02-05-2021, 10:04 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-05-2021, 10:10 PM by Eric the Green.)
(02-04-2021, 09:01 PM)mamabug Wrote:(02-04-2021, 06:08 PM)David Horn Wrote: If you're looking for a libertarian solution to the current crisis, keep looking. We're moving into a communitarian period, where 'all for one and one for all' will become increasingly popular, and 'get off my lawn' much less so. We've tried libertarian policies in one form or another for roughly 40 years, and it's finally sinking in. Only the rich and powerful were truly free.
We've never tried libertarian policies, at most just paid lip service to them. Both parties like power too much.
Just because the spirit of the age may be in favor of forcing other people to make sacrifices for the 'common good' at the point of a gun doesn't mean I have to find it any less morally repugnant.
I mean, it's a WAR! If a few Japanese fifth columnists have to sell their property and relocate to a camp then it's just a communitarian solution to the present crisis, right?
We are grossly unready for libertarian policies.
The point of a gun argument is a non-starter whose purpose is to protect the privileged and their wealth.
Laws cannot really be enforced at the point of a gun; it depends on a consensus of the people willing to obey the law. Laws that must be enforced at the point of a gun, but are often violated, are poor laws, and they can be changed by democratic process.
Tax laws, for example. Taxation without representation was not obeyed. But taxes are necessary, and most people know this. Without taxes, there is no government, and we need and want its services: to provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. Anarchy is a most attractive political doctrine. But I'm afraid it's too optimistic.