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Politics : Clinton's Scandals: Is this corruption the worst ever? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PiMac who wrote (12467)	5/14/1999 7:57:00 AM
From: Liatris Spicata	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13994

PiMac- OT- <<I see problems it does not address, and solutions it rules out>> So do I. FTR, I do not believe libertarianism has the solution to all problems. And it does rule out restraints on the interactions between adults that are based on the initiation of the use of force, fraud, or threat thereof. <<Libertarians believe Force and Fraud are the only restraints society places on it's members that keep them from exercising their own free will. Yes?>> From a legal standpoint- i.e., what the state should enforce- I think that is essentially correct. Society, however, has numerous mechanisms of restraining people's anti-social tendencies. Two references, if I may. While the exact mechanism would be difficult for an industrial society to emulate, I think we could take a leaf from the Inuit Indians. My understanding is that if someone became a real "pain" (PIA), the tribe could respond as follows. Everyone, except the PIA, would agree that in the middle of the night they would move. The PIA would be left in the dark, so to speak. When he awoke, he was all alone. In the Arctic, that is a rather chilling prospect! More generally, in our society I think, we underestimate the value of custom. The best line from the late Ayn Rand's magnus opus, Atlas Shrugged, was the following (not an exact quote, but it preserves the essence). When the heroine literally crashed into the utopia of Galt's Gulch, she made the mistake of inquiring why someone could not simply give something to someone instead of charging a nominal rental. The response was a withering, "Miss Taggart, we do not have laws in this society. However, we do have certain customs." Regards, Larry