A question
Over at Stumbling and Mumbling, Chris codifies the appeal of libertarianism quite nicely, I think:
I suspect there are three visceral attractions in libertarianism:
1. We want liberty for others. We want free immigration and gay marriage because others benefit. In this sense, libertarians are altruists.
2. The basic premise of libertarianism has a powerful gut attraction - that no man should control another. This is also an egalitarian principle.
3. In the long-run, political institutions shape character. And the characters shaped by libertarian institutions are attractive, at least to some. They are rational, self-reliant people, sturdy yeomanry. By contrast, a big state, as (say) James Bartholomew argues, leads to an irresponsible, dependent people.
He also passes on this interesting question for libertarians everywhere:
What currently illegal thing do you personally really want to be free to do?
Any serious suggestions, though? There must be quite a few libertarians out there reading this. What's the appeal? What are the government stopping you from doing? Answers on a postcard.
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22 Blogger Comments:
I want to be free to hurl eggs at John Prescott without fear of being punched.
And I don't want people I don't know and don't trust to have my personal biometric details. Like AirFrance.
Personally I prefer to be called a liberal, but the corruption of that term makes it difficult sometimes...
Whilst not being a hard libertarian, like Guido or the Libertarian Alliance, I do want several things to be legal:
I'd like to be able to marry my US citizen fiancee anywhere I like without spending money on VISAs and then to bring her into the country without all the beaurocracy.
I'd like to be able to earn my money without the government taking such a high proportion.
I'd like to opt-out of the NHS and spend my money on decent medical care. The same goes for education.
I'd like to protest infront of parliament without having to gain permission.
And on a level which doesn't quite fit in with my liberal ideals I'd like to put Blair's head on a spike outside parliament and Red Ken's head on a spike outside the assembly building.
I'd like to be able to grow and smoke my own herb. Unoriginal I know but can someone please explain why I cannot, who am I hurting by doing so?
Free speech
Abolition of big Govt
Flat tax
All of the above plus
Walk naked through the streets of Reading. Drinking alcohol. High on LSD.
Oh wait a minute, I did that last weekend...
I'd like to be able to wander around naked in the sunshine, allowing all and sundry to gaze upon the miracle of evolution's creation that is my flabby middle-aged body.
Obviously I'd also like to be able to take any drugs I fancied, watch or read anything I want, and say anything that comes into my mind.
Thankfully i'm still allowed to suck off goats.
Part of the problem for me is that many of the things that have become verboten were things that I didn't want to do anyway. I think the gun control laws are inappropriate, but if repealed, I wouldn't rush out and buy a handgun. Nor, for that matter do I want to protest outside parliament.
So my libertarianism is largely focused on things that affect other people in the awareness that tomorrow, it will be something I want to do that will be under fire.
I'd like to take all the politically correct do-gooders to Iraq and other trouble spots and let them loose to do what good they can.
I'd like to buy a little bit of subsidised farmland, about £600 would give me a plot for a house, I'd then like to build a home for my family
Foment revolution.
Properly.
Albert,
You did that... in Reading!
I guess I would like to be able to publically dispprove of homosexuaity, without being banned from doing so. Maybe state that I think that mass immigration is damaging to the state of our society without being branded a racist and bared from such opinions. Hey shit I would like to be able to have a pint and a cigarette in my old local in Glasgow withot being held as a criminal, after all the publican himself smokes and is happy that others join him.
Surely the essence of liberalism is the tolerance of things which one does not approve, rather than the cheerleading of those things one does?
Play cards
Buy a TV, and nothing but a TV, without threat of imprisonment.
Own a handgun and semi-auto rifles.
Use the above to repel boarders to my home or my person without fear of legal action.
Drive as fast as I darn well please along a road intended for that purpose in a decent car, without getting my wallet and licence raped by the tax patrol... cough, highway patrol.
And obviously, all the libertarian things that non-EU anglophone countries have to offer on top of that, so Germany's ruled out, in spite of its very good road system and halfway decent road rules.
I would like to find a large tunnel, take all of the liberalist intellectuals and nulabour wankers who have made such a fucking mess of our country, put them into it and brick it up.
Yes, I would like to shoot sporting handgun and continue the hobby of Airsoft unadulterated by the state. I would also like to give the concept of private property the attention it so richly deserves.
Give me ice cream or give me death.
Cake or Death, surely?
From a libertarian in New Zealand ....
I'd **love** to be able to keep Michael Cullen's ( *cough* Finance *cough* Minister) tax-grabbing fingers off my salary. I think Blair's Labourites have spawned themselves down here - yet another @#$%ing government which thinks it knows how to spend ***YOUR*** money better than you do....
( Cue vitriolic rant on gov't pumping tax-dollars into the bottomless pits of health and education, to no effect, I might add .... )
Brick the chunnel up and put a big sign in all languages that says "FUCK OFF" on it.
Connect tony blur to a lie detector at pmq s and give him a truth drug just once!
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