[extropy-chat] FWD (SK) Is libertarianism a faith position?

[Brandon Reinhart]

> Subject: [extropy-chat] FWD (SK) Is libertarianism a faith position?

Libertarians today may define themselves more in terms of how they view
certain political issues than any particular overarching philosophical
perspective. I don't think the lack of an identifiable unifying core
philosophy or value-set necessarily negates the point of modern
libertarianism. A hard core libertarian activist may be acquainted with the
history of that doctrine, but most likely the average libertarian voter is
more interested in a specific legislative result.

I wish more transhumanists would look at the issue of implementation as a
puzzle to be solved, rather than stick to socialist or libertarian guns and
to hell with the opposition...but this is one area where, as we have seen on
this list, people are very emotional.

I would argue that all political belief systems are "faith systems" when
founded on broad speculation of their impacts or when inherited from the
parents through indoctrination. Isn't the dedicated belief that the
communist revolution would have a particular outcome a faith position? Broad
based political belief systems seem to me to be speculative political
science often based more on wishful thinking than on reason. It seems to me
that the success of pluralist capitalist democracy has demonstrated it has
more value than autocracy, central planning, or theocracy...so I could say I
have some broad political beliefs...but I much prefer to evaluate political
issues on their individual merits. As a result, I don't consider myself to
fit with any particular political party. It makes voting difficult!

There are those who follow a particular political party because it shares
certain "core values," but those values are expressed in the desire to
achieve certain political results through legislation. Results which are not
guaranteed, are often poorly researched (or funded, or enforced) and
therefore the belief that a political party will bring about a specific
value oriented future is based on faith. A faith that is "belief that does
not rest on logical proof or material evidence" for the average person, who
is usually a political credulist loyal to a particular party as a result of
indoctrination.

Political credulism is faith based. When it comes to managing a nation's
social and economic health, the devil is in the details. Details beyond the
ken of most voters...who place "faith" in their chosen elected to broadly
promote a legislative plan that reflects their core values or seeks to
achieve their desired outcomes.

But that isn't really a bad thing. Using "faith based" in this context is
really an attempt to demonize a particular collection of political views by
smuggling in the negative connotation "faith based" has in rational society,
due to association with religious belief. One can have a set of political
views that either promote certain values or seek to achieve certain
socioeconomic results without necessarily knowing with a high degree of
confidence that the result will be achieved. Said person can be considered
to be rational if they say, when their chosen system fails, "oh crap, that
didn't go as planned. Something I believed was wrong. How do we fix it?"

Brandon