Quote of the Day
Freedom is not defined by safety. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives. Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when terrible things happen and a false government security blanket beckons.
Ron Paul, (1935- )
Labels: Libertarians, quotes, Ron Paul
posted by The Nameless Libertarian @ 9:08 am
2 Comments
2 Comments:
It is because he holds views like this, & translates them into consistent policies on things like foreign policy, that fair-weather "libertarians" refuse to support him when it comes down to it. Even though he "won" the straw poll at CPAC, most of them continue to support an ultra-hawkish foreign "policy", regardless of whether it works or what it costs economically or in terms of civil liberties, etc.
At least I say that I don't support him because I'm not a libertarian, rather than fucking round talking bollocks as US Republicans do.
The expansion of government in modern Britain has ultimately been driven by wishful thinking. In 1945 many people really wanted to believe that a "New Jerusalem" could be built by rational central planning. Many people still want to believe that you can have total security without totalitarianism, that benefits can always be paid for by someone else, and that risk and unfairness can be eliminated.
So libertarians will never succeed by concentrating on the principled arguments for liberty. Freedom brings personal responsibility and an acceptance of risk, and the political reality is that risk and responsibility are not vote winners.
The most potent arguments for libertarians to advance are the arguments for why government can't deliver on its promises. Explain the limits of central planning, and why a government takeover of anything that can be done by the private sector will inevitably lead to worse outcomes. The road to liberty is paved with Public Choice Theory.
Libertarianism will not triumph when the general public embraces the ideology of liberty, because that is unlikely to ever happen. It will triumph when the public recognises that Big Government isn't working and won't ever work.
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