Jonah
Goldberg gives his thoughts about the potential rapprochement between liberals and libertarians:
I think the Ferguson story has become more interesting and significant than the usual spectacle of this kind. The timing coincides with the ripening of an argument on the right against the militarization of U.S. police forces (led by Radley Balko as far as I can tell). It’s funny how unaware so many liberals are that this conversation was even taking place on the right. Liberals have been mocking libertarians for years as paranoid lunatics. Oh you want to live without government? Move to Somalia! Oh wait, when did the cops get tanks?
He also touches on one of my favorite issues: the blindness of the state-vs.-individual school of thought to the existence of voluntary communal institutions that relieve us from choosing either a 100% individualistic society or a totalitarian state:
Perhaps the most annoying thing about libertarianism is its blind spot about the importance of community. Ayn Rand and Barack Obama share the view that there are only two important institutions: the individual and the state. The difference is Rand thought the state is evil and Barack Obama thinks it is awesome. The truth is closer to the middle. Well, let me modify that. The state in the Bismarckian/Wilsonian sense sucks. But government is not evil. Oh, it can be. But it needn’t be. Sure, semantically you can make the case that it is a necessary evil, but I don’t think that’s entirely fair. Nothing truly necessary can be evil. Gravity is not evil. Food and shelter are not evil. There are things we need to do collectively. That’s why the Founders wrote the Constitution. Its genius lay in the fact that it understood that government is necessary but not sufficient for a good life. . . . Oh, for you constitutionalist libertarians, you might ponder the fact that the reason we swapped out the Articles of Confederation for the Constitution was that the Barbary pirates were getting all up in our business and we needed to pay for a navy to open a can of whup-ass on them.
4 comments:
Liberals have been mocking libertarians for years as paranoid lunatics. Oh you want to live without government? Move to Somalia! Oh wait, when did the cops get tanks?
Heh. :)
I agree, of course, about the importance of communities as well. The state often opposes them at least as much as it opposes individual rights.
Nothing truly necessary can be evil. Gravity is not evil. Food and shelter are not evil.
This is a bad argument, because it is an argument by induction on three examples. It parallels this argument:
"All odd numbers are prime. Three is prime. Five and Seven are prime. QED."
Death is necessary, but usually thought an evil to be avoided (at least as long as there are goods to be pursued). And nine, though it is odd, is not prime.
The "individual"-to-State relationship was more-or-less invented by Rousseau and the Progressive urge to stamp out intermediary institutions has continued to grow since then.
While the Founders did not anticipate deliberate demolition of church and family by the Federal machine, they acknowledged intermediaries in the form of the several States.
That's why the 9th/10th amendments are vital--as was the appointment of Senators v. their 'popular' election.
More depth on the situation is found here: http://dad29.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-way-we-are-and-warning-from.html
It's very useful to follow the link to Fr. Schall's analysis-in-full.
Rand was correct at the top down state hierarchy that is based on totalitarian and (incompetent evil) use of powers.
But Rand did not cover at all all the various other organizations and groups that exist between the individual and the Power at the top. Also didn't cover the Divine Power above the Power either.
So a lot of gaps. Which requires libertarians to think for themselves, by themselves. Since only about 3% of humanity has ever been proven to think for themselves... there's a problem there for white and black 100% individualism or 100% totalitarian Leftists. Although they've been allies more times than Republicans +Democrats have been.
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