[bumby]

I can go into detail, but for the sake of the argument let’s define it in the Norquist fashion: a government small enough that it can be drowned in the bathtub. A stricter definition might be anything beyond and to include minarchism.

[WalterBright]

You'll need to be more specific.

[bumby]

“beyond and to include minarchism” is pretty specific.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night-watchman_state

[WalterBright]

Ok, I see that. But you cannot set up such a community within the current US, as it runs afoul of the primacy of Federal law.

A commune, however, can be.

[bumby]

I think the argument that minarchists take is that federal law should be modified to only cover military, courts, and police. A coherent libertarian could only interface with those, although it would be difficult and probably start to look very much like the commune types. The Jeffersonian yeoman farmer ideal seems like the clearest example. The larger point is that both extremes seem incompatible with modernity.

[WalterBright]

I don't think it would look like a commune at all. More like the early United States, excluding the slave South.

[bumby]

Right, that’s the yeoman farmer ideal I brought up. I just don’t think that works with anything remotely like modern society so it’s a romantic but impractical idea. IMO it can only work in relatively small groups, just like the commune. Once society reaches a certain level of complexity, necessary practical tradeoffs erode that romanticism.