From: Phil Osborn (philosborn2001@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed May 08 2002 - 19:37:47 MDT
I had the misfortune to know Wendy McElroy - not
close-up or well, but through frequent acquaintance at
various libertarian gatherings, starting in the late
'70's. She struck me then as arrogant and dishonest,
basically self-promoting herself into positions in the
movement without any profound underlying understanding
or real revolutionary commitment, both of which are
kind of prerequisite.
To illustrate just how destructive she was of the
climate of intellectual inquiry, She and George Smith
at one point strongly and repeatedly promoted the
concept of "sniping from the gray areas." This was a
convenient catch-all into which any problem for which
libertarian theory did not have an answer could be
thrown and henceforth ignored.
No answer in the "libertarian ethic" for children's
rights? Aha, that malcontent is just "sniping from
the gray areas." No need to try to deal with him. A
problem in resolving conflicts over original property
claims - as in my claim to the beautiful view out to
the horizon vs. your claim to have the right to build
a skyscraper on your land? No problem at all! Just
hand over that handy-dandy universal wastebin - plop!
there it goes! Now wasn't that easy?
Those of us with scientific backgrounds (BS-Physics,
for me) will recognize that this principle, if
followed in the hard sciences, would have prevented
about 99% of the progress in every scientific field,
as it is those pesky anomolous results and unanswered
questions that lead to the breakthroughs and
integrations.
During the same period, Wendy began promoting the
"right to lie." As I recall, she even wrote an
article on the unlimited right to lie for Sam Konkin's
"New Libertarian Weakly (spelling intentional)". She
was pretty much a charter member as well of the
Association of Libertarian Feminists, along with
Sharon Presley, Diane Smith (I believe), and a motley
crew of hangers-on from Sam Konkin's Science Fiction
Fandom contacts. I had just arrived in S. Calif. and
was promoting the idea of a libertarian pre-school
('76). The newly formed ALF had a meeting in which
they seriously debated the issue of whether
libertarianism was compatible with feminism (the
unstated premise being that if it wasn't, too bad for
libertarianism). Having dispensed with that issue,
they then decided that I - a man - was not qualified
by nature to start a pre-school. They would just take
over the idea and do it themselves - which they never
did, of course.
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