Neil Peart
Posted on 07/30/2002 6:46:04 PM PDT by RANDomScout
In this, my last scheduled contribution to Editor’s Links, I want to say a few nice words about libertarians – a much-maligned, funny, quarrelsome lot of people who were kind enough to foot my bills this summer.
One of the great things about laissez-faire types is that they’re not in power and – truth be told – they have no desire to be. This is seen by some as a bad thing; a sign that libertarians aren’t “serious people.” But the approach is not without its benefits.
Right- and left-wingers are tethered to partisan political movements or political parties, which can be a weights of albatross-like proportions. Advancing a party’s propaganda and interests often contorts and warps reality all out of recognizable proportion. For instance, a recent Washington Monthly review of right-wing bomb thrower Ann Coulter’s new book Slander relayed her claim that “for about twenty years now, all new ideas have bubbled up from the right wing.” The incredulous reviewer asked “All new ideas? All? Air Jordans? The Macarena? Pizza Hut's Stuffed-Crust Pizza?”
Across the aisle are odious pundits like Joe Conason who, in his Salon blog today credited “big government” with saving the Pennsylvania coal miners, reminded readers that Ted Bundy was a young Republican (only one step removed from Ralph Reed), and compared the Bush administration’s attempts to have hiring and firing flexibility in the newly created Department of Homeland Security to the anti-union “obsession[s] of totalitarian regimes and their imitators.” He justified this last charge by explaining – I am not making this up – that if Ann Coulter could be nasty then so could he.
Libertarians are sometimes damned as purists, but at least they aren’t as predictable or as boring as their sniping counterparts on the right and left. They’re also – and I say this from experience – a whole lot more fun. They lack the anti-corporate nervous tics of progressives (“Oh, I couldn’t order Dominos. Do you have any idea what kind of causes they finance?!”) and the woe is us moralistic hang-ups of conservatives (“There was sex on TV last night! We’re doomed.”).
A startlingly diverse group, the only common ground that all libertarians share is a desire to live in a society in which people are truly free – of wars, of petty government regulations, of a creeping Puritanism that holds suspect any fun activity. That might be a pipe dream, but it's one I’ve come to share.
Jeremy Lott is Reason's 2002 Burton C. Gray Memorial intern.
Lately is right. What were those laws
doing on the books anyway?
Naw, your completely free to be as perverted as you want to be. BTW isn't it a libertarian position that states and communities can pass such laws just not the feds? You don’t sound too libertarian to me.
Oh I don't know maybe because local communities have the right to demand a certain level of morality. But that was in a land long ago and far away. Now, it is considered immoral to be moral. Don't take it personally.
Well, if you ever plan on going beastial, count on me telling you something critical. This reminds me of that story from Canada a while back--the father who got put in jail for beating the crap out of his son with a tire iron for humping the dog. The son turned up in court with his wife "lady" --a full grown doberman--and proceeded to ask the judge to recognize the couple as legitimate. The judge made the dog leave. Thank God the Judge wasn't a libertarian, otherwise he would have shrugged his shoulder and said "who am I to tell you who to marry!"
There may be some you've encountered that you felt didn't quite live up to your expectations of morality and self-restraint, but I think all intelligent libertarians understand that with liberty comes responsiblity. I have the responsibility to feed, clothe, and house myself. Why? Because it would be immoral to expect someone else to. I have the responsibilty to treat people with courtesy, unless they show that they wish to be treated otherwise. Why? Because it shows that my parents taught me self-restraint. I would not wish to embarass them. A "community" of a$$holes would not be much fun to live in. As far as obligations to the community and standards of decency, you haven't given any examples where "we" have fallen short, so I'll get back with you later.
Thanks for your comments, everyone. Yes, even you, Willie. And have a good night.
Neil Peart
Libertarians are hell-bent on giving this nation over to a suffocating nanny state. There is nothing "fun" about sodomy-AIDS, kiddie porn, crack cocaine addictions, heroin-inspired prostitution and the other libertarian "live and let live" sacraments. The sooner you realize that, the better off you will be.
I hadn't planned on it, but thanks for
recounting your experience. :)
Libertarians lack the moral conviction to defend the fundamental right-to-life for the unborn.
Not at all. Generally, we believe that government hasn't been given the power to interfere in non-criminal areas such as abortion. - If murder is commited, the state has the power to prosecute. And a jury decides guilt. - Not a 'moral majority'.
That alone is sufficient to discredit any claim they might make regarding defense of our Constitution.
I just refuted that idiocy.
Furthermore, their convoluted policies regarding trade and immigration would serve to undermine the Constitution.
How so? Reread the RLC positions. -- You've made these rants dozens of times without specifics. - It's a dumb tactic.
Get away from that mirror, Kevin.
You know you can't handle
introspection.
Libertarians are all mouth and no game on the issue of personal responsibility.
Their "see no evil" libertinism is leading us to a suffocting anny state--they know it, but that's okay because in their heart-of-hearts they really disapprove of it, you see. They will frown heavily as we are destroyed by the nanny statism they helped to bring about. They will frown heavily indeed.
Small comfort.
It's your victimless crimes and
propensity for having government
tell people how to live that generates
the bureaucracy to make it all come
about, KC. You are your own enemy.
And still going strong
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