Silk Road forums
Discussion => Off topic => Topic started by: BenJesuit on March 09, 2012, 03:07 am
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In a perfect world! ;D
But seriously, the more you think about it, the more you realize just what an incredible idea made manifest the Silk Road really is.
Think about it. How many businesses in the real world can you say you feel affection for like the affection you feel for many of the brave, gallant, and accommodating vendors? or the affection many vendors feel for their clients. I mean, kids today can be fanboys for their favorite tech company, like Apple for instance. But they don't get to converse with Apple execs like how we can converse with our vendors and vice versa?
And what's more, so many excellent people have been brought together to transact in life enhancing substances. And all because of one person's vision which cleverly addresses a need that governments the world over have tried to choke off.
I know I speak for many when I say that the Silk Road has greatly enhanced their lives. Now, sure, there's been ups and downs. Loses and victims along the way. But we've pulled through and pulled together to make this place safer with each passing day. We all look out for each other as if what happens to one, happens to all.
We are for all intents and purposes, a family.
And it's a beautiful thing.
So Dread Pirate Roberts, I salute you! You have my pride and my adoration. But above all, you have my utmost gratitude. Without what you have done here, this incredible feat, many of us likely wouldn't be living better lives this place affords us to live.
Long live Silk Road!
Long Live Dread Pirate Roberts!
Truly deserving of the accolade so titled as "Man of the Year."
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Well, if the Road is up for long enough, e.g. a decade or so, it could happen. After a while, everything becomes part of the status quo.
There's lots of circumstances in which the white and black markets get along relatively amicably e.g. the Yakusa in Japan. It is a lot more common in the developing world though, where countries deliberately use the black market as a developmental strategy to bootstrap the economy.
Even in the United States, there have been circumstances where LE and entities within the black market cooperated under the table e.g. tracking down terrorists, child molesters etc. If SR could guarantee they wouldn't sell to minors, have a 'stop' rule for addicts (perma-ban vendors impose on customers who want it), have mandatory drug kits sent with items (not actually expensive to do), paid a tithe to the Government etc, then a large section of the population would be totally A-OK with the existence of the Silk Road. It does, after all, reduce the propensity to violence, that is just a fact, you'd have to be willfully blind not to see that. The interface and reputation system really matter.
Don't get comfortable though, it's not going to suddenly happen tomorrow. N.B!
The main problem, is that it's not in the DEA's interest to solve the problem. You notice how people who are genuine at their problem solving efforts are always lateral thinkers, keen to work out a new hack or experiment. The irony is we see that the DEA's absolute objective to prevent drugs hitting the streets has transformed to a drug distribution regulation process, where smugglers 'plan' for shipments to get caught so the DEA 'gets their tax'.
Corruption, but not in the common sense of the word. Organizations like the Silk Road could put entire swaths of the black market out of business, reduce the number of drug overdoses, reduce gang related violence and so forth. Eventually they will, but it'd be a much faster process if the Government was smart enough to keep a hands off approach. You've got to ask yourself, at the end of the day, who is the real enemy here?
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You make many excellent points.
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Excellent analysis and points Pine
ggg
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Human self-interest is a universal reality.
How many hundreds of thousands of highly paid and underworked lawyers, cops, bureaucrats, prison guards, court employees, etc. would be out of work within a week if drugs were legalized.
Never mind that they are the ones who claim the "authority" to write magical words on pieces of paper so that delusions of a political process solving the woes of human-kind can be clung to like a mother's skirts by a four-year-old.
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^ Right on brother, well said indeed.
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Human self-interest is a universal reality.
How many hundreds of thousands of highly paid and underworked lawyers, cops, bureaucrats, prison guards, court employees, etc. would be out of work within a week if drugs were legalized.
Never mind that they are the ones who claim the "authority" to write magical words on pieces of paper so that delusions of a political process solving the woes of human-kind can be clung to like a mother's skirts by a four-year-old.
;D
If they were out of government work, they'd actually have to get jobs in the private economy where they'd have to actually use their labor for something productive. I can only imagine how the economy would thrive under such conditions that hundreds of thousands would be forced to participate in real wealth producing activities.
Laws do not exist that are not determined by nature itself. The only thing that exists is what we allow others to do to us.
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Laws do not exist that are not determined by nature itself. The only thing that exists is what we allow others to do to us.
Granted, I'm trippin' balls on rocker's shrooms right now. But GODDAMN that's some deep shit. Should be plastered on every courthouse, every jail, every monument.
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Human self-interest is a universal reality.
How many hundreds of thousands of highly paid and underworked lawyers, cops, bureaucrats, prison guards, court employees, etc. would be out of work within a week if drugs were legalized.
Never mind that they are the ones who claim the "authority" to write magical words on pieces of paper so that delusions of a political process solving the woes of human-kind can be clung to like a mother's skirts by a four-year-old.
