Topic: Libertarianism
Parsing the Libertarian Party Platform (I) The 2008 Platform is a beautiful piece of work! Why won't the left and right adopt more of it?by Jack Galway
(libertarian)
Thursday, June 5, 2008
The 2008 Libertarian Party Platform is a beautiful piece of work! Why won't the left and right adopt more of it? It is the strongest artifact expressive of the founding principles of this nation.
To answer the first question, "Why won't the left and right adopt more of it?" They, sadly, are not interested in principle. They are interested in manipulation and illusion. They are interested in power, its pursuit and application.
Let's begin.
Preamble
As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty; [Do the 2 parties want this? No. They want a world of dominance. They take turns being chickenhawks. The military industrial complex is non-partisan.]
a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others. [Who wouldn't want this? The imperial sovereignties and the institutional sovereignties. That's who!]
We believe . . . that respect for individual rights is the essential precondition for a free and prosperous world, [The obverse of this is that governments and organizations are preconditions for a free and prosperous world. But since the obverse requires the obliteration of the principle, the individual must be suppressed in favor of the collective. Disrespect for the collective must be met with authoritarian force.]
. . . that force and fraud must be banished from human relationships, [Why do we keep ourselves under the rule of those who rise by force and fraud? Why do we revere the practioners everywhere in our popular culture?]
. . . and that only through freedom can peace and prosperity be realized. [The perpetrators of force and fraud are afraid of the loss of control that would be freedom, the victims of force and fraud see more security in the state than in the individual responsibility they may be asked to assume as the price of freedom.]
Consequently, we defend each person's right to engage in any activity that is peaceful and honest, and welcome the diversity that freedom brings. The world we seek to build is one where individuals are free to follow their own dreams in their own ways, without interference from government or any authoritarian power.
In the following pages we have set forth our basic principles and enumerated various policy stands derived from those principles.
These specific policies are not our goal, however. Our goal is nothing more nor less than a world set free in our lifetime, and it is to this end that we take these stands.
(to be continued)
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