February 26, 2015
MarkBernstein.org
 

Pirates

The libertarian pipe dream of the darknet marketplace Silk Road is ably dissected by political scientist Henry Farrell (Georgetown). “The Silk Road might have started as a libertarian experiment,” he writes, “but it was doomed to end as a fiefdom run by pirate kings.”

Playing at pirates is only fun as long as the other players are kids too. The trouble is, once adults with real swords appear, it may be too late to wake up.