[extropy-chat] electing ideas [was Re:Fahrenheit 911 -objectivereview?]

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Samantha Atkins <samantha at objectent.com> wrote:

> 
> On Aug 16, 2004, at 1:18 AM, Brett Paatsch wrote:
> >
> > " ..by virtue of our abdication, a very authoritarian, assertive
> > form of government has taken over. And oddly enough, it is
> > doing so in the guise of libertarianism to a certain extent. Most
> > of the people in the think tanks behind the Bush administration’s
> > current policies are libertarians, or certainly free marketeers.
> 
> I am sorry but the current government-corporate love-in has nothing
> to 
> do with free markets.  With the exception of Cato, none of the major 
> think tanks remotely qualify as or claim to be libertarian AFAIK.   
> This is a gross insult to libertarians by those who haven't the 
> foggiest idea what libertarianism or free markets are about.

Well then, you don't know. Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform
is very influential in that they've proposed all of the tax cuts that
Bush has instigated, Norquist is a common face in the White House, and
his Wednesday luncheons at his HQ are a must-attend event for
conservo-libertarian movers and shakers.

In the 1970's Norquist co-authored a book on taxes with Tim Condon, who
is currently director of participant services at the Free State
Project.

Norquist has been pioneering, according to knowledgable sources, in
melding industry money with conservative/libertarian causes and
politicians. He annoys many social conservatives like Tucker Carlson,
who refers to him as "a little creep".

> > We’ve got two distinct strains of libertarianism, and the
> > hippie-mystic strain is not engaging in politics, and the Ayn
> > Rand strain is basically dismantling government in a way that
> > is giving complete open field running to multinational
> > corporatism."
> >
> 
> OK, this is sloppy far beyond any need to deal with it further.

I'd say it's pretty accurate. There are of course also the L Neil
Smith, 10x10, big L libertarians who are allergic to anything but
absolutely perfect Libertarian thought, and refuse to support anything
which is a step on the way. There are a few other minor strains, but
the hippie/mystic Georgists and the Randroid dismantlers make up the
bulk of things in the *active* legions.

=====
Mike Lorrey
Chairman, Free Town Land Development
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                         -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Sadomikeyism


		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages!
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail