Wikitopia and its discontents

Almost every applied science started as a branch of philosophy. Back when lawyers were still philosophers they called themselves 'sophists' and were proud of being able to make compelling arguments for or against any issue.

Sophia Smith had not answered to any name other than Sophist, since she first choose it on her first IM account at the age of 8.

Now she was in junior high school, more than 8 and less than fully grown.

"Can we really learn anything from touring the sheriff's court that isn't in our civics texts?" She asked the teacher before the tour.

"No. But some of you don't learn much from texts, and may learn more if it is coming from an expert on coercive violence" the teacher replied, to which Sophist could not argue.

The Sheriff a handsome very strong man named Adams met the class at the bus and marched them into the courtroom.

"The power of the law stems from a mix of consent, and violence. Since violence is a bad thing all legal systems attempt to garnish as much consent as possible. This is done by rationally showing people how it is in their advantage to have rule of law, with things like civics class; and also by appealing to peoples irrational emotions as well. Name me an emotional reason people might support the law." Adams lectured/ ordered he led the students into the court room.

"The need for vengeance after being wronged" Daniel offered.

"Good answer. But that can be a dangerous feeling to work with because it can lead people to go to extremes, where they do more harm than good. What is a less powerful if more reliable irrational impulse is respect for tradition. And so in order to wrap itself in tradition courtrooms changed very little over the years. Can anyone spot a way it did change since the beginning of the 21st century and tell me why that change was made?"

"No bibles. After paper books became obsolete for a time they had people swear on a flash drive, with all the worlds holy texts saved on it. That was eventually stopped because without any physical text they were just swearing on the idea of their religion, and if the idea affects them at all it should be with them always motivating them to try to be better, and so the flash drive was pointless." Sophist replied.

"Exactly, though you left out how silly people looked with their hands cupped over a flash drive being sworn in. "

"Now, the court is where legal theory is argued over, so I think it is a good place to lecture y'all on the basics of our current system." Adams said eliciting some groaning.

"Human society has gone through three major phases. Barbarism in which poverty was universal and misery nearly so, and no one took any action to create long term improvements, but rather merely rested after securing their survival requirements. "He began.

"Civilization was the phase in which coercive violence was used to force people to work for the long term good, and which led to all manner of idealists dreaming of systems whereby good things get done without force, and punishment. Over time the idealists drifted into two camps, Anarchist Socialists (including Communists and Nazis, if you look at their long term visions) who dreamed of societies without any coercion, and believed that the creation of a 'New Man' was required to get there, and Anarchist Libertarians who believe that with the right system of property rights people would do what was good in the name of greed. The Anarchist Socialists ran into the practical difficulties in finding the exact method of torturing 'old' man in order to make him new, and make this newness breed true so that the state does not have to continue brainwashing each new generation. The Anarchist Libertarians ran into a more theoretical difficulty; Even when they succeeded they could not deliver perfect freedom because property rights existed through coercive violence on the part of the state; every stock, bond, and deed, retained its value because sheriffs like me were prepared to risk our lives and take other peoples in order to insure that the promises on the piece of paper would be kept."