Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Susan Lee says libertarians just wanna have fuh-un, and Instapundit agrees. But I have to ask if that's really the point. Sex, drugs and Rock n Roll has a nice "in your face" feel of youthful exuberance, but just look at what they did for Ozzie Osborne. Libertarianism is such a simple answer, but it denies us the power to decide what kind of a society we will live in. It says that since we don't all agree on morality, we should default to letting anything go. I don't think that is what the founding fathers had in mind and it's not the kind of place I want to live in, either. I recognize that I can't impose my values on everyone else, but does that mean that all those who disagree with my views should win on every issue? No prayer in schools makes atheism the state religion. Libertarianism reduces everything to the lowest common denominator. I don't think that things are that simple.


I think that the real problem is the myth of the victimless crime. Today, more than ever, our whole society is interdependent. The costs of everybody's health problems are passed on to all of us. So risky sexual behavior is no longer a matter between two consenting adults, because AIDS is an expensive disease to treat. I think that citizens in a free democracy have duties, not just privileges, and I don't see libertarians acknowledging that. Everything is reduced to a free market analysis.

This is a right wing version of Marxist thought. Religion is the opiate of the people and therefore has no right to provide guidance. But in libertarian thought acts have no consequences, or if they do, well, tough. Once you accept that argument, there is no line you can't cross, provided the "market" approves. This is how homosexuality and abortion became accepted norms, when once they were both viewed with disgust and horror. So, if you do a good enough p.r. job, everything can gain market share and be respectable.

The only way this argument can really be solved is from experience. I just don't think we should have to live through the same decline and fall that has destroyed other great societies before us in order to learn the same lessons. Remember the fable of the ant and the grasshopper?

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