Is it possible? How to do it? Aren’t there paid lobbyists who try and market stuff to celebrities? Couldn’t libertarians do the same - set up a 15 minute presentation, for example.
Bill Gates donates millions to charities that produce no long-term benefits. They offer “band-aid” solutions; temporary fixes. A waste of money in other words.
Of course, the only way to bring about long-term peace and prosperity is to spread the ideas of liberty. We need celebrity money!
Ive heard John Mayer is a liberty minded individual.
I know Penn Jillette is anarcho-capitalist.
Yeah, there’s also Drew Carey. What about Clint Eastwood?
There is also, Glenn “Kane” Jacobs.
Eastwood is a statist.
Celebrity endorsement does work only for the lowest common denominator, and the gains are only available until the next celeb comes along with a new cause or idea to support.
It’s necessary not to take shortcuts IMO if we want to see a freer world. If everyone could get 2 more people interested in, and knowledgeable about libertarianism in the next year, and then again the year after that, in 10 years we could completely shift the paradigm.
But that is long, hard, boring work. Who is up for it?
I love Penn, his shows great too
It’s not the endorsement I want so much as the money. I don’t think anyone cares what Eminem thinks about politics, but we could sure use his money. Money makes it easier to get the message out. We could flood the internet, radio, TV. The Mises Institute could expand its research program, offer more scholarships,etc.
I try and convert almost everyone I know (within reason). On birthdays, I’ll be buying Mises Institute gift cards.
There is a lot more value and stability in deliberate, manageable growth. Having figureheads and icons, massive donors can be potentially very corrupting (Kochtopus).
i was saying this couple of days ago. the intellectual vanguard (by this i mean prominent intellectuals) of the left have been anti-capitalist since Prouhdon. We need to “open up the debate” in the higher enchelons, just as scientists pit their battles with the academia and not schoolyard children, we should not try to spread the message by picking easy candidates and using shortcuts.
first i would start with the giant elephant in the room. the massive anarchist establishment who laughs at us. certainly we are a tiny minority. their large size seems to indicate to people that their ideas are more prevalent- hence probably more true. if free market ideas can stand to rigor, then we can chip at the numbers. im sure many of you consider them stupid utopians, but actually a lot of them are very educated in history and economics. so a ratioal debate is possible
Agreed. This is part of what left-libertarianism is all about: opening up a dialogue with social anarchists and radical leftists. Economics is also a very good foot in the door, as modern libertarian socialism is rather deficient in economic theory (to say the least), and many social anarchists realize it.
Many are anti-capitalists and for violence. They simply aren’t any more compatible than the theocratic or racist war mongers on the right. I think this is a chimera, it gives the egalitarian left-libertarians an out for their leftism which is at times borderline anti-free market (pro-union stance).
I still cannot understand why people are not willing to go out and talk to people who are ideologically uncommitted and insist on catering to groups, political and apolitical who strongly hold views that are for the most part, incompatible with libertarianism.
The reason why the left is dead weight, is because they oppose everything we need to do to be successful. The right are for what we need to do to be successful, they just like to sabotage that by being morally reprehensible.
Let’s go find some people (like small business people) who have the money to support the cause, the opportunity to benefit from and encourage market activity and who don’t have an ideological stance beyond being successful in exchange (which btw, is my position).
Thats a rude thing to say. Why, because he fell for the propaganda and voted for McCain as a ‘lesser of two evils’? I am willing to wager that more libertarians fall for that old line than will ever admit it.
Most of the exisitng ‘celebrity’ libertarians are rude assholes, Penn being a great example. The less celebrities that follow libertarianism, the better.
This reminds me of the Intel commercial with the guy who was the co-inventor of USB. And the geeks are all swooning over his normal looking guy. My celebrities are Thomas Woods, Rothbard, Jeff Tucker, [I’m beginning to like Long, DiLorenzo, and some others]. My celebrities are already libertarians [H]
I like Clint Eastwood the actor. I don’t know Clint Eastwood the person except that he supports the state and thus would be an obstacle to my freedom if I was an American.
His quote of what his ideal world is “..everyone leaves everyone alone” has a very libertarian tone, and he refers to himself as such. In regards to the belief in the state, I would seperate the reluctant statists (Eastwood, Drew Carey, other minarchists) from the dogmatic statists (Modals, vulgars and everyone else).
I agree with the comment about not being corrupted - we don’t want to be like the Cato Institute.
That said, when I was living in LA, I used to know someone who knew Leornado di Caprio. I also went to school with Shia Labeouf (now a big-shot Hollywood actor). It’s really not that hard to try and convert some celebrities, so I sure hope some libertarians in the states are working on it.
Mises had that covered in The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality especially when he said that nobody on Broadway or in Hollywood has a clue about what Socialism really is, let alone read anything from Marx.
Frankly I wouldn’t waste my precious time on celebrities because the simple idea of having Britney Spears or another starlet talk about libertarianism or Austrian economics would bring me nightmares for the rest of my life. As I said before we need to focus on small business owners, artisans etc. An hour of your time explaining the basis (please do not fall into the overeagerness fallacity) is usually enough to send things arolling: Socialism has a very tenous grip on honest hardworking people. Buying a few books (keep it simple, do not start with Human Action right away!) and giving them around as gifts is another good idea.
PS: Clint Eastwood may not be an hardcore libertarian but at least he doesn’t want to force his beliefs on other persons or goes around sanctifying Che Guevara. And in these sad times that is good enough for me.
i dont want to reach over i want to create a debate. before people believed that the sun revolved around the earth, then came a new theory. that new theory is STV. obvisouly millions who believed in STV or geocentric thoery were not nuts. if we lay down the facts maybe things can change
I think we are lacking cultural influence. Most people are bored by politics and political discussions and certainly don’t want to be taught a lesson about anarchy or political history. These same people are willing to spend hours on end watching sitcoms and reading about celebrity news.
Culturally, we need better symbolism. Dollar signs don’t cut it (unless they counterpose gold over green or mix gold and black). The FSP’s porcupine is great, but it is a mere sect. The Gadsden flag is good too, but kind of dated and a little overly complex to fit into certain uses.
We need a more mainstream vocabulary. Words like Constitution and Libertarian make ineffective bumper stickers and don’t fit well into conversation. While I have a severe distaste for putting gov’t policy into catch phrases, perhaps it’s not a bad idea. “Cut and run” will be remembered (along with its weak and cold connotations) better than “non-intervention”.
We need a more popular characterizing spirit. All these libertarian charities should unify under some common banner, even if it is merely symbolic. Tax resisters and capitalists can often be seen as stingy and uncaring rather than simply in support of freedom. The cranky hermit/extremist image needs to be counterposed by polite, humble social engagement, and inescapable logic. I think Ron Paul did excellent in this regard.
Another idea could be a libertarian boycott, by which we organize and participate in boycotts against companies and products that promote statism and wealth egalitarianism. Movie studios, magazines, etc. would at least partially cater to us to obtain more sales, especially when they have no specific policital message.