Re: The joy of FORTRAN

On 19/10/2024 04:15, rbowman wrote:

On Fri, 18 Oct 2024 21:16:40 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
 

On Fri, 18 Oct 2024 11:30:33 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>

All government is a self-legalising protection racket.

>
Would you rather live a life that is, what was the phrase, “nasty,
brutish and short”?

 Hobbes ignored centuries of societies that did quite well without a
dictatorial sovereign in charge. Kropotkin may have went to the other
extreme in 'Mutual Aid' but he makes many valid points.
 Scale is the real problem. A state like the US with over 300 million
people, half of which would like to see the other half hanging from lamp
poles,  is impossible without a highly coercive government.

Ah, but in whose interest is it that "half of which would like to see the other half hanging from lamp  poles"
People who want to impose  a dictatorship of some sort.
Putin and his chums are already at ware with the USA and have been for years. Anything that divides US society weakens it. Until one half declares 'we cannot have the other have having the vote, they are simply deplorable'  while the other half declares 'Putin is my friend'
Putin has *already* won.
He now controls the USA.
--
“People believe certain stories because everyone important tells them, and people tell those stories because everyone important believes them. Indeed, when a conventional wisdom is at its fullest strength, one’s agreement with that conventional wisdom becomes almost a litmus test of one’s suitability to be taken seriously.”
Paul Krugman