Yes, legalizing drugs would certainly upset the status quo. It would require a complete reversal of conventional wisdom... Spend half a century and trillions of dollars fighting something, only to suddenly embrace it? Not likely.
Waging war is big business, reaping huge profits... Doesn't matter if it's waged against nations, chemicals, or even an abstract concept. When wars are waged, budgets are increased. No bid contracts are awarded. And to the victor go the spoils of war...
What need would we have of the DEA and its $2,019.7 million budget, 8,399 positions, and 4,146 agents (FY 2010)? Add to that a loss of "revenue" to the tune of $736.7 million in the form of asset forfeiture that same year. And what would happen to the hundreds of other drug task forces at the state and local levels, with their associated budgets and resultant losses of "revenue"?
The corporations operating the 264 private prisons in the US would also suffer irreparable harm due to the hundreds of thousands of sudden vacancies. Bye bye federal funding. How would a corporation like CCA be able to purchase more prisons if the federal government couldn't guarantee 90% occupancy for the next twenty years, in addition to paying operational costs for the same period of time?
Politicians, too, would be affected, robbed of a crucial tool used to create laws which control by incarceration, people of given demographics...
Clearly, self interest will never allow this war to be won... But never will it be abandoned, either.
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The stuff in this thread makes way too much sense. It nearly brings me to tears the way the world is in relation to drugs. It's a damn shame :'( :'(
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Some would say "lay off the oil burner"
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Well said sir. We are a Family indeed. & revolutionaries at that.
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Wonderful posts, people.
Yes, as DPR once said, the genie is out of the bottle. SR is power to the people.
You know, I've had occasion to meet some of those DEA and law enforcement types (no, I was not a suspect or a snitch or anything like that, it had to do with work-related training)- and i can tell you first hand these guys DO NOT CARE about protecting people. They are mostly ASSHOLES who get off on power. If the govt truly wanted to help people they would stop putting drug users in jail and make addiction treatment available instead.
Again, the real issue has nothing to do with drugs. The real issue is POWER. Now we have it. Now they can no longer keep us from our constitutionally guaranteed right to 'pursue happiness' in whatever way we see fit, as long as it harms no one else.
I for one am proud of our community and of DPR and everyone who has made this possible. It's not just about buying weed or whatever your drug is, it's about taking back POWER from the government. This is truly a revolution.
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Dread Pirate Roberts is a bodhi sattva, as far as I am concerned.
The time of the thousand buddhas is now!
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I will not worship a liar and a thief
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To be honest I find the very existence of SR truly hilarious.
We are on a rock in space orbiting a mass of fire and nuclear energy, on a planet where there are worldwide government agencies with trillion dollar budgets charged with the ludicrous task of stopping people digesting certain chemicals, and here we are with some open source software available to the public and a simple digital currency transmitted through invisible signals in the air, openly trading drugs.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAH what a preposterous world this is.
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Long live Dread Pirate Roberts and long live Silk Road, and long live TORnet.
Yes it is revolutionary, insane, truly amazing. People have collaborated without coming together to create a real alternative space. I feel like I am back in the land of the net pre96 when I was too young to appreciate it but it was full of interesting, smart and curious people - maybe it's not quite as great but this as close as most kids are going to get to those early days.
SR is still a toddler, it's potential has yet to be unleashed, there is still more to come. SR can link people in markets with radically different prices, I hope to do my bit within a few weeks, eventually more vendors will appear from producing and transshipment countries.
Hip hip hooray for our benign creator, admins and mods. Long live all Silk Roaders!
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I agree! Long live DPR, Silk Road and Tor! It is truely a revolutionary concept DPR implemented. Sure there have been tons of sites doing similar things but SR did it with style, class and BALLS. No pussy footing around here. This is the safe way to buy drugs and other goods anonymously. No government should tell me what I can and cant put into my body. I truely hope the anonimitity of Tor holds up and that DPR is never caught, SR is never brought down and continues to live on forever! DPR has clearly proven to be a brilliant leader. Some may not agree with all his decisions but in the end we are all better and safer when we buy drugs because of him. To any LEO, DEA agent or nay sayer: it's my body, you do not have the right to say what i put in it. I dont tell u what u can and cant do. SR is keeping me safe from crackheads, stabbings, guns and the criminal aspect of drugs that was created by the government and LE making drugs illegal. Before u go on and even consider trying to take a stab at SR think about this. If you're really trying to make the streets safer then u will want SR to stay! If you're just on a power trip nothing will change your mind. There are so many worse things then drugs. War. Dictators. Natural disasters. Rick Santorum. You name it.
LONG LIVE DPR & SR!!
Rasspects
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Long live Dread Pirate Roberts and long live Silk Road, and long live TORnet.
YARRRRRR!!!!!!! I'll drink to that! [drinking pirate emoticon]
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This thread makes me depressed, because as far as I'm concerned, I'm just getting in before it's shut down, like when MDMA was legal or when that massage parlor in my town turned out to be giving out handjobs and I'd been meaning to go there for a massage, but never did.