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RE: Seasteading: Heroes of Freedom
Unfortunately, the only way to preserve your freedom is to have more firepower than those that may threaten you.
The nation state exists because it is the smallest grouping able to provide security for its members in a Hobbesian world.
Seasteading without your own navy is admirable but deluded.
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I personally think the "Hobbesian world" is deluded and strongly influenced by his own specific life experiences. Most people don't actually want to threaten anyone. It's a small group of people that maintain the myth of authority. If people stopped believing in it, they would have no power. That includes the minds controlling the fingers pulling the triggers on the guns.
And no, I do not at all think a nation state is the smallest group. I think it's the largest land grab that was possible at the time in human history where war and conquest were still considered "honorable" and they killed and stole as much as they could. See Steven Pinker's book Better Angels of Our Nature for a different view on human nature and how it may change over time.
You are quite right about personal experience affecting whether you see the world as Hobbesian.
Most people in advanced economies live the vast majority of their lives in a non-Hobbesian world, protected by laws, lawyers, police, armies and government from the harsh realities of the world. This is a good thing, but it means most people are deluded.
It just takes experience of your noble seasteading endeavour being wrecked by the nasty power of naval ships with heavy weapons to understand that, under all our veneer of civilisation, only those who can properly defend themselves are really free.
Unfortunately, in the modern world, because of the cost and power of modern weapons, the only way you can properly defend yourself is with your own nation state.
When we met in Krakow you saw the Jewish quarter, empty of Jews, and heard my story about the Nazis murdering my mother-in-law's entire family in a tiny village a few hundred miles east.
Israeli Jews understand that only by having your own nation state can you properly defend yourself, your family and your values.
Jews tried many other options for 1900 years of exile from the Land of Israel and all of them failed to provide proper protection.
It is also true that most people don't actually want to threaten anyone. But it is irrelevant, because most people are sheep and will follow that small group of people who are willing to create that myth of authority by the exercise of power, including physical violence.
The best one can hope for is to pick a nation state that matches your values and ideals as much as possible. Everything we are doing with Crypto & Steem can replace some centralised governmental functions, but not those to do with law, order, security and defence.
While ever humans retain our weak and fragile biological forms (including helpless babies) this is the reality we are stuck with.