I feel like I'm passing through the history of Pine Philosophy here. I remember thinking and believing pretty much everything everybody's posted in this thread, obviously at different stages of my life.On the unimportant subject of whether DPR has a ego. Duh. You have to believe in yourself and an ideology in order to accomplish great things. Everybody has this. Everybody wants to believe they are unique, special. Pine does this. You do this. Everybody does. Actually that is true no matter what you achieve or don't. It's not that important though. Everybody yearns for a higher purpose in life, that's why science, religion, art and philosophy exist. I call that ambition, others call it conceit when it fails or doesn't quite live up to expectations. I think they miss the point.Out of all things posted, my perspective today is closest to the sentiments of SuperDimitri. Morality so subjective when you look at the practical effects. People would rather die than change their mind set (set of concepts in their mind). In fact, they do.I broadly agree with kmf, but in a less dystopian way, I don't see it as being that orchestrated even if people attempt to make it so. kmf, maybe you need more sunlight, feminine comforts and kittens in your life ;-) On the other hand, a lot of people fall prey to parnassusian views of what is possible. MDMA, LSD, they, ah, don't show you the real world so much as a one sided version of it. Reminds of me extrapolating investment compounded returns when I was kid, nothing is so straight forward. Competition and contradictions exist. There is nothing wrong with violence and conflict. They are as much part of the human race as love and friendship. Is killing people wrong? It's like asking what the smell of yellow is. It depends. I mean, if you try to kill me, pine, I will think you are evil and attempt to murder you first. I am not a relativist when that happens! But at the same time, it's absurd to think that globally, generally, X is wrong and Y is right. You would have to be omniscience to know that, you're unintentionally claiming god-like powers there.--On the persistently occurring subject of 'cartel-bashing' or 'mafia-bashing'. This isn't that smart. Some of you guys are watching too much bad daytime TV and absorbed more fiction about organized crime than fact. Sure cartels kill people. Duh. But did you ever consider that a motley crew of thousands of small gangs are far more violent in reality? Did you ever consider that 'protection', actually serves a legitimately useful function in society, especially those without a functioning police force or legal institutions.Remember The Leviathan (the book that invented the concept of modern state). A centralized authority with a monopoly on coercion generally *reduces* the overall rate of violence in society. The external rate of violence within the region/domain of that centralized authority does increase. e.g. inter-state wars, mafia wars. But internally, the rate of violence dramatically declines.Yes, state violence has characterized the 20th century. But ironically, this was also in per capita terms, the least violence century in history. There are a lot of similarities here to how markets create externalizes that are negative e.g. toxic waste dumping in countries that can't stop it, having lead in Chinese children's milk etc.Yet the massive powers of internal efficiency inside markets are so enormously powerful that markets are literally the engine of the human race. They are our greatest tool and weapon, even if they are abused. The capitalists make the tool operate, the socialists try to ensure the tool doesn't start telling the operator what to do. So they both have a function even if I hate those commie bastards and I gotta accept that.The Silk Road will kill people. That's just a matter of time. That is a foregone conclusion and DPR's cross to bear if you think of it in those terms. And that is completely irrelevant. Look at the opportunity costs to *not* using the Silk Road. Bad dope, less regulated marketplaces will kill far more people than DPR's system. This is a more efficient way, and that is all there is to it. Globalization destroys people's lives, jobs. But the net result is positive on balance. It might be evil for you, and good for the world or visa versa.