From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rafal@smigrodzki.org)
Date: Thu May 15 2003 - 11:27:12 MDT
Anders wrote:
>>
>> ### Yes, freedom, and the use of non-violent methods is not a
>> thinkable issue, once you become bound to the left or to the right.
>
> No, the real problem is the assumption that the current system is
> given. Both of the speakers wanted freedom (but they meant different
> things), none were in favor of violence (both thought rational people
> would want to pay the taxes voluntarily) but they could not imagine a
> situation where the current system is challenged by alternative
> institutions, new lifestyles, new people or running a deliberate
> political program to change the system (and the leftist speaker was
> supposed to be a *leninist*!). So the big issue was the size of the
> taxes, how much to redistribute to which poor and what treatments to
> subsidize.
### You have it exactly right - the real problem is lack of imagination.
There is a lot of people with reasonably honest motives, who are mired in
short-sighted, self-defeating patterns of behavior, like group-oriented
thinking, zero-sum games, futile attempts at achieving total control by
means of laws and regulations, unchecked redistribution (aided by a hefty
dose of greed) - and simply can't crawl out of their little boxes.
In your experience, how many Swedes are able and willing to follow a
libertarian line of reasoning, without exclaiming "Egoist!" halfway through
the introduction?
Rafal
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