[extropy-chat] Extropy and libertarianism

[Robert Lindauer]

Hal:

The Philosophy of Liberty is fundamental.  People should be essentially 
free to choose their own actions - economic and otherwise.  No one 
should use force to assert their will to coerce someone to do something 
that they don't want to do.  In this sense, like I think most people, I 
am a libertarian.  That is, in the abstract philosophical sense.  That's 
"libertarian" with a small 'l'.  Not "Libertarian" with a big "L".

I was a Libertarian in the concrete political sense.  I am no longer.

Why?  Because the Libertarian Party (which, BTW, is not the only party 
that has as a primary ideal personal and economic freedom) has 
significantly failed at even showing a good faith effort at promoting 
those ideals within the government.  Instead it has become a repository 
for Reagan-style Randians interested only in reducing taxation for the 
rich while hawkishly protecting our foreign interests with imperialistic 
foreign wars and policies.  Note that this program - reducing taxes for 
the rich and protecting our foreign interests with force - has NOTHING 
WHATEVER to do with Liberty for ALL.

Let me clarify.

If one was -really- interested in liberty for everyone and against 
violent political coersion, here's the natural stand one would take on a 
variety of issues:

1)  You would be against a national military since (a) it is a political 
force mechanism used to enforce the political will of one group against 
another and (b) it necessitates taxation and bloated government which 
again are political force mechanisms used to enforce the poltical will 
of one group against another..

2) You would be working to systematically disentangle the economic 
system from coercive political control - abolishing the IRS, the Federal 
Reserve System, etc.

3)  You would be actively trying to remove all restrictions on personal 
use of land and property - including zoning restrictions, land-use 
policies, etc.

4)  You would be actively working to stop American military presence in 
foreign countries as it necessitates large government and taxation,etc.

5)  You would be working actively to promote openness in the government 
by demanding that every action of the government be

As we've seen in this forum alone, the Libertarians (and by that I mean 
people who politically identify with the Libertarian Party - the Big-L 
people, not people who believe in Freedom) don't, in general, support 
these concrete positions, and instead act as status-quo appologists for 
a particularly viciously anti-freedom wing of the Republican Party.

Finally, having lived in California for many years, I'm just tired of 
seeing the Libertarian Party run people who's platforms are Druidism, 
Ferret-ownership-freedom, NAMBLA and Marijuana freedom (all of which are 
just fine with me, to each their own!) while working nefariously in the 
background to undermine the Democratic Party and support the Republican 
Party.  The combination of these two factors make the Libertarian Party 
(and not libertarianism) variously a joke and a sham, making true 
believers in liberty unable to support them.

With kind regards as an ex-Political Libertarian and current libertarian,

Robbie Lindauer

PS - there seems to be some question as to whether I'm an extropian.  I 
believe that human technology -could- one day conquer most of humanities 
problems ASSUMING political and economic problems can be solved but I am 
skeptical as to whether those political and economic problems can be 
solved in light of a small problem usually called "human nature" which 
includes "greed, stupidity, foolishness, foolhardiness, cowardice, etc." 
alongside "ingenuity, hope, bravery, wisdom, etc."  Remembering that 
post-human nature will be mostly of human design, it's likely to carry 
over many flaws as well as many virtues.