TheAgitator.com
Lindsey on Weisberg
Monday, October 20th, 2008Cato’s Brink Lindsey posts a pretty thorough rejoinder to Jacob Weisberg’s “the end of libertarianism” nonsense.
As I mentioned this morning, what gets me is this notion that libertarian ideas have been tried, and failed. That’s not the case at all. This administration has denounced libertarians at every turn. Its ideas come largely from the moral right and from the neconservatives, two groups wholly at odds with libertarianism.
Alas, being right is no defense. 70%+ of my friends and coworkers can start chanting “Two legs bad, four legs good” or “we need more regulation” on cue. Unless libertarianism becomes infinitely more popular than it has been in the last 200 years, whether Lindsey or Weisberg possesses the correct logic will be irrelevant. We’re the new Emmanuel Goldstein.
No, it doesn’t matter one bit. Libertarians are the new political science boogeyman. The Reds can hate them for being terrorist-loving opponents of the war and the Blues can hate them for being the architects of the war. Both sides can use “free markets” as the go-to explanation for why their government programs failed.
After all, why do you think the word “libertarian” comes up in mainstream political discourse so relatively often? It sure as Hell ain’t because they’re paying attention to the ideas.
Libertarianism will never be tried on any significant scale. The rest of us (on both sides of the political spectrum) simply don’t want it.
+1 for Emmanuel Goldstein.
Libertarians, fear not! They’ll come for the anarchists first.
They always do.
After that, well ….
I always find it interesting that those who are most likely to denigrate Libertarianism are those who are least likely to possess both the wit and the knowledge to understand the definition of the word.
Author Charles Stross, in an interview in the ?first? issue of “H+ Magazine” (a magazine for “transhumanists”) has some rather denigrating words about Libertarianism, as well. I’m not sure I agree with him at all, though I do love his work.
http://hplusmagazine.com/
–A.G. Pym
[...] took several decades to trace the causes of the ‘29 crash. The Agitator’s Radley Balko brought up the very good point that the Bush Administration has been vehemently anti-libertarian in regards to social, economic, [...]
chance, I don’t like being punched in the face, but you are your kind continually keep at it. One day I’m going to punch back and you won’t like it.
“Unless libertarianism becomes infinitely more popular than it has been in the last 200 years,”
This kind of thing drives me nuts.
Libertarianism WAS popular. It was the founding philosophy of this country.
Now, maybe you really do mean the year 1808 when you say “the last 200 years,” and you think the principles of the Declaration and Constitution were already kaput by then. But presuming that by “200 years” you loosely mean the entirety of this country’s history, then I don’t get it.
Libertarianism was the reigning philosophy at this country’s inception. Ignoring that is one of the most self-defeating moves that modern libertarians make. Presenting libertarianism as some sort of novel, hey-let’s-throw-everything-away-and-give-this-a-shot prospect doesn’t help a bit, at least until the next revolution starts and stuff.
[...] Radley Balko: As I mentioned this morning, what gets me is this notion that libertarian ideas have been tried, [...]