[Reaper Man]

Does anyone have any good info on libertarianism? I guess I know their basic stance, but the information I have gotten thus far is fairly superficial and not too informative. Most of the people I know seem to reject it as an extremist group who are extreme isolationists.

Is anyone here a libertarian? Can anyone fill me in on some solid info on their political theories and why they think the other theories are flawed and libertarianism corrects for these flaws?

[johndredd05]

your best bet is probly to just surf through the libertarian party website to get going. i would say i lean that way, use to be a card carrying member of the party. the problem is its a totally unelectable ideology. i'm not totally unsure things wouldnt be better if congress/president was libertarian but we will never know.

[Reaper Man]

I am beginning to be more of the opinion that a libertarian social system needs to be in place. I think that it is unlikely that the US will be able to make the shift to it.

I am also considering reading some Ayn Rand, as her beliefs have been claimed as foundational for many ideal of the libertarian party.

[Mens Rea]

There's an absurd extension of libertarianism. To the point where the question of "in god we trust" on the currency is moot, as the gov't would no longer print money. And the gov't might not even be building roads, etc.

It's my understanding that pre-civil war states and individuals viewed the federal gov't in the same way that many americans view the UN.

I was listening to Ron Paul on the radio the other day. He was talking about closing all the bases in iraq and bringing the troops home. Privitizing the FAA and many other gov't agencies. Just kill the leviathon.

I listen to Neil Boortz's radio show a couple times a week. He claims to be a libertarian. Some disagree. Anyway, he's for the legalization of all drugs, a smaller gov't and the fair tax. He actually wrote a couple books: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Boortz#Author

[AmericaOverAll]

look up murray rothbard- also:

"Libertarians stand opposed to power in lauding the natural right of all human beings to choose the course of their own lives, and to accept that fundamental, unquestionable responsibility for the consequences of their choices and actions. Any attempt to impose conformity on human beings through political means is an attempt to destroy what it is that makes them essentially and gloriously human." --Roy A. Childs

[J-Fight]

you should move this thread to the WR

[kartaron]

The Law by Frederick Bastiat

or read just about anything about laissez faire. Wiki is a good start

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez-faire

[KPB]

http://zompist.com/libertos.html

"...it's the philosophy of a snotty teen, someone who's read too much Heinlein, absorbed the sordid notion that an intellectual elite should rule the subhuman masses, and convinced himself that reading a few bad novels qualifies him as a member of the elite."

"It's hard to read libertarians without concluding that they've never been out of the country-- perhaps never out of the suburbs. They don't know what Latin American rule by the elite looks like; they don't know any way of running an industrial economy but that of the US; they don't know what an actually oppressive government looks like; they've never experienced a depression; they've never lived in a slum or experienced racial discrimination. At the same time, they have a very American sense of entitlement: a gut feeling that they've earned the prosperity they were born into, that they owe the community nothing, that they deserve to have whatever they want, that no one should stand in their way.

In short, they're spoiled, and they've evolved a philosophy that they should be spoiled. "

[kartaron]

Originally Posted by KPB

http://zompist.com/libertos.html

"...it's the philosophy of a snotty teen, someone who's read too much Heinlein, absorbed the sordid notion that an intellectual elite should rule the subhuman masses, and convinced himself that reading a few bad novels qualifies him as a member of the elite."

"It's hard to read libertarians without concluding that they've never been out of the country-- perhaps never out of the suburbs. They don't know what Latin American rule by the elite looks like; they don't know any way of running an industrial economy but that of the US; they don't know what an actually oppressive government looks like; they've never experienced a depression; they've never lived in a slum or experienced racial discrimination. At the same time, they have a very American sense of entitlement: a gut feeling that they've earned the prosperity they were born into, that they owe the community nothing, that they deserve to have whatever they want, that no one should stand in their way.

In short, they're spoiled, and they've evolved a philosophy that they should be spoiled. "

Wow, he manages to mischaracterize not only Libertarianism, but Communism as well... and on the same page even.

[KingSnake]

Read up on Friedman, I think his later focus on the importance of 'rule of law' and its relation to economic and social freedom in his later years is more important than his earlier economic theories, which ignored the fact that pure market approaches without proper legal structure can degenerate quickly.

See this interview.

http://www.cato.org/special/friedman...friedman4.html