Straw Poll: Have we ever had it as good?

Miscellaneous General
1

If we disregard time before the state has liberty in practice been advancing, stagnating or retreating?

Ok, perhaps you had it better before the New Deal or so. But think globably. When you add all up has humanity as a whole ever been freer? Have we ever had as much economic and personal freedom, been as equal before the law?

Me personaly, I think so. Sure there are ups and downs but in the long term I am bullish on humanity.

I am not nostalgic. Guilds, tithe, royal monopolies, having to work on your lords land 5 days out of 6, being tied down to your landlords land, your lord as your judge, having to drop on your knees before your ruler… It does not appeal to me.

2

I think that most anachronisms, whether they be manorialism (hope I spelled that right), left anarchism, georgism, statism, fascism, democracy whatever will all be rendered relatively moot once we leave the atmosphere with civilian space travel. Oh sure, we will still have scarcity issues, but we will be able to have all of the empty space we want, something that is becoming impossible on this mudball.

So in that regard, I think 4 or 5 generations from now, genuine freedom to homestead, explore and carve out your own fiefdom, niche, commune, cabal what have you, is very real.

Right now, everyone is still worried about property rights where land is becoming increasingly scarce. The issues between me and some other libertarian sects is very focused on, if we’re neighbors, will their different views on property rights be reconcilable without violence? But once we leave the atmosphere, it will be easy to establish as much distance as necessary to allow for all sorts of social and political diversity. Arguments about privatizing roads will be anachronisms once everyone has 3 dimensional easements at almost all times.

It’s really not as far away as we think, although I might not see it in my lifetime.

Oh, and I don’t think we have it that good. I live a pretty austere life. 40 years ago, it would have been easier to own a weapon, keep my wealth, change my name, etc. There are lots of technological advances and conveniences, but the state has grown and it continues to grow. Now that my guard is up, I never want to let it down.

3

Whatever. Sure, life used to really suck; but a serf in Germany was freer than a serf in France. I’m bullish on humanity, but a lot of things in the news really concern me. The Congress and Fed in the last year has inflated and taken totalitarian regulatory measures, with no-hesitation and the Supreme Court asleep at the wheel. Now they are talking about more gun bans, Obama just rolled out his universal health care proposals, if Obama’s poll numbers continue to fall he will expand the war in the Middle East, conscription is not far away. Like Obama said, everything will get worse before it gets better.

4

I’m bullish on any place where you can find notable secessionary tendencies. As long as people can still conceive of saying no and doing their own thing, hope lives on.

Where slavery has become a mental inevitability, I’d be shorting big time.

To be honest, even with all the tyrannical measures of the US feds, there’s probably still no better place on Earth to live for a libertarian than New Hampshire or Montana.

5

You can’t judge the past by the standards of the present. Bowing to the king was just something that was done, like saying “sir” or “ma’am” to elders used to be. That’s how human social orders work: the office merits respect regardless of the fool currently inhabiting it, and nobody frets much about it because they believe in the mission more than they believe in the people running it. And long working hours (and I’ve read these have actually lengthened since the Industrial Revolution) would be more a product of the state of technology at the time.

All the civilization and technology you see around you today did not spring up out of the ground in 1965. Civilization is a process of accretion over millenia, and can be lost in a generation. The British, for example, have a very grim future ahead of them.

6

I cannot honestly say whether “we” have ever had it this good or not. I only have memories and experiences of this life, so it is a bit hard for me to judge (there is no “experience price mechanism” for me to calculate that…[:P] ).

But I can see what is right and wrong, moral and immoral, just and unjust, and I can see that there is an awful lot of wrong going on today. I’m just going to try and keep focusing on changing that and not waste my time focusing on comparing the past with the present.

7

What particularly bothers you about the British if I may ask?

8

That would be an incredible sf universe: all the different sects and factions of libertarianism and anarchism scattered across the solar system, while the statists are stuck on Earth.

9

The fact that one of the most polite, cultured and free societies in the world has deliberately transformed itself into a boorish, shallow, social democratic hellhole.

10

I’m studying in England and I can’t tell you how true this is.

11

But the British alone are a drop in the sea. 50 years ago Great Britain was forced into abandonment of classical colonialism. That is a change for the better on a much grander scale as it affected many more people.