The Long View 2009-02-22
In the modern era, during times of severe stress, society and the state tend to merge, not pull apart. Maybe that is the defining characteristic of modernity, and of every era like modernity.
Libertarian
The Long View 2008-12-07: The Components of Freedom; Mad Max in South Asia; Our Precious Bodily Fluids; Virtual Catacombs
This is a a great blog post. The linked Reason article about the “Libertarian moment of 2008” looks hilarious in retrospect. The last 14 years have if anything seen the acceleration of the trends the article mentions, but I doubt many people in Anglosphere countries feel much freer. The hyper-individualized
The Long View: An Army of Davids
Self-assembling nanobots are vaporware, a concept without even a glimmer of actual technology behind it, so its is appropriate that they are used to advocate for libertarianism, a political philosophy without a constituency.
Nonetheless, I could not help but reflect by the time I finished the book that, in some
The Long View 2007-06-18: Third Party Platform; War without End; Disillusionment & Global Warming
John J. Reilly recommended that any third party or attempted realignment of American politics attempt to recreate something of the New Deal, which matches up pretty well with this chart from 2016. What goes by the name populism is often an attempt to move a nation’s politics toward the
The Long View 2007-03-06: Various Book Reviews, and That Cranky Spengler
I will admit that I went through an Ayn Rand phase when I was young. Here a repeat of the best thing I ever said on the subject:
I like the late 90s idea that devotees of Ayn Rand might prove to be unusually resistant to the false religion of
The Long View 2005-04-18: Omens: Libertarian & Papal
This seems like a good opportunity to link to this week's most striking graph. The libertarian corner is almost wholly unoccupied by actual voters, but it figures heavily among the intelligensia and the ruling class.
Omens: Libertarian & Papal
People looking for bad omens were no doubt pleased by Jeffrey Rosen's
The Long View: Downsizing Is Easy; Government Is Hard
When I turned 18, I registered as a libertarian. Then I found out how weird most libertarians are, and I switched back to mainstream American politics. Joking aside, a big philosophical difference that I have with libertarianism is the idea that government, as such, is evil. This is an idea