Libertarianism
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- monNom0
I think a lot of stuff gets lumped into the libertarian label. Some people are concerned with perceived lawlessness (not following the constitution, different laws for different people ), some are concerned with the size of government and thereby it's tendency to abuse it's power and be less accountable to the populace. Some are concerned with a lack of soundness in the nations money, and excessive debt. Some are concerned over the special interests that have grown so powerful in the nations capitol. And a whole slew of other issues than tend to set people apart for the status-quo political parties.
A couple of principles I've heard associated to libertarians are an adherence to the rule of law, and the immorality of using force to coerce someone else to do something (ie: the government's implied threat of jail if you don't give it tax money). I think the self organizing principle and the wisdom of the market are pretty universally considered as solutions to all life's problems for libertarians.
It's a bit similar to anarchism, but with a more conservative world view. More like old west cowboy anarchism. You don't bother me, I wont bother you.
Ayn rand is a heavily cited author - Atlas shrugged, the fountainhead. "Austrian school" economists seem to hold the key to their philosophy on money and markets. They dislike Keynes. Hate communism / fascism /oligarchies or any form of authoritarianism, (going back to that abuse of power thing).
Personally, I think it's a bit of a romantic notion that a nation of millions of people could self-organize to govern itself in a just in time manner, but they certainly seem to have a point about corruption.
- I don't identify as libertarian BTW.monNom
- That old west anarchy was brutal to natives, though (at least in the US); actual anarchism relates to accepted moral standards of livingcolin_s
- Which that last line you said, to me, is ideal, but I also call that anarchism; statelessness guided by principled individuals, a society that works big&smallcolin_s
- Yep. They want basically that same ideal. Though I think it remains to be seen if that works at scale. Actual anarchies (failed states) are pretty nasty.monNom