I think we sell the GOAL and not the MEANS. BitShares is an imperfect attempt/compromise to realize a universal goal: non-violence and world peace and prosperity. I am just uncompromising in my pursuit of those goals.
You certainly have my support in striving for these goals, and I'll remember you said the text I highlighted.
I don't know who / what sources you have studied to arrive here with your non-statist perspective, but I can "imagine" contributors like Stefan Molyneux and Larken Rose to name just a two.
When I see threads like this I feel like a 4 year old trying to relate how alien beings just landed in the backyard to his grand dad. So much must be understood about human behavior, psychopathy, sociology and history to paint a comprehensive picture about why the concept of authority is so powerful yet so terrible.
I'm not talking about authority as in expertise. That is earned, it has merit and that is what has value. Real experts have "authority" not b/c someone says they do but rather b/c they have results to show they are experts. Labels people or institutions associate with someone are just claims which are often hollow and without substance to back them up.
Authority is a good example of a word whose use has been manipulated and twisted, blurring the distinction between authority which is arbitrary, appointed and a symbol of power and control to that which deserves respect because of work performed or practical knowledge attained through experience or intrinsic abilities.
Authority is a religion and it is belief and trust in it that is the cause of more death than ANY OTHER FACTOR. "I was just following orders". Look up the Milgram experiment and then tell me you think authority is rational. How does such a value become so ingrained in the human psyche that they will sacrifice their own self interests, ignore their own values and beliefs to defer to those of "some authority"?
The fundamental reason is b/c we're trained that way by our parents which is further reinforced by society and societies' institutions. We are no longer taught how to think or how to ask questions to ascertain truth.