[ExI] Making Rationalizations is Superior to the Alternative

BillK pharos at gmail.com
Tue Apr 14 18:29:56 UTC 2009


>  On 4/14/09, Lee Corbin wrote:
>  I admitted the tradeoffs: violate a principle now in
>  exchange for reducing the risk of losing that principle
>  and far, far more in the future.
>

I think we need some *real* libertarians to chime in here, as you
don't seem to talking proper 'libertarianese'.  ;)

Do Libertarian principles really allow initiation of force now, based
on a speculation that damage might occur many many years in the
future? Surely not. Much else might happen between now and that future
date.


>  Come now. It's all relative. Besides, I would never say "scrapped".
>  Our governments should gradually be *reformed*, even corruption
>  itself needs to be slowly excised from the system. But be they
>  as they may be, current western governments, institutions, and
>  traditions are vastly superior.
>

I'm all in favor of that and I'm not a libertarian.
But I've never before heard libertarians say that the present western
governments are pretty good and just need gradually and slowly
reformed and corruption removed. They talk about the very minimum of
government, not quite 'scrapping' (although they would like that
really).


>  You suppose that I want to *scrap* rather than *improve*
>  our western societies? Odd.

Libertarians want to *improve* government by removing as much of it as
possible. I call that scrapping the present systems of government.



>  Anyway, you are right to
>  emphasize that Muslims *might* wreck our very slowly
>  evolved and much prized western traditions. They might
>  also not. They might assimilate, after all. There may
>  be a singularity or other big tech breakthrough first.
>  It's all about weighing risks, just as in everything
>  else.
>


If you (as a libertarian) want to initiate force and expel Muslims
because there is an 'guesstimated' possibility that they might change
the system of government many years in the future, then in my opinion
exactly the same logic should be applied to libertarians.

Of course this shouldn't be done, because what you are suggesting is
not libertarian.

BillK



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