Up To A Point: My Problem With People Who Agree With Me
To make a ridiculous comparison, it’s as if the Twelve Apostles (minus Judas Iscariot -- played by Bill Maher) never left Jerusalem
P.J. O'Rourke, the Daily Beast
A libertarian gathering in Las Vegas shows the basic weakness of small-government advocacy.
I have just returned from a confab of people who agree with me, at one of the nation’s largest annual gatherings of individuals and organizations devoted to libertarianism and libertarian-conservatism. And this presented certain difficulties.
No, it wasn’t full of nuts – no Birthers, no Birchers, no Truthers, no xenophobes, homophobes, white supremacists, no one wearing a sidearm, and if there were any male chauvinists they were keeping a cork in it because they were accompanied by wives with strongly held egalitarian views.
Blacks, Latinos, and Asians were there, if not as many as I’d like to see. Gays were fairly well represented. Millennials were all over the place. Various types and kinds of libertarians and libertarian-conservatives were present, some of whose views could be made fun of, and were.
Making fun of each other’s views is a libertarian sport. And since we libertarians are not, for the most part, athletic types -- let alone team players -- making fun of each other’s views may be the only libertarian sport.
Randians think the simple notion of keeping your hands to yourself can be forged into a philosophy. Gold Bugs consider U.S. currency a magic act with the dollar mysteriously levitated on the world economic stage. Strict Constructionists believe the Constitution was carved in stone by a higher power instead of penned on paper by guys in Philadelphia. And maybe all of them are right.
(More here.)
P.J. O'Rourke, the Daily Beast
A libertarian gathering in Las Vegas shows the basic weakness of small-government advocacy.
I have just returned from a confab of people who agree with me, at one of the nation’s largest annual gatherings of individuals and organizations devoted to libertarianism and libertarian-conservatism. And this presented certain difficulties.
No, it wasn’t full of nuts – no Birthers, no Birchers, no Truthers, no xenophobes, homophobes, white supremacists, no one wearing a sidearm, and if there were any male chauvinists they were keeping a cork in it because they were accompanied by wives with strongly held egalitarian views.
Blacks, Latinos, and Asians were there, if not as many as I’d like to see. Gays were fairly well represented. Millennials were all over the place. Various types and kinds of libertarians and libertarian-conservatives were present, some of whose views could be made fun of, and were.
Making fun of each other’s views is a libertarian sport. And since we libertarians are not, for the most part, athletic types -- let alone team players -- making fun of each other’s views may be the only libertarian sport.
Randians think the simple notion of keeping your hands to yourself can be forged into a philosophy. Gold Bugs consider U.S. currency a magic act with the dollar mysteriously levitated on the world economic stage. Strict Constructionists believe the Constitution was carved in stone by a higher power instead of penned on paper by guys in Philadelphia. And maybe all of them are right.
(More here.)
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