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there is so much to comment on here. a few thoughts:

"Societies of insects, animals, or men, survive and are held together by the solidarity produced through the mutual identification of members. Among insects or animal groups, mutual identification is secured by scent or other natural characteristics. It is thus that members of a species, or subspecies, or group— a swarm of bees, a termite society, or a herd of elephants— can have a shared organization, a society, and can act together to survive and to ward off outsiders. They have a social bond."

Hayek would have shared this belief 100%. Hayek said he was not a conservative, but a "liberal" (I think we would say he was a libertarian).

The basic philosophical principle of libertarians today is that they renounce the unilateral use of force to get one's way. That is a pretty solid principle. That is why nearly as many libertarians today are pro-life as Republicans.

Libertarians today are not the enemies of the Founders of America. They recognize - correctly - that the US Constitution is the most libertarian structure ever created, precisely because it enumerates federal power and limits it. Or used to, at least.

The author is correct nonetheless in identifying the anarchist subculture among libertarians, drug users, antinomians, etc. But I think that is less pronounced today than in '79. Certainly privately contracting out of liability for murder is unthinkable.

I would suggest that if one sticks to the US Constitution, Austrian economists and the Bible one can have a fairly coherent worldview and political philosophy, and one that will guarantee a tremendous sphere of freedom for individuals and families, liberty in law, an enduring liberty b/c it is coupled with morality.

With regards to political parties, if the R's would ever get serious abot rolling back government even a little, then there would be no need for a LP, and the remainders of the LP members would be the anarchists caricatured by the author.