the same founding fathers that demanded liberty over death feared an anarchy far more than an totalitarian gov.
So Brave New World/1984 or Mad Max/I Am Legend? Hrm let's break it down... Anarchic wasteland: My family is quite large. We have several rural properties that we could fortify. We are educated and heavily armed. Some know how to farm and hunt, and almost all of us will learn. I have tons of books to keep us company, and am handy with tools to fix things. I'm picturing my worst fear though. My wife getting raped and/or killed, children possibly kidnapped or worse by marauders. Me being powerless to stop them because I run out of ammo. So... Totalitarian Utopia it is. I don't care for survival of the fittest when my loved ones are in danger. Rule of Law is amazing. I'd use my mind to enter the employ of the government to work my way into the upper echelon. I'm sure the higher ups get away with many things so that'll be enough for me. Is there any correlation here between party affiliations? i.e. Tea Party/far-right wing prefer anarchy?
Not too strong of a correlation, in my opinion. The two choices presented are so extreme and the tradeoffs are very thought-provoking to the point where there is no clear distinction between right and left. I mean sure you can argue that right-wingers tend to lean towards freedom but I doubt any of them want pure anarchy. Same with liberals who tend to lean towards government assistance and a more communal lifestyle wouldn't want to live with little-no freedom.
My view is that since the quickest route to an Anarchic Utopia is an Anarchic Wasteland (rather than a Totalitarian Utopia) then I would rather have the wasteland. It is easier for people to learn to live in harmony than it is for Totalitarian regimes to cede power.
waste·land /ˈwāstˌland/ Noun An unused area of land that has become barren or overgrown. A bleak, unattractive, and unused or neglected urban or industrial area: "industrial wasteland"; "a cultural wasteland".
I frankly don't view anything inherently good or bad about democracy in and of itself - it's more likely to create a better system of government than an autocracy for a lot of reasons, but that doesn't make democracy inherently better than autocracy. Consequently, if an autocracy/totalitarian system can somehow create a good society, than I'm more or less fine with it.
Doesn't matter to me, living is giving, helping, serving, sharing the love of Jesus Christ. There can be no Utopia where there is no divine love, and there can be no wasteland where His divine love grows.
I'm assuming a "Totalitarian Utopia" is something like that movie The Island, where things seem to be running incredibly smoothly on the surface, but there is a sinister underbelly that you are never to know about. I'm picturing Mad Max as the Anarchist Wasteland. In those two situations, I suppose I would have to lean towards the Wasteland simply because, in that scenario, my life would have some meaning to it. Freedom defines us as individuals, and the ability to wake up every morning and make our own choices is something that can never be replaced. Your quality of life would be vastly diminished, but at least you'd be living your life on your terms.
This statement would very awkward/tragic if we were in the Matrix. Don't forget that even in a totalitarian utopia like the Island or 1984, they hopefully can't control your thoughts. There also might be that one deserted park inside the city where you can read your banned books or converse about revolutions with like-minded comrades.
Yea, Anarchy seems nice from afar but when you get to that point you have no water, steady food source, internet, or security other than what you provide. It's like living in the deep amazon or the Congo. You think your good until an even larger group rolls through steals your women(If you have any) and probably shoots you. Also, on the topic of government mind control, the link before blew my mind yesterday on that topic. http://news.yahoo.com/mind-melds-move-science-fiction-science-rats-144950902.html
Then why didn't you make the choices Socialism vs Libertarianism? It was your choices that are pretty muddy. What was your point?
Because then it turns into a mudslinging political debate about liberal social nazis and backwards puritan libertarians. The point is to avoid that. By all means use your personal interpretation of Utopia and Wasteland. (I confused the term utopia with something else, that's my fault.)
Libertarianism is not anarchism. If any "libertarian" tells you otherwise, they are a fool. If any liberal tells you otherwise... well they're just doing their job aren't they? (This is a response to dialogue within this thread, not the OP). If government presence is likened to temperature, anarchism is ice cold, libertarianism is lukewarm. Democratism is constantly cranking up the heat. Republicanism is yelling to stop turning up the heat because we're already fine at 10,000 degrees? I'm not sure where I'm going with this anymore.
