Why Libertarianism Struggles and How It Could Succeed
Posted by CircuitGuy 11 years, 4 months ago to Government
A few weeks ago I wrote a post I'm Not Ready for the Gulch and stopped reading this website regularly. http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/21... Thank you to those who encouraged me to go live life prosperously in my real or virtual gulch.
A few people pointed out it was a poor choice of words for me to say the AS strikers “gave up”. I should have said “gave up on the looters' world.” As I said in the post, I'm where Dagny was most of the book, still wanting to be part of the world and solve its problems. I can't remember her words, but I thought even she said something like "how can they give up when the world needs their help?"
I enthusiastically support those who “give up” and work on building a seastead or micronation in a remote location, e.g. a gulch, a remote arctic area, under water, or in outer space.
So many people identify as “social liberal, fiscal conservative”, it borders on being a cliché. So why the heck isn't there a mainstream political party representing libertarian views!?
I suspect it's because most outspoken libertarians are extremists and/or mean-spirited. They focus on how $hitty things are and appear long for an AS-style apocalypse that paves the way for a better world. I can't actually know what people long for, but I know Rand fans have more than our share of dickishness.
When I came back and read comments to my post, most were positive, but someone said he/she would spit and turn away in condemnation of me. This is how you respond toward someone working in small ways for libertarian causes? It's no wonder we struggle “to win friends and influence people” as it were.
I hope the mean-spirited and extremist are just a vocal minority. If a startup housed on a ship incubator, initially for immigration/visa reasons, becomes the next Facebook, they can build a fixed physical platform and hire lobbyists to get other nation states to leave them alone. If the organization that manages it is committed to respecting a US-style Constitution established by the residents and not widely interpreting it away, they'll have a veritable libertarian micro-republic in my lifetime, IF THEY CAN KEEP IT.
For it to work, every one who believes in the right to be let alone must be your friend.
A few people pointed out it was a poor choice of words for me to say the AS strikers “gave up”. I should have said “gave up on the looters' world.” As I said in the post, I'm where Dagny was most of the book, still wanting to be part of the world and solve its problems. I can't remember her words, but I thought even she said something like "how can they give up when the world needs their help?"
I enthusiastically support those who “give up” and work on building a seastead or micronation in a remote location, e.g. a gulch, a remote arctic area, under water, or in outer space.
So many people identify as “social liberal, fiscal conservative”, it borders on being a cliché. So why the heck isn't there a mainstream political party representing libertarian views!?
I suspect it's because most outspoken libertarians are extremists and/or mean-spirited. They focus on how $hitty things are and appear long for an AS-style apocalypse that paves the way for a better world. I can't actually know what people long for, but I know Rand fans have more than our share of dickishness.
When I came back and read comments to my post, most were positive, but someone said he/she would spit and turn away in condemnation of me. This is how you respond toward someone working in small ways for libertarian causes? It's no wonder we struggle “to win friends and influence people” as it were.
I hope the mean-spirited and extremist are just a vocal minority. If a startup housed on a ship incubator, initially for immigration/visa reasons, becomes the next Facebook, they can build a fixed physical platform and hire lobbyists to get other nation states to leave them alone. If the organization that manages it is committed to respecting a US-style Constitution established by the residents and not widely interpreting it away, they'll have a veritable libertarian micro-republic in my lifetime, IF THEY CAN KEEP IT.
For it to work, every one who believes in the right to be let alone must be your friend.
Previous comments... You are currently on page 2.
I'm in deep hatred of common core....trying to get other to see how it's wrong is a task that wears me thin.... but it really boils down to public schools need to stop and start over....just because it's been done this way for so long does not mean it's the best way. Teachers are beholden to the pensions and can't see the forest for the trees. Disheartening to say the least.
Sadly, I made the very difficult decision to "unfriend" my (gay activist) older brother on Facebook. Very painful (whoa oh oh). I voted for gay marriage in my state and have enough gay friends that I won't let him keep beating on me (or anyone else) with the "homophobe" club (which seems bigger than the "racist" club these days).
How are you handling the Common Core crap?
I often "feel" that people are arrogant and even fire off stupid comments before I settle down and see that they are right. In my opinion, humility is the correct short term response to the "feeling" that someone is arrogant. Without a volitional effort to ascertain whether or not someone is correct where you are incorrect, you can never be certain that your feeling that they are arrogant isn't actually the shame you feel at being wrong or the feeling that it's not fair that someone (other than yourself) can know everything and/or be right all of the time.
My favorite example is Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter novels. At one point, Snape publicly calls her an "insufferable know-it-all". She is nothing if not that, and that is what I love about her character.
At one point, I felt that LetsShrug was arrogant. She schooled me. I fought. She schooled me some more. I examined my "feelings", decided she was spot on and irrefutable, and ended up admiring the hell out of her. In the long run, this is how it should be - even with children (and liberals).
I don't have to give up the life I have to be part of a meaningful community of visionaries dedicated to sorting out how the world works when you stop ignoring human tribalism and self-interest and allow man's creative energies to flourish.
Doesn't mean the minority who knew how to do each were unpopular.
FYI, this ex-bricklayer, Walmart drone knows about five or six programming languages, not including interpreted web scripting languages.
Specialization is for insects.
The sociology of dominant cultures explains why unpopular minorities made the Greek Golden Age, the Renaissance, and the Industrial Revolution. Even today, millions of Americans are incapable of writing code in any computer programming language, yet we enjoy an informatic revolution.