Re: Censorial leftists (Was: Interesting article)

[Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

At 02:42 PM 12/5/97 GMT, Paul Spirito wrote:

>Seriously, I've never lived in Sweden or Singapore -- if I do, I'll get back
>to the list on which I prefer -- but I'm troubled by the tendency of
>Libertarians to err on the side of big business fetishism rather than civil
>liberties. Both are part of the Doctrine, of course*, but I often hear them
>argue that wild-west capitalism inevitably leads to political freedom -- so,
>not to worry -- but rarely that political freedom invariably leads to
>laissez-faire capitalism (so, not to worry). 

That's because it doesn't.  And there is a difference between "political 
rights" and liberty.  I care about the latter and not the former.  Plenty of 
tyrannical democracies.  I judge governments by how much they leave me alone 
not by their form.

>You might say that the latter is NOT TRUE. Well, right-o, but neither is the
>former. Economic progress under a fascist regime leads inevitably to
>political freedom? You guys actually make this argument. 

Certainly today's economic and technological freedom gives individuals vast 
money and vast power.  This increases their ability to tell their governments 
to go fuck themselves.  Whether they will choose to exercise this power, they 
certainly have it.

>*Yes, Libertarians criticize corporate welfare, but just because it corrupts
>the notion that a person's entire worth can be summarized in a stock
>portfolio.

No they criticize it because they don't like to *pay* for it.  They believe 
in lower taxes and smaller governments.

DCF
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0
Charset: noconv

iQCVAwUBNIhjvIVO4r4sgSPhAQHEbQP+IlPZPSHqvPyEs4V4pETd4x3OnDjlH1bG
WTI2hpmQYaQizMKgHIqjSkyEwB02uGouMeBmW6wxu+upVvwCVBLxY43h5UjkDKQa
IqUFdYJt84kxGQzEDYX5KRSjN09fwUAxT4iG7rBxXwIzxPwdeVC0k3sdRnT7PE5X
mQJ+M3h9iLM=
=cdbj
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----