From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Mar 20 2003 - 19:51:17 MST
--- alexboko@umich.edu wrote:
> From: "Alex Future Bokov" <alexboko@umich.edu>
> X-Mailer: YaBB
> [quote from: dehede011@aol.com on 2003-03-19 at 10:03:55]
>
> >BTW, I tested Centrist with very strong Libertarian leanings.
> >Actually I would describe myself as a Libertarian that knows
> >where some of the Libertarian theory breaks down.
>
>
> Ah! A fellow one at last. Which bugs have you found? I've found a few
> myself, lets share/trade.
War is a area that illustrates that much libertarian theory is only
useful when you apply it to an entirely libertarian world (i.e. a
fictional universe, at present). Strict libertarian theory does little
to allow one to rationally or effectively deal with a semi- to
non-libertarian world full of many anti-libertarian actors.
War, being a rather extreme series of events between groups, and being
a group activity (i.e. not to be found in a strictly libertarian world)
exclusively, illustrates this. A strict libertarian would not engage in
combat against any party which had not directly attacked that
particular libertarian. This is the heart, and the weakness, of the
non-initiation of force principle. The problem is that applying such a
principle to the real world is Pollyannish, as much as any pacifist
principle is.
Evil tyrants do not go away if you ignore them. They do not behave if
you refuse to hear the cries of others being victimized by such evil.
They laugh with glee when you boycott them economically, for you give
their opression legitimacy. When you argue against the use of force to
make them behave, you are aiding and abetting their opression. When
they are done opressing others, they will come after you.
Similarly, strict libertarian theory does not deal well with terrorist
insurgencies. It is too easy for anti-libertarians in the real world to
penetrate a libertarian or semi-libertarian society and subvert and
sabotage it from within with violence and mayhem. See L Neil Smith's
novel "The American Zone" for a treatment of this (note: there are a
number of structural weaknesses in the setting of this novel, which
illustrate other weaknesses of libertarian theory as applied to the
real world, see if you can spot them).
Freedom dies when the free refuse to fight for the unfree. It cries
when the free think that only the free deserve to be free. Freedom
quickly deserts the free who refuse to take action when tyranny is
loose upon the world.
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
"Pacifists are Objectively Pro-Fascist." - George Orwell
"Treason doth never Prosper. What is the Reason?
For if it Prosper, none Dare call it Treason..." - Ovid
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