Hello all, long time lurker here. Thought I’d share with you guys a link I was given by a friend that I enjoy having arguments with. It’s a different Non-Libertarin FAQ from Mike Heuben’s: http://raikoth.net/libertarian.html
Not really requesting anyone to have at it, just thought some people may be interested since I couldn’t find a possible trace of a mention about it before on these boards. Alot of the points have been argued against on here at one time or another though. For me it will be a test of my knowledge as I continue talking with him discerning what is true and correcting my previous poorly made arguments. Enjoy.
“libertarians believe in the great cosmic battle between the State and the Individual,”
Not quite, at least, not for this libertarian. The “cosmic battle” is between all self-interested individuals without exception who want to keep the fruits of labor for themselves while casting the toil onto others, to quote Bastiat in other words. This inclination is in everyone, not just corporations or the State or Wall Street speculators. The difference between “everyone” and “the State”, however, is that “everyone” generally cannot get away with making others work to their benefit, whereas the State can and does get away with it.
The State is, indeed, at war with the Individual but that is only because it is at war with every aspect of our humanity. The natural inclination of each of us is to refuse to work on behalf of others. The State is at odds with this inclination because its very existence depends on checking it. So, the war against the Individual is not a comic-book battle between the great superhero Mr. Individual versus the great supervillian Mr. Government… no, it is between flesh-and-blood human beings who are struggling to subjugate each other and turn each other into serfs so they can enjoy the fruits of labor while avoiding its pains.
The inclination to throw the pains of labor onto others while keeping the benefits to ourselves makes us all Tyrants-in-waiting. Given the chance, almost anyone could and would become a blood-sucking tyrant. The natural order of society is to check this inclination with the disinclination of others to submit to slavery, that is, to defend themselves and their property from theft. Once this check is removed, the Tyrant is no longer impeded. He begins to grow tentacles in the form of allies, enforcers and enablers and expands his reach. As productive enterprise becomes less and less profitable and parasitic enterprise becomes equally more and more profitable, the entire cant of society is shifted onto the side of systematic parasitism. A mania develops in the political means and everyone seeks to outdo everyone else in plundering the public’s wealth before it all vanishes.
America is currently in the midst of just such a mania.
However from what I skimmed I quite liked the FAQ before he started delving deeper into the free market issue and then he started saying some stuff I could destroy in an instant and I lost interest.
With this being said the guy seems to point out a fiar amount of failures that many hardcore libertarians tend to make