Thick with irony, although I do appreciate the general sentiment. I expressed something similar in the education grant thread. Take if you will, but don’t try to tell me it is noble because it isn’t.
But then, how could humans function if we couldn’t rationalize? We’d be suicidal with guilt and remorse for every error and mistake we make. Confirmation bias is a survival mechanism.
@ Ricky
I am curious: What was it that brought you to Libertarianism?
We’d be suicidal with guilt and remorse for every error and mistake we make.
Lose the guilt. Don’t worry! Be happy! 
I am curious: What was it that brought you to Libertarianism?
Because stripped of all its quasi-religious and rationalizing overtones it is basically right; and it is the only general mileu of thought that has a fairly accurate picture of social systems at least in their analytic aspects (though it often goes awry in the substantive aspects).
Cofirmation bias not to be conflated with lack of lack of guilt and remorse about error.
Right. You didn’t step into my trap In fact the purpose of the question was to get the answer of who did expose you the first time to this kind of thinking. I am sure there was someone who did not believe you are a self-deceptive and ignorant fool, and therefore worth a try to expose you to new thoughts. Even if this person did not encounter you personally, like for example Ron Paul. And there are many others who just need a trigger. And if this one had thought like you do now, you might still believe in whatever you believed before.
I am not saying that it is absolutely impossible that you come up with this thinking entirely on your own. I just doubt that there are many people, if any at all, who would be able to figure this all out their self.
Right. You didn’t step into my trap
Not really. I was always individualist/materialist leaning, and when I started criticizing Christian theology and morality I found Nietzsche; at some point I googled ‘Society does not exist’ and found Rothbard. As my SN indicates, I am pretty auto-didactic. I’ve certainly learned a lot from reading but I don’t think the overall tenor of my views have changed since I was nine.
This pinpoints my problem as well. I tried to weed out all the inefficiency and irrationality in my thinking so that I could arrive at “the truth” about the world. As I thought about it more and got wiser, I came to libertarianism. Then full-on anti-statism.
But as I strive for even more accurate understanding, I start to realize that to really maximize my utility I should be out enjoying my life and not pondering any of this intellectual shizzle. I enjoy it a lot, but not more than I enjoy drinking, having ridiculous amounts of sex, and generally living it up while I still can.
I have reached exactly the same conclusion. For now at least
These religious fanatics with their craving to ‘do something’ really annoy me. It’s like saying, ‘since I am interested in military strategy, I should fight in a war’. It’s a total non sequitur.
Some people get into economics as an intellectual curiosity, others because they care deeply about the state of society and people’s quality of life. I take it you fall into the first catagory, but that doesn’t make the latter catagory a religious one.
And personally I prefer those who ‘do something’ as it shows they are not just full of hot air.
But they are. They’re not actually doing anything. They’re just like the college kids who protested Bush; they accomplish nothing but acting sanctimoneous.
RJM, Have you ever thought of starting a group blog? You, Prateek, and William are three of the most well-read and clever posters here, with some of the most interesting opinions. I think a group-blog by the three of you would be fascinating. And then, since it’d be your own blog, you could just delete whatever you consider to be inanity from the comments.
Other cool group blog teams I think would be
That’s not a bad idea except I have no work ethic when it comes to writing; thanks for the compliment for that matter and while I haven’t read a whole lot of Prateek’s posts they do seem a cut above; and I have probably made it evident that I think William is quite the able thinker. I might add that you are probably one of if not the best poster on this forum when it comes to economic theory.
I suggest Autolykos.
I would love to see this happen.
Seconded. Autolykos and I tried the “group blog” thing before… It didn’t work… But I’d love to see him find some sort of creative outlet for all the stuff in that head!
I will be blogging later this year, but not for libertarians or about libertarian issues. Speaking to the in crowd is comfortable. I want to crack new markets and grow my personal network of people I can exchange with.
Love to do something collaborative with nir, Danny and filc though. Maybe we need our own podcast. Nir can write the theme music, Danny can sell advertising, filc can arrange hosting and I can handle marketing. Now all we need is something to talk about.
These religious fanatics with their craving to ‘do something’ really annoy me. It’s like saying, ‘since I am interested in military strategy, I should fight in a war’. It’s a total non sequitur.
War doesnt offer the chance to make the world better. Quite the contrary actually.
Neither does libertarian activism; at least in any sense that is relevant to your own life. Seriously, this should be obvious.