiness easier to achieve, and we do this through technology. Despite the fact that in reality the evil team overwhelmingly wins, technology has progressed, which to me signifies that humanity has progressed. Since we aren’t technologically advanced enough, there is a “loophole in the system” where people can achieve happiness easier at the expense of others who make less informed cost:benefit calculations. But as technology advances, the “hive mind” as it were will be able to make more properly informed decisions more efficiently. To me the obvious result is more widespread liberty and less centralized parasites.
Even if everyone understood economics perfectly, this would still not mean that people will not tolerate value-destroying behavior.
Perhaps, but if everyone understood economics much better generally in a future where communication exists in forms we can only dream about now, then people will make more informed cost:benefit calculations that are much more in line with those of everyone else.
Basically I think the concept of rights is a scam, and that humanity tends to move towards a hive mind. Technology originated to make a few people happier, and continues to connect more and more people. We prefer happiness naturally, so I guess what I’m ultimately saying is that we will naturally tend toward a happiness-oriented hive mind without the need for promoting concepts like “rights” and “evil”. Currently, people call this condition “liberty” and seek to promote it, but in my view we are always in a state of liberty and are just fooled by the propaganda that rules exist. Especially, I don’t like the concept of defense agencies and contract laws, which I think are tools of very intelligent people now for establishing future Statism under the banner of “liberty”. Liberty is when everyone is allowed to do what they want, which is the natural and historic and present state of affairs. If you want to kill a kid, well that is very unlikely in the future I’m envisioning, but then you will suffer the consequences whatever they are without the need for contracts and courts—just like animals. Maybe I’m saying that we will tend toward a non-value-destroying hive mind, like animals already enjoy, but that humans require technology to get there, which may explain our natural tendency to create technology to make happiness easier.
I hope that made sense.