From: James Daugherty (daugh@home.msen.com)
Date: Sun Sep 05 1999 - 14:23:35 MDT
Doesn't Extropianism already avoid the term libertarianism in favor of
the term "self-ownership"? That's how I remember it from a couple years
ago. But, here's a bit of defense of libertarianism.....the Rothbardian
anarcho-capitalist kind based on self-ownership:
{Responding in general terms to the 2 essays}
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~jah/politics/libcrit.short
http://www.etsu.edu/philos/faculty/hugh/libertar.htm
Libertarians define liberty as the ability to take any action except
those which involve initiating force against others. "Initiating force"
does just not mean "using force", but means agression, that is, using force
not as retaliation or defense, but as exploitation, ie, for violating the
self-ownership of others. I think Herbert Spencer referred to this as the
principle of "equal liberty", not an invention of modern libertarians or
Randists......libertarianism has nothing to do with "minimizing coercion" or
"maximizing liberty" in the sense of "doing what one pleases". As we all
know, very significant, even BRUTAL coercion is required to maintain one's
self-ownership and the ownership of legitimately acquired and produced
property. Yes, this is why the individual or family or legitimate business
might need to own machine guns or cannons or death rays. Weapons of mass
destruction, on the other hand, would have no valid libertarian use.
And yes, agression can only be defined in the context of valid property
rights. However, possession is 9/10 of property law. Unless, you can get a
consensus from your neighbors and/or private protection agencies that
someone's holdings are illegitimate, their possessions will be accepted as
legitimate property. You will have severe difficulties if you try to use
force to re-possess property based on your personal opinion alone. However,
there would be no prior restraint of such actions under anarcho-capitalism!
This in itself would be a factor in the commonly accepted definition of
legitimate property in an anarcho-capitalist society. There might be a
greater emphasis on protection and defense.
Yes, only anarcho-capitalist libertarianism is consistent
libertarianism. Copyrights and patents are not libertarian and any minimal
state violates violates libertarianism by definition. Copyrights might be
libertarian if they were truly voluntary