[ExI] Cephalization, proles--Where is government going?

Rafal Smigrodzki rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com
Sat May 14 10:03:39 UTC 2011


On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 3:13 AM, Amon Zero <amon at doctrinezero.com> wrote:
> On 14 May 2011 02:40, Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Although I am partial to aspects of libertarianism - particularly the
>> > non-economic, politics of personal liberty aspects - it is viewpoints
>> > like
>> > Rafal's above, that make me glad that there is unlikely to ever be a
>> > libertarian movement that achieves its aims in any kind of systematic
>> > way.
>> > In other words, for once I am glad of a "movement" whose members are all
>> > talk.
>>
>> ### Rationality is an uncommon affliction. Hypocrisy beats rationality
>> hands-down, no?
>
> Meaning?

### It's easy to pretend you care, it's difficult to think.
Libertarianism is what happens when you think more about the truth
than about how to present yourself as a person who cares about other
tribal members. In the previous post you indulged in moral posturing
and you disavowed the way of thinking that is actually more likely to
produce good outcomes for the poor, if there were ever enough
libertarians to make it happen. So, *appearing* you care is more
important than actually doing something good.

(Obviously, solving a social problem is usually helped by correctly
identifying the persons whose actions are most directly leading to the
problem - and yes, the vast majority of food stamp recipients and
their children are where they are because of their own actions, their
own lack of foresight, their petty greed, vices and laziness, and
saying so is not a sign of moral turpitude but a pre-requisite to
formulating effective ways of addressing it.)

Rafal



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