Libertarianism, conditions not right for

From: zeb haradon (zebharadon@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun Nov 05 2000 - 00:26:00 MST


>From: Mecsepbeef@aol.com
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org
>To: extropians@extropy.org
>Subject: New Member Intro & Mailing List Approval Procedure
>Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2000 00:29:51 EST
>

>I'm not a Libertarian (mainly because I don't think the conditions are
>right for such a philosophy to be practical), but can respect those who
>are.

This goes into something I've been thinking about recently. I voted
Libertarian in the one presidential election I was old enough to vote in,
and I intend to do so in this one. At the same time, I know that if a
Libertarian were president tommorow things would fall apart quickly. I agree
that the conditions are not right for it to be practical. By "conditions" I
mean one thing, the attitudes of most of the people who live in this
country. People want their welfare and social security and they'd riot if
they didn't get it. There are also not enough people intelligent enough to
manage all the new industries that would come up as a result of government
de-regulation. Who knows how to manage a private freeway or privatized FDA
properly? I don't think anybody does, and I think that without them there
would be a lot of car wrecks and food poisoning.
The solution, and reason I'll still vote for them, is that any political
philosophy must go hand-in-hand with democracy. All of what I've said above
would be false if a Libertarian actually got elected president in an
election, because it would mean a sizeable percentage of the population had
voted for him. If a sizeable percentage of the population are voting
Libertarian, it means they probably are smart enough to manage their own
lives and to run successful businesses that would provide the services
government no longer would be.
Voting for them contributes to the small percentage of the vote they will
recieve. It draws attention to them, which will attract more people to
laissez-faire type thinking, and hopefully to the belief and practice of
being responsible for themselves.

---------------------------------------------------
Zeb Haradon (zebharadon@hotmail.com)
My personal webpage:
http://www.inconnect.com/~zharadon/ubunix
A movie I'm directing:
http://www.elevatormovie.com

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