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Politics : Polite Political Discussion- is it Possible? An Experiment. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: thames_sider who wrote (490)	8/3/2006 10:23:05 AM
From: epicure	Respond to of 1695

I don't think so. I think you accept that laws are coercive, and that living in society is coercive, and that this is part of the bargain. That's not making the term "coercive" meaningless, that's an attempt to understand the coercive at play in our lives. There are, imo, many levels of coercion in society. There is the coercive power of the state- which should intrude into the private life of people (imo) as little as possible. There is the coercive power of social opinion- which can be very extreme, and which is relatively unfettered- except where social opinion wants to use a social fist, and then laws protecting people from assault and such like get in its way. There is the coercive power of family and clan, again- this can be an awesome power. I don't think using the word coercion is too extreme, nor do I think that the fact that varying types of coercion are ubiquitous, makes the term any less powerful. It certainly doesn't for me.