What do you say? I think it is a good idea, in principle. The devil, though, is in the details.
And the critics of libertarianism, do they think this project poses a threat that people might actually see a successful libertarian example and start embracing libertarianism in larger numbers? I think that there are some species of critics of libertarianism who are absolutely beside themselves with terror at the thought that the world might see a freer society prosper and that this prosperity be rightly attributed to the embrace of the libertarian idea. I think that there are plenty of people who would rather live in bitter vindication in dystopia than see social interactions improve on the basis of the acceptance of libertarian philosophy and be forced by evidence to admit that their worldview is the unfortunate consequence of a limited imagination and a damaged psyche's value scale distortions.
Is a project like this, and other such ideas, the precursor to these changes? Oh yeah. If there there are two constants, long term, in the course of human history, they are that human action has steadilly caused the capital base to grow and compound and that the division of labor network has grown, become more complex, and diversified. The consequences of these two interrelated phenomena are that human beings have been driven to embrace freedom and the non-initiation paradigm by the growing oportunity costs of doing otherwise. This process will continue as long as human beings strive to improve their quality of life through cooperation. Freedom and the pursuit of happiness are consequences inseparable from human nature.
Is it just a bold but naive attempt to social escapism that is unsustainable in the long run? It might be. As I said, the devil is in the details. The collapse of such an attempt would not, in and of itself, invalidate libertarian philosophy, anymore than the collapse of the Soviet Union, in and of itself, invalidated Communism and Socialism. These events would only be potentially evidence. There would have to be a philosophical theory that explained and predicted the collapse for it to represent credible evidence. It is the Economic Calculation Problem and the tennets of Praxeology which give meaning and the connecting conceptual framework between cause and effect that renders the Soviet collapse into an understandable example of the failure of command and control social organization. I don't think the cultists who embrace the superstition of the Efficacy of Force can muster a theoretical undestanding that would fit the bill, in the case of libertarianism.
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Date: 12/1/12 00:33 (UTC)I think it is a good idea, in principle. The devil, though, is in the details.
I think that there are some species of critics of libertarianism who are absolutely beside themselves with terror at the thought that the world might see a freer society prosper and that this prosperity be rightly attributed to the embrace of the libertarian idea. I think that there are plenty of people who would rather live in bitter vindication in dystopia than see social interactions improve on the basis of the acceptance of libertarian philosophy and be forced by evidence to admit that their worldview is the unfortunate consequence of a limited imagination and a damaged psyche's value scale distortions.
Oh yeah. If there there are two constants, long term, in the course of human history, they are that human action has steadilly caused the capital base to grow and compound and that the division of labor network has grown, become more complex, and diversified. The consequences of these two interrelated phenomena are that human beings have been driven to embrace freedom and the non-initiation paradigm by the growing oportunity costs of doing otherwise. This process will continue as long as human beings strive to improve their quality of life through cooperation. Freedom and the pursuit of happiness are consequences inseparable from human nature.
It might be. As I said, the devil is in the details. The collapse of such an attempt would not, in and of itself, invalidate libertarian philosophy, anymore than the collapse of the Soviet Union, in and of itself, invalidated Communism and Socialism. These events would only be potentially evidence. There would have to be a philosophical theory that explained and predicted the collapse for it to represent credible evidence. It is the Economic Calculation Problem and the tennets of Praxeology which give meaning and the connecting conceptual framework between cause and effect that renders the Soviet collapse into an understandable example of the failure of command and control social organization. I don't think the cultists who embrace the superstition of the Efficacy of Force can muster a theoretical undestanding that would fit the bill, in the case of libertarianism.