Essay talk:Dissident's dilemma

http://wiki.mises.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Essay:Dissidents'_dilemma&printable=yes

Pete's comments
Nice! Great to see that you took the time to share this with others.

The only suggestions I have a very minor grammatical.

- in the beginning for example, perhaps instead of using "dissident" a few times, a synonym could be used.

- right now, in the intro it states "However, this has not yet happened. What happens instead ..." could be shorted to just "However, this has not yet happened. Instead..."

In the paragraph for the given example, which notes

"For simplicity's sake, suppose there is a situation in which there are seven dissidents total, the jails have capacity for four people, and therefore the resistance of five people is needed to overthrow the state — i.e. four people to clog the jails and one additional person to clog the streets. If fewer than five resist, then the state will punish those resisters and the state's rule will continue. This table shows the outcomes that occur when various combinations of dissidents choose to obey or openly disobey the state."

might it be good to expand a bit and note that it's not just jail, but other negative reactions (that could include execution etc.)?

One thought I had too was that we've seen what happens when more people are slated to be caged then space allows - sometimes occupancy is increased for each cage (so a cage built to house one person would hold two people) or monitoring approaches are implemented (ie ankle bracelet, for which the wearer is charged). Not sure if that's worth addressing but I just figured the more thorough the better, though at some point I recognize it's impossible to address all tangential issues.

I guess for myself, I don't foresee the "state" failing by folks being caged per se but by folks withdrawing their consent, or their adherence to the bad ideas that when acted upon, manifest as "the state." Once enough folks replace those ideas with others that rely on consensual interactions, the state ceases to exist. Though where that level is - whether it takes five out of seven folks, or three out of seven folks is unknowable.

Not sure if I went off on a tangent or if any of the above is helpful.

Hope you're doing well.

And by the way, I'm not active with LOT now but with Cop Block (http://copblock.org/tour). After our 2011 tour in MA and NH I've not been too active through LOT. Derrick J Freeman utilized it briefly but it's pretty much now just exists to house the already-created content. -Pete

How to initiative rebellion?
It is like starting a soccer game. You can either try to get 22 people on board your idea at once, or you can start with two people kicking a ball, and see what happens. Either way, if you fail, the question arises, Why aren't they getting on board? Leucosticte (talk) 01:53, 20 January 2014 (EST)