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Entry: Libertarianism's Divergent Roads Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/libertarianisms_divergent_roads#29346 Post contents: Acton was forgotten - Power corrupts. And that corruption always destroys liberty. Even economic power. (Usually with state collusion - e.g. eminent domain for one railroad that can then be "free" to haul the railroad's favorites and kill the rest who aren't free to build competing railroads). Each generation has those who attempt to forge rings of power - "one ring to find them all and in the darkness bind them" as Tolkien put it. And it is left to the Hobbits of society to undertake difficult journeys to destory the ring. For it is the ring of the elites. The Sarumans of this world know what is better for everyone, even when they claim it is "liberty". Freedom as long as they are the providers and controllers. They want to use the technology, economic power, and eventually violence - to bring freedom. Even when it is clear that freedom is destroyed. Is it so much better to be snooped on by your neighbor and his cell phone camera then you-tubed than have the NSA listen in? Or as part of every subscriber agreement the corporation can do the same? Not that I care for Rothbard. The problem is the same thing. Reading how he would have been a better general than George Washington (Generalissimo Washington article at LRC) probably means that he would have opposed Paul because he was not conducting the grass roots revolution the way he wanted. (And there are some anti-war libertarians in the Rothbard wing that literally did that - checkout antiwar.com blog). While saying the market is too complex to plan, they have every detail of their utopias and campaigns to get there planned worse than anything Stalin's experts came up with. Their Hubris simply operates at a different level - Cato is obvious, but Rothbard (and his acolytes) knows ethics better than Aquinas or how to do a revolution better than Washington and the other founding fathers? Give me a break! Ayn Rand at least was smart enough to write science fiction, so a mythical shield with infinite mythical energy left Galt's Gultch without any problems of defense or resource shortage. And that is the difference between Paul and both wings of the Libertarian party. Paul says he doesn't and can't know how to run people's lives or the economy, or even most things the state does, so he shouldn't. He didn't even know how to run his campaign - it just happened. And Liberty is hard. It takes the difficult work of campaigning door to door, running for delegate spots, finding voters, etc. It won't magically appear, nor will it be evolved into. We are fallen creatures and every generation is called to fight the fall. To ignore calls for the easy solution or to use power to create liberty. Or to wait for it to just happen (like waiting for the GOP to shrink government). Or to expect an armageddon anarchy after the collapse to reconstitute USA 1800. It is a battle, internal and external, much like Lord of the Rings. Small people and large armies have to act in concert to destroy the tyrannies without succumbing to the temptation to become the good tyrant. Sent at: 2008 12 02