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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (26777)	8/17/2006 11:15:44 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 543184

I did a quick bit of wikipedia checking on libertarianism and found this. It's not terribly satisfactory, sort of sophomorish writing. But it does get across the notion that there are many variants, thus it's complicated. And that opposition to the welfare state is a central component. I don't find this authoritative enough to say "that's what libertarianism is." But it does agree with me on that point. As for Bush's opposition to social security, some of the arguments for such were drawn from libertarian social philosophy. One could argue that, because Bush is such a big government conservative, he was simply trying to increase business for Wall Street. Perhaps. But the front end of his arguments was, frequently, the "ownership" society. Etc. Not certain this conversation goes anywhere. I like Michael Lind's general work and consider the "sloppiness" charge to be a mistake. But, as I said earlier, I've got a lot on my plate now and don't want to spend a lot of time digging up stuff on "libertarianism is this or that." But, having said that, here's the wikipedia piece. ----- Libertarianism is a political philosophy[1] advocating that individuals should be free to do whatever they wish with their person or property, as long as they do not infringe on the same liberty of others. Libertarians hold as a fundamental maxim that all human interaction should be voluntary and consensual. They maintain that the initiation (or threat) of physical force against another person or his property, or the commission of fraud, is a violation of that principle. Some libertarians regard all initiation of force as immoral, whereas others support a limited government that engages in the minimum amount of initiatory force (such as minimal taxation and regulation) that they believe necessary to ensure maximum individual freedom (negative liberty). Force is not opposed when used in retaliation for initiatory aggressions such as trespassing or violence. Libertarians favor an ethic of self-responsibility and strongly oppose the welfare state, because they believe forcing someone to provide aid to others is ethically wrong, ultimately counter-productive, or both. Note on terminology: Some writers who have been called libertarians have also been referred to as classical liberals, by others or themselves. And, some use the phrase "the freedom philosophy" to refer to libertarianism, classical liberalism, or both.