Letters to the Editor
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Actually.....
Living on an island is rather similar to living in a commune. Or at least a very small town!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/phd9/sets/72157594565763211/
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Paul R
Yet another irksome libertarian bit of dishonesty:
Locke's social contract argument is that in a state of nature, all rights are insecure, and thus of only theoretical value. Governments are formed to secure rights, and thus give them substance in fact as well as theory.
The underlying reliance on Rousseau and Locke's state of nature hypothesis leaves libertarians in the lurch. There was no "state of nature." It's a factually false claim. People have always organized themselves into groups. Being human involves interaction with other people--always has, always will. The social contract didn't come in being, replacing some idyllic or nasty state of individualism.
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"Living on an island is rather similar to living in a commune."
Unless you are alone on the island. A deserted island. But I don't think I'd like that. I think I'd like living high up in the Rockies. Maybe deep in the woods of the PNW. No islands for me, with or without neighbors.
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Adam and Eve
The social contract didn't come in being, replacing some idyllic or nasty state of individualism.
It's in the Bible! There was a garden, then there was a snake... and voila! Libertarianism!
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Dewey and The Public and its Problems
The best explanation of the contradictions in America's libertarian mythology I've seen was from Dewey in The Public and its Problems. I'm trying to finish writing somethign else up, but I skimmed for a moment and found this, which looks like a decent summary of Dewey's thesis.
http://www.fred.net/tzaka/deweypub.html
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@Jim re: Democrats = warmongers
When it comes to looting (er, I mean looking) after American interests on behalf of its corp (er, I mean people), Democratic presidents have shown themselves to be some of the most intelligent, ruthless and successful managers of war in the history of "civilization." That's right - in the history of the world.
You mess with us, we will nuke your ass. And we're just the democracy spreading people to do it.
With the exception of Lincoln (who was a closeted Democrat if one is to judge him by his actions), Republicans are just too self-interested and unimaginative to be effective in global conflicts.
I, by the way, am anti-war. I know what war's about, and it ain't democracy.
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@Ondolette
What do you say when the doctor tells you there is a public health interest involved [in my avoiding addiction] and your failure to acknowledge it means you are neither informed nor competent to make the decision?
Your whole post exemplifies why any lover of liberty simply has to be scared shitless of Democratic/progressive attempts to "fix" health care. You are already making yourself a stakeholder in the most intimate decisions a person can make, such as what drugs they wish to take. The public purse is also affected by unprotected sex, and unplanned pregnancy. Failure to exercise. Fast food. Alcohol. Cigarettes. "Unnecessary" driving.
The more the State involves itself in the financial aspects of people's choices, the more it empowers people like you to exercise ever more control over even the most private decisions.
I think anal sex should be criminalized, as you surely must also believe. That activity does add to the costs of medically treating the gay community. And once the next authoritarian movement including social conservatives is in power, you can bet that will be an arrow in their anti-gay quiver if we by then have a federal, single-payer health care system.
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Who are the tools?
When speaking about "The Market," it is important to remember that the market was designed by humans to be a tool that made our lives easier and more productive. It now appears that humans are merely tools of the market.
Because we misidentify and misattribute what "the Market" is and what it is supposed to do for humans any recommended improvements to the free market model are and will continue to be shouted down by those who have made private ownership and the free market a virtue in and of themselves. Instead of developing new tools/modes of behavior to match with current understandings about resource consumption, etc., we continually engage in protecting the market at the expense of the long-term health and vitality of our community.
No, I'm not a communist. I'm an entrepreneur who values the market, but no more so than many other human inventions designed to make our lives more efficient.
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On the state of nature and the social contract
Plato is always the fly in the ointment, isn't he? Most of what we've inherited in the way of political discourse relies -- sometimes to our detriment -- on his genius for abstraction. Of course the part where we assert that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men is something of a fiction, but it's been a very useful fiction.
Despite what's been sorted out and codified since by everyone from structural anthropologists to psychoanalysts about the intricacies of human behavior, and of pre-literate social organization, old Mr. Locke, and the founders of the good old U.S. didn't really do such a bad job.
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@ Mona
I think anal sex should be criminalized..
Perhaps you're just not doing it right?
But seriously, why the scare quotes around "fix" when you mention healthcare?
Someone already is meddling in your inimate business.
Right now it's some insurance company or HMO apparatchik, but that is not a problem because they are just in it for the money, hence their motives are pure?
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@WT
No, the United States certainly hasn't been an abject failure. But I wouldn't quite say that it wasn't that bad a job; it's certainly bad enough. Others have done worse, but others have also done much better, and we've tried to see to it that those that did better weren't allowed to keep doing it. In many cases, we've succeeded.
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@Mona
No, I don't think so. Your response is telling, I never mentioned the public purse, nor would I. I mentioned the public health. But while we're on the subject, I have some view that personal health needs to be subject to some expertise as well.
Not so long ago, weeks, not months, I held a guy's head in my hands for a very long time. I didn't want him to move it, and I didn't think him competent to tell me otherwise -- which he did vociferously. I didn't bat an eyelash about the freedoms you are so "scared shitless" about. I just kept holding his head and telling him, as often as he told me his opinions on the subject, not to move.
You know what? I don't really care whether or not when he got to the hospital and they checked him out they found out he was okay. I don't care whether he hates me for ruining his day, or costing him money, I don't care whether you think I trampled all over his libertarian freedoms. I don't even care whether or not he eventually sees that what I did was the right thing to do, or whether or not you think I should have stuffed my head in a bag of sand.
I was competent to make the decision, he was not.