Most people enjoy being around people similar to them. There’s a natural comfort in surrounding yourself with folks who share a lot of the same ideas. Others prefer being in diverse environments, where they can learn from other peoples, groups, and ideas. I happen to prefer diverse environments, but there’s an obnoxious contingent of people like me who want to superimpose that preference onto other people. I think this approach is fundamentally misguided.
It can be easy to fall into the trap of justifying our preferences empirically, and think it’s going to lead to better outcomes, justifying coercive tactics to impose these preferences. Sometimes, it may be true that overriding people’s instincts can lead to better outcomes. However, at best, this way of being is haughty, intolerant, and creates resentment.
Many people think that because the majority of our institutions do this, that society fails to function in a relatively ‘unsovereign’ approach. Yet, this is the case for people who aren’t governed by the same governments. However, society is adaptive, and people aim to build relationships outside of stated aims.
One major downside is that failing to coerce means that large projects aren’t done. However, if you wouldn’t be able to create the project without coercion, how worthy of a goal can it be? Trade and markets built the world, not violence.
Isadore Johnson's Website 