From: Patrick McCuller (patrick@kia.net)
Date: Mon Nov 13 2000 - 22:06:08 MST
>
> Damn straight. The majority of Russian immigrants I've known have
> gravitated to extreme right-wing views, as a direct reaction to their
first-hand experience of the
> inefficiency and terrifying oppressiveness of governments.
If you're talking about libertarianism, it has *nothing* to do with the
'right-wing' or the right in any sense. It is a separate concept from right
and left; it is authoritarian versus libertarian.
I noticed in your writing that you tend to think of libertarianism as a harsh
or uncaring philosophy. I am a hardcore libertarian (an anarchist, in fact)
and I could not disagree with you more. Libertarianism is a loving philosophy,
and compassionate. Mary Ruwart wrote an excellent book on this topic, which
you can find here:
http://www.ruwart.com/Healing/
Though the printed version is much easier to read.
> I suppose that, as in all living systems, the optimal politics is a matter
> of balance. Striving for pure
> equality fails, as does striving for pure individual freedom. The correct
> point is somewhere in the middle,
> and as for exactly where -- we have no science to tell us. I don't think
> extreme libertarians are any more
> correct than extreme communists ... but they've never taken over a country,
> so this hasn't been proven ;>
...
> ben
I don't know what you mean by '... all living systems'. All living systems
require balance? I don't think so. I don't want a balance of plutonium in my
body, thank - or any at all, considering that it is lethal at 0.1 micrograms.
In fact, all the living systems we know require an *extreme* absence of
plutonium to survive. This is just one example of a practically unlimited
number of examples where living systems require an extreme, not a balance, and
there are even more where they simply thrive better.
As for 'extreme libertarians' being no more correct than 'extreme
communists' - it is hard to argue this without knowing what you mean when you
say 'extreme' one or the other.. But my wife has something to say about this.
She spent her childhood in a communist country - Romania, which was quite
communist at the time. Her opinion is this: communism is a known evil that has
murdered more than one hundred million people in this century alone.
Libertarianism has no such track record.
I am in no way attempting to steer the conversation politically; but I cannot
allow such a beautiful philosophy to be misrepresented, especially when it is
so intimately, perhaps inextricably tied to extropian goals and ideal.
Patrick McCuller
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