> Date sent: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 23:03:50 -0700 (PDT)
> Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> To: Multiple recipients of list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: [PEN-L:5092] Re: one last...
> I hate to display my extreme ignorance in this matter, but, what IS
> Libertarianism? (this is not a trick question, I really don't know) Is there
> a volume or volumes I could read to get an idea of Libertarian positions?
>
> maggie coleman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
There are of course different strains/sects etc (Noam Chomsky is
often characterized as a "left-wing" libertarian or socialist
libertarian--I find this to be oxymoronic--and there is what is
known as the "Objectivist wing of the Libertarians; but here it goes:
Major Assertions (They call "axioms")
1) Human beings are BY NATURE selfish, greedy, calculating,
maximizing, rational, competitive, materialistic, acquisitive, etc
and only capitalism--which celebrates and utilizes these impulses to
produce socially optimum results that were not intended by the
individual actors (the invisible hand)--is an efficient, personally
liberating, dynamic system.
2) Virtually all forms of taxes represent forms of theft and
intrusions into personal liberty;
3) Only the individual can define for himself/herself what liberty
really means, one's own value system etc and each individual should
be left alone to pursue his/her own self-defined goals, values
subject to the constraint of not interfering with the space, values,
goals of others;
4) The Government or State in any form under any banner is
necessarily and always an intrusive force; the least government is
best and the only role for government should be: defending property
and contract rights, military and police, weights and measures
system, maintaining a monetary system and real value of the currency.
Everything else (a few more functions are included by some
libertarians) should be privatized and left to private exchanges.
Concentrated economic power does not have the same intrusive effects
on personal liberty as concentrated political power so the
progressive destruction of competition through competition is not
seen as a matter for governmental action or social concern;
5) All exchanges are necessarily voluntary and mutually beneficial
otherwise they would not have occurred. Libertarians assume that
unconscionability, racism, sexism, power, imperfect information,
media manipulation, etc play no role in exchanges or in making
exchanges that are not free and voluntary;
6) The channels and mechanisms for personal advancement are assumed
to be fully available for all and therefore anyone who lacks work,
income, skills, a home or whatever it is due to his/her own lack of
personal responsibility and effort (or in the case of children when
children are discussed at all it is due to the lack of personal
responsibility of the parents);
7) It is not only a moral and individual right but it produces
social progress for each individual to pursue profit, utility,
property, material acquisitions to the max without any governmental
restraints; in the case where the rights of one individual conflict
with those of another, the individuals should be left to themselves
to litigate or resolve differences without reference to government;
those who can't afford to litigate should raise funds through private
means and persuasion;
8) The only test of theory is prediction; if the theory is sound
this will be reflected in the accuracy of prediction; individual
assumptions need not be supported empirically or inductively as if
they are sound they will lead to deductively and predictively "valid"
conclusions and predictions; Libertarians who claim to follow
"positivism" and "objectivism" are "deductivist" and do not see
induction and deduction as two sides of the same coin--cognition;
Concepts such as racism, sexism, power, history are too squishy,
cannot be operationalized and mathematically modelled and further are
not real forces in shaping real-world exchanges and phenomena and are
therefore not worthy of being discussed;
9) All forms of drugs and sexuality represent matters of personal
liberty; if someone smokes dope and drives impaired, they should be
charged with impaired driving not smoking dope. Heroin, Crack, LSD,
Pot etc all should be legalized along with any form of sexual
activity; they have nothing to say about "crack babies", "kiddie
porn", victims in the porn industry because according to the
libertarians all exchanges are voluntary and free and beneficial to
the parties otherwise they would not have occurred;
10) Some claim to be ideological descendants of Thomas Jefferson,
Jeremy Bentham and others of Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged, The Virtue of
Selfishness etc);
11) Any attempts by government to correct for negative of positive
externalities will be far more costly and inefficient and damaging
than solutions through "free market" forces; All such solutions
should be left to "free market" forces; where markets are not truly
"free markets", even imperfect and non-competitive market forces will
produce solutions more efficient and less intrusive on personal
liberty than anything that could be produced by any form of
government or governmental intervention;
This should get you started. I have tried to portray their views
without caricatures--which is more than the libertarians ever do when
dealing with their opponents; many of these so-called "axioms"--and
there are many more--are not known or articulated by many who call
themselves libertarians.
Jim Craven
*---------------------------*----------------------------------------*
* James Craven * "All things have inner meaning and *
* Dept of Economics * form and power." (Hopi) *
* Clark College * "In this world the unseen has power." *
* 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. * (Apache) *
* Vancouver, Wa. 98663 * "Be satisfied with needs instead of *
* (360) 992-2283 * wants." (Tenton Lakota) *
* [EMAIL PROTECTED] * "The Great Spirit is always angry *
* * with men who shed innocent blood." *
* * (Iowa) *
* * "It is no longer good enough to cry *
* * peace, we must act peace, live peace, *
* * and live in peace."(Shenandoah) *
* * "A people without a history is like *
* the wind over buffalo grass."(Lakota) *
* *
* "There are many paths to a meaningful sense of the natural world." *
* (Blackfeet); "A shady lane breeds mud." (Hopi); *
* "Strive to be a person who is never absent from an important act." *
* (Osage); "Men in search of a myth will usually find one."(Pueblo) *
* "Life is not separate from death. It only looks that way." *
* (Blackfeet); "Some are smart but they are not wise."(Shoshone); *
* "The one who tells the stories rules the world." (Hopi); *
* "Force, no matter how concealed, begets resistance." (Lakota); *
* "The only things that need the protection of men are the things of *
* men, not the things of the spirit." (Crow); "When the legends *
* die, the dreams end; there is no more greatness."( Shawnee ); *
* "I love a people who do not live for the love of money."(Dwamish) *
* "Stolen food never satisfies hunger." (Omaha); "Man's law changes *
* with his understanding of man. Only the laws of the spirit always *
* remain the same." (Crow); "It takes a whole village to raise a *
* child." (Omaha); "Everything the Power does, it does in a circle."*
* (Lakota); "Man has responsibility, not power."(Tuscarora) *
* "With all things and in all things, we are relatives." (Lakota) *
* MY EMPLOYER HAS NO ASSOCIATION WITH MY PRIVATE/PROTECTED OPINION *
