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Orthodoxy and Libertarianism | Libertas
I agree with the author a lot, and had a somewhat similar conversion to libertarianism (though, like him, I saw it more as a 'coming home' than a conversion). The big difference is that I came to libertarianism from the left. It was the Iraq War that almost immediately forced me to start looking at the Bush policies, and government policies in general, much more carefully. Back then, I thought the only other option was to become a Democrat. Then I even became disenchanted in the Democrats, and saw little significant difference between them and the Republicans. Yes, they differ, but they agree on virtually everything that I dislike about government, and disagree where I think government shouldn't intervene anyway. Anyway, a former hard-core Republican friend of mine started making sense to me and I was completely blown away. Apparently he had heard about this Ron Paul character and he changed his mind on virtually all of the things that we disagreed on. So I, myself, looked into this Ron Paul miracle-worker (in that he convinced my hardheaded friend that he was wrong). After looking into Ron Paul, he, and other libertarians (bloggers and academics alike) convinced me that I, too, was hardheadedly wrong in a few ways (I was a fan of idealistic communism for a time). I still advocate idealistic communism (not the USSR/China crap, that's state socialism, not communism), but I now only advocate it if it is completely voluntary. I knew aggression was wrong, I just never realized the aggression inherent in a few of the things that I supported. The greatest motivation for me endorsing an anarcho-libertarian political perspective was, oddly enough, my own faith. I felt like non-aggression was one moral position that seemed to identify the strongest with Christianity.
Anyway, what are your thoughts on the article and libertarianism in general? I know there are a few of us in TAW that have the little libertarian image as the party affiliation in their profiles.
I agree with the author a lot, and had a somewhat similar conversion to libertarianism (though, like him, I saw it more as a 'coming home' than a conversion). The big difference is that I came to libertarianism from the left. It was the Iraq War that almost immediately forced me to start looking at the Bush policies, and government policies in general, much more carefully. Back then, I thought the only other option was to become a Democrat. Then I even became disenchanted in the Democrats, and saw little significant difference between them and the Republicans. Yes, they differ, but they agree on virtually everything that I dislike about government, and disagree where I think government shouldn't intervene anyway. Anyway, a former hard-core Republican friend of mine started making sense to me and I was completely blown away. Apparently he had heard about this Ron Paul character and he changed his mind on virtually all of the things that we disagreed on. So I, myself, looked into this Ron Paul miracle-worker (in that he convinced my hardheaded friend that he was wrong). After looking into Ron Paul, he, and other libertarians (bloggers and academics alike) convinced me that I, too, was hardheadedly wrong in a few ways (I was a fan of idealistic communism for a time). I still advocate idealistic communism (not the USSR/China crap, that's state socialism, not communism), but I now only advocate it if it is completely voluntary. I knew aggression was wrong, I just never realized the aggression inherent in a few of the things that I supported. The greatest motivation for me endorsing an anarcho-libertarian political perspective was, oddly enough, my own faith. I felt like non-aggression was one moral position that seemed to identify the strongest with Christianity.
Anyway, what are your thoughts on the article and libertarianism in general? I know there are a few of us in TAW that have the little libertarian image as the party affiliation in their profiles.