[extropy-chat] Authenticity, extropy, libertarianism, and history

[Damien Sullivan]

On Wed, Jul 13, 2005 at 11:52:12AM -0700, Damien Sullivan wrote:

> Heck, Milton Friedman, in the introduction to his 1963 _Capitalism and
> Freedom_, called himself liberal, refusing to surrender the term to creeping
> socialists, or to retreat to new senses of 'conservative'[1] or 'libertarian'.

Dang, forgot my footnote.

[1] Conservative seems to alternately mean "not wanting to change things,
especially working traditions"; "being supportive of aristocracy, monarchy, or
power hierarchy in general" (probably from the first application of the first
meaning); or, especially in the US (only in the US?), "small government,
individual freedom, rights of property", presumably from an application of the
first meaning to the US of many decades ago, and a position which would be
called liberal in US history and the rest of the world today.

And that's for starters, not even touching family or religious issues, which I
think can blend the second and third meanings, e.g. small government plus
husband's authority over the family, or church authority.

One of the reasons I liked libertarian, back in the day, was that it seemed
much more specific than the other labels, though even libertarian has conflict
with its original meaning ("property is theft!" anarchists such as Bakunin.)

-xx- Damien X-)