Showing posts with label Libertarianism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Libertarianism. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

The virtue of limited government

December 30, 2014 Family Unit , Libertarianism 0 Comments
'Tis The Season For Politics To Make Us Worse

Trevor Burrus, Dec. 25, 2014, Reason

Welcome to an American holiday tradition. Apple pie now comes with a side of political yelling, especially after a few glasses of eggnog.

The problem, of course, is that “they” don’t get it. How could they? Mom and Dad’s brains might as well be directly hooked to Fox News like the humans in the Matrix. The children’s “progressive” universities are as hermetically sealed off from reality as North Korea.

Read more: www.reason.com

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Tuesday, December 16, 2014

GUEST MOVIE REVIEW A Libertarian Reviews ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’

December 16, 2014 Elder Statement Staff , Exodus: Gods and Kings 0 Comments
By Nick Hankoff, Elder Statement Staff, Dec. 16, 2014

“Exodus: Gods and Kings” is an epic movie that is just as deep as it is wide, without any pretension or fluff. For two-and-a-half hours the story drives the imagery as the characters drive the story. What drives the characters is what resonated with me the most.

Unlike most Hollywood productions, “Exodus” takes a realistic approach to political power. “Gods and Kings” is the fitting subtitle of the film. Fitting because they, too, are exiled, just in the opposite direction of Moses’s people. What an important observation for Americans to reflect upon as we are whipped into the next presidential election season.

To paraphrase pharaoh Seti from an early scene, the problem with political power is that it is so easily acquired by those who have no business exercising it. Libertarians (and all Americans) should appreciate that sentiment because it’s also just a plain fact.

As Moses led his people out of Egypt, he knew (and God told him) that one day the “nation of tribes” would no longer be united under him. What would prevent chaos once the united goal was achieved? The rule of law, as presented in the form of the Ten Commandments. No government, however well-intentioned and perfectly respectful, will ever do for society what its individual participants -- however flawed -- can with respect for property and liberty.

For a movie that doesn’t feel like two-and-a-half hours, it touches on other themes worth reflection as well. Love and faith are not mutually exclusive, and the same is true when ethnicity is thrown in the mix. That’s for another review, perhaps to come when I get a chance to see the movie again. I wouldn’t pass that up.
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Monday, November 17, 2014

GUEST COLUMN: Why This Millennial Is A 'Libertarian' By Nick Hankoff

November 17, 2014 Conservatism , Guest Column 1 Comments
By Nick Hankoff, Nov. 17, 2014

It's a great time to be a libertarian.

Someone should study the sleeping habits of libertarians, because I bet they rest easier than conservatives and liberals. With clarity of thought comes, naturally enough, clarity of mind. War and corruption seem ever-present but the fighting libertarian keeps his optimism and can go to bed happy. Being a libertarian means never having to say you're sorry.

The history of civilization as a battle between individual autonomy and statist aggression shows we're winning. America's rising generation, the Millennials, are, wittingly or not, embracing the core libertarian tenets of self-ownership and the non-aggression principle.

Be it out of convenience or conviction, their libertarianism isn't likely to fade in the future.

Only under some delusion does "trying to find yourself" end in full satisfaction. Affixing abstract labels to a real person, even yourself, is never clean work. But that's what I'm setting out to do anyway. I'm a libertarian (as much as I can be) because that tradition of thought burns right through the others.

Libertarianism isn't weighed down by an instruction manual. It doesn't say to buy gold or to ransack city hall. It neither says to refrain from violence or to not steal. It simply recognizes individual liberty as the factory outlet where choice is made and action is taken. Not all libertarians share the same means or even the same ends, but they find common ground on the most important definitions in political philosophy.

The clarity that comes with seeing the world through a libertarian lens is rewarding on many levels. Contradictions aren't welcome. The government is not "us" and "we" are not the government. The government has no money or property that it does not take from the people. Sometimes a contradiction can be internalized, wrapped in gushy feelings so that it never falls under suspicion among the masses. But libertarianism reveals the harsh consequences of mystical collectivism, and soon the myths subside in the mind of a libertarian.

Libertarianism is a global force now as well. Even as the media hypes up the fascist and neo-nazi fits and starts across Europe, student libertarian groups are the ones building the future there and in Africa, South America, and Asia too. Decentralized and open source technology are accelerating the pace of the spread of these ideas no matter where life takes you.

I'm a libertarian because I am in favor of free trade and non-intervention. Conservatism and liberalism, in their final expression, are against those things. Practicing conservatism and liberalism in one's own life under a libertarian government will always be safer than the reverse.

As labels go, “libertarian” is a comfortable one to wear, but a lot to live up to. I hope I do.


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Monday, July 7, 2014

Russell Kirk Vs. The Libertarians --Common ground, but fundamental differences

July 07, 2014 Americanthinker.com , Brad Nelson 0 Comments
By Kung Fu Zu and Brad Nelson, Jul. 6, 2014, Americanthinker.com

While looking up a particular quote recently, I came upon the article "Libertarians: the Chirping Sectaries" whiich Russell Kirk wrote in 1981. The timing of this piece is interesting, as it came out after Ronald Reagan had been in office for less than one year. No doubt, there were discussions similar to those we are having today as to the relationship between Conservatives and Libertarians.

To start his piece Kirk asks what conservatives and libertarians have in common. Kirk concedes –
These two bodies of opinion share a detestation of collectivism. They set their faces against the totalist state and the heavy hand of bureaucracy.
This is true and good as far as it goes. However, in the next paragraph Kirk writes:
What else do conservatives and libertarians profess in common? The answer to that question is simple: nothing. Nor will they ever have. To talk of forming a league or coalition between these two is like advocating a union of ice and fire.
Those who believe modern conservatives and libertarians are merely different schools of conservative thought are likely to be stunned by this. They shouldn’t be, and Kirk lays out significant differences between the two in his article.

Kirk highlights the essential fault of libertarian zealots when he writes:
The ruinous failing of the ideologues who call themselves libertarians is their fanatic attachment to a simple solitary principle -- that is, to the notion of personal freedom as the whole end of the civil order, and indeed of human existence.
In this one paragraph he encapsulates the superficial, abstract, and utopian thinking behind libertarian “philosophy.” He then goes on to show how detached from reality such thought is.

Kirk traces libertarian thought back to John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, the doctrines of which libertarians carry “to absurdity.” Mill declares, “the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection.” These are fine sounding words from an ascetic intellectual who experienced life principally through books, and who seemed to assume, as Kirk notes:
…that most human beings, if only they were properly schooled, would think and act precisely like John Stuart Mill.
Read the full story:  www.americanthinker.com

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Monday, April 21, 2014

Reagan On Libertarianism

April 21, 2014 Libertarianism , Ronald Reagan 2 Comments



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