Happy to oblige, although the conversation has been largely with yourself<g>.
Libertarianism is just one attempt to impose a system of values on society. It has its own certitude, like Osama Bin Laden, and its own fanatics who revile the United States as it is currently constituted. It is absurd to use the "Bin Laden" argument against conservatives in favor of libertarians, when I have known libertarians who rant against the government, tote guns, and show sympathy to McVeigh.
Societies create institutions and enact laws and policies reflecting what they are and what they hope to become, including the compromises and conflicts inherent in public debate. We do not, in fact, think that raising property rights to nearly an absolute level will yield the best society, although we do think they should usually be respected. By this time, most of us support desegregation, for example, including the notion of "public accommodations" which forbids discrimination in restaurants, hotels, and the like. We think that imposing an order of racial dominance through the exercise of property rights, but collusively and throughout society, is as tyrannical as government mandated segregation. This is but one example of the "common good" being pursued legislatively at the expense of property rights. Here, the common good is understood as that which will make us a markedly better society.
Anyway, thanks for reminding me why I am not a libertarian<g>........ |
