[ExI] Strong libertarianism, societal good, & suffering (was: Cephalization, proles)
Damien Sullivan
phoenix at ugcs.caltech.edu
Sat May 21 20:47:00 UTC 2011
On Sun, May 15, 2011 at 01:17:49PM -0500, Damien Broderick wrote:
> I have the feeling that Rafal's position is not a million miles from
> the True Knowledge of the (paradoxically) libertarian communist
> future portrayed in Ken MacLeod's novel THE CASSINI DIVISION:
That's not a paradox, that's "libertarian" having multiple meanings, and
the communist one is the older one; US libertarians borrowed the term
for their purified version of the dying classical liberal position.
> We had founded our idealism on the most nihilistic implications of
> science, our socialism on crass self-interest, our peace on our
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
True. My position as a social democrat is motivated partly by altruism
and egalitarianism and "that's just wrong", but it's also motivated by
risk-averse selfishness. I'm in a good position due to scholarships and
job talent and semi-lucky inheritance, but it's not unassailable, and I
have lots of friends and family who aren't so blessed. I want them and
bad-luck-me to be protected from medical bankruptcies, have good
transportation options, have a fair share of the country's resources,
not be handicapped by college debt, etc.
> capacity for mutual destruction, and our liberty on determinism. We
> had replaced morality with convention, bravery with safety,
> frugality with plenty, philosophy with science, stoicism with
> anaesthetics and piety with immortality. The universal acid of the
I love this passage.
-xx- Damien X-)
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