Reactions to AC

[tolbiny]

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I will share my initial reactions to AC. I came here as a libertarian, albeit not interested in politics and not active in any way (not discussions, reading, etc) for several years.

I was both intrigued and SCARED. I was intrigued by the fact that the concept was something I had never heard of or considered, and also intrigued because the prominent posters seemed to be really smart and putting forth sound, logical arguments. I was impressed by that.

I was not initially 'scared', just curious. But as I started to contemplate what an AC world might be like, in reality with me living in it, those initial thoughts SCARED ME. I was scared of the unknown and uncertainty of it all. How would fire departments/services, police departments/services, roads, bridges, etc be provided for? Several 'what if' scenarios came to mind. What if we are invaded? That was the big one for me. What if Russia or N. Korea, or whoever invades or starts shooting missles and bombs at us? What the hell are we going to do then? Will we not all be screwed?

But I have come to value reason and rational judgement over emotion. I recognized my fear for what it was, an emotion. I do not use emotions to win at poker or to plan my day or plan my future, at least I do not do those things when functioning optimally. I use reason and judgement. I use my brain. My thoughts. So I tried my best to keep an open mind because I had already clearly seen that the people preaching AC were smart. They did not suddenly turn into morons because I am experiencing fear. So I continued to read and learn. When I had a few questions I asked them.

And ultimately what I realized was that if somehow we were invaded the invaders would not be coming for a conquest of my measly possessions, they would be after the rich people's stuff. So the rich people would logically be taking steps to defend their stuff while I would be pretty much ignored. Hell, if it came to it and someone came to my door with a gun intending to kick me out of my place and have me live on the streets because they were taking over I would shoot it out with them, but this would be a very unlikely scenario. Any invaders would be after the rich people's stuff. And we could be invaded anyway and I could still possibly be faced with some guys coming to my door intent on taking over my place and kicking me to the street whereby I would still need to shoot it out with them. But because I realized that invaders would basically be after rich people's stuff I was not afraid of not having national defense any longer.

So without my fear, and with my reason and judgement, I decided that AC was a pretty good idea.

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The fallacy in your post is that you assume invaders are always just after stuff. See Nazi Germany, et al.

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Notice that no standing army defeated the Nazi's, the first armies that the French, Russians, Chezs, Polish and British put on the field were all wiped out. It wasn't until the Nazis hit natural barriers (Channel, sheer size of Russia) that they slowed down.
The argument isn't that AC will be able to prevent all attackers, but that any attacker who is well enough equipped to take on a highly decentralized, wealthy and motivated opponent is going to run all over any defense that a state could put up anyway.