Your Email:

Subject:

Message:
Entry: Ideology and Proportion Link: http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/ideology_and_proportion#26847 Post contents: Cognate, I already did. My point there was not, in fact, to defame libertarianism. To me libertarianism is noteworthy in that it is a highly procedural focus; government should set up the "rules of the road" so to speak--protecting property, preventing violence, permitting and enforcing contracts--but the actual content of businesses, contracts, daily life, and private behavior is largely a matter of indifference to the government. It sets up the rules, but does not concern itself with the traffic, if you will. Where a non-libertarian might concern himself with private behavior because it is self-destructive (drugs, usury) or because it is simply offensive (polygamy, animal cruelty, public nudity), libertarianism takes these concerns off the table, focusing government chiefly upon the protection of rights. Re-read my post above. It's a post about Raimondo's intemperate rhetoric, the complete political ineffectiveness of libertarianism, and the relationship between these matters with the libertarian concern for rationalism and universalism in its philosophy. My post above is not supposed to be a denunciation of libertarianism on the merits. This should be pretty obvious. That said, I do in fact find libertarianism to be really stupid and immature and unlikely to work for very long, even if it were somehow implemented. And this isn't because I need to study it more. It's pretty simple stuff: that's why high school kids get so into it and it's also why most conservatives find it laughable--most went through a hardcore, youthful libertarian phase but learned more and grew out of it. But I've certainly read all the big libertarian writers--Rothbard, Mises, Mill, Tom Palmer, Charles Murray, Sowell (sorta libertarian), Richard Epstein, Locke, Albert Jay Nock--I was also a Koch Fellow, went to numerous IHS seminars, I just happen to think libertarinism is wrong-headed, and so obviously wrong-headed as to be stupid. I do find it funny when people are so convinced of their rectitude and the rightness of their position that they assume the only reason you might disagree with them is you don't understand them. I understand you all just fine; I just think you're wrong. Sent at: 2008 12 01