Word: libertarianism
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...LIBERTARIANS are a self-righteous lot; knowing full well they carry in their hip-pocket more political principle than most people have in their whole beings, they tend to press their advantage. And when they engage you in conversation, it's no well-who-do-you-think-is-more-dangerous-Carter-or-Reagan sort of argument; before you can blink they will be talking natural right theory. Without some preparation, you might be embarassed; worse, you might be converted to a school of thought as noxious as any that exists. But libertarians can be beaten, or at least fought...
...Prepared. Libertarians, unlike most Americans, believe what they are saying, and are apt to get emotional. What you call taxation they will call "stealing." When Clark writes of the draft, he can't restrain himself: "A government that would try to draft (young people) would be little better than a kidnapper," he states. When they talk about the ideal society, they're apt to point to Espiritu Santo, a few square miles of sand that an American businessmen tried to turn into a bite-sized tax shelter earlier this year. If you leave yourself open, the tendency to analogy...
...liberal, the libertarians think they will get you on civil liberties. After all, no one stands more philosophically opposed to government discrimination no matter what a person's religious, sexual, racial, or ethnic status than the libertarians. You can take two tacks. The first is cheap but effective: ask where Ed Clark, or his corporate vice-president or any other libertarian, was hanging out when the march on Selma was requiring the skulls of dedicated humanitarians. All those socialists, for chrissake, and no executives in any corporations. Or you can take the high road, and show how ridiculous the libertarian...
...stop selling them loaves of bread. Don't like Blacks? In Clark's world, you set up your own school or bus company or mail service and announce that Black people's letters will not be carried, their bodies not transported, their children not educated. If your libertarian opponent will admit that prejudice exists, he will be hard-pressed to show that segregation would not be the inevitable result of his perfect free market economy. Compare the benefits of segregation--freedom to hate as one wishes--with its disadvantages. Grab some passing minority-group member by the elbow...
...There are, of course, the unwinnable arguments. Chief among them is the libertarian notion that self-interest is at the root of all actions, and, for example, working for other people's happiness can be explained away solely as an effort to assuage your conscience. You will not win this stage of the quarrel. Libertarians, many of them, wear dollar signs on their ties. They read Ayn Rand, and think happiness is this valley where everybody makes profits--unless they're unfit and hence lose money. Don't bother calling them bloodless assholes, because they think that being bloodless...