Is there any real support for it anywhere? Is it growing or shrinking overseas? Are there any articles that anyone can link?
In Australia (where I live) support for Ron Paul/Campaign for Liberty style Austrianism is growing. Check out this site.
For the most part though, “libertarian” think tanks here follow Milton Friedman on economics and neoconservatives on foreign policy.
This is part of the reason I started up my own anti-war blog separate from the Australian Libertarian Society… it was getting embarrassing to be associated with people who think warmongering is a libertarian position. I think part of the reason for the warmongering is because Australia considers itself too weak to have an independent foreign policy, since at the moment we mostly rely on the US for security.
The UK LP is a joke.
Arent they just the standard ‘socially liberal, fiscally conservative’ mantra? Snore.
Basically, they’re also in favour of a central bank.
A member of the classical liberal party in Germany proposed last summer to ban chocolate eggs that come with a toy because that entices children to buy chocolate eggs.
In Europe we don’t know, because noone over has here ever even heard of the concept of liberty. Maybe europeans would like it if they knew about it, who knows? If there are any “links”, they all link back to the US of A.
Anyway, it can’t be shrinking, because it couldn’t get much smaller (considering how freezing the temperature is over here to the East). [st]
The odd thing is, I think the concepts of liberty were kind of crystalized in the UK/USA mentality. Is the concept almost completley dead in the UK (do at least say 5% support peace, civil liberty, and economic liberty). If so I can say I would actually find that genuinly sad. I saw that speech by Daniel Hannan today on lewrockwell.com, it impressed me. Is he just full of hot air (like 90% of all conservatives), is he genuine and speaking for at least a sizeable minority (say at least 5%), is he viewed as evil or uncool in the mainstream, is he somewhat known?
Also am I wrong to assume that citizens (obviously not governments) in most Anglo influenced countries (U.K, much of the Common Wealth, USA, Hong Kong, and though they may hate to admit it Ireland) still at least have a leg up on the rest of the world for a respect for liberty?
Confirm that the LP in Canada is also a joke.
The situation in anglo-saxon countries is fairly understandable though. Both Westminster and the US system favor large “coalition”-like parties, so libertarian-leaning individuals are more likely to join those than to try their luck with a virtually unknown party.
I don’t think actually measuring the strength of the LP is the best gauge, but more along the line of popular sentiment with citizens. How evil is the market percieved (do people just tie it up with imperialism and conservatism), How much do people care about protection and/or sensitivity, how much do people actually care about real civil liberties, stuff like that.
Maybe these people don’t know what libertarian means, but they essentially lean that way. Perhaps they vote for the “lesser of two evils”, have no opinion about central banking, and may even support a very very few regulations and systems that are so ingrained in them (like roads) but essentially would be libertarian like at heart
I would make somewhat a similar type of argument regarding the Internet: that since it’s inception, everyone involved online has, to some degree, become a bit of a social-anarchist, particular the ones who helped invented & pioneered it, as well as the young who grew up with the technology.
This would by no means, however, mean that “we’re all social anarchists, now”, but it most certainly has had interesting effects on society, culture, & the individual at large.
People in the UK are simply to dull to understand what’s involved, their time preference is far too high for life without government to be feasible for most, they can’t imagine what they’d do if they’d have to work for a living. In fact, the country will drive itself into the ground very soon, many kids are growing up who have never seen either of their parents work and have no idea what earning a living actually means. So even if they’re good children they’ll never grow up and turn in to fully functioning adults. The huge majority of the country is dependant on the state some way or another and the British pride themselves of their welfare state, they consider themself far superior to many other countries in this regard, moreover the British laugh at the naive Americans who think they can go without gun control and cameras in every street.
What do you mean “many kids are growing up who have never seen either of their parents work”? Do you mean there is no Take Your Kids to Work Day or that the parents just stay at home smoking opium pipes?
“Workless Households”
Beer is probably the more English way, but yes, the latter.
Sorry, I read that as being all or most parents. I dunno what ‘many’ means.
so happens that in this context it means millions.
Anarchism/Libertarianism on both sides of the political spectrum is currently a joke. It basically consist of infighting from both sides or when protesting other political movements they tend to be small and irrevelent blips on the political scene (the fascist). Libertarians on the left and the right are currently irrevelent and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
I hate to say it, but I sorta got that hunch when I would talk to anyone from the UK on Yahoo Chat (voice and text) as well as on Paltalk. I don’t get how or when the human spirit gets beaten to a pulp in the UK society, but it does seem to snuff out that particular boldness that makes being human worthwhile in quite an effective manner.
We could not make much impact politically anyway. Entrepneurship is a much better way of accomplishing things, anyway. Plus it can be quite profitable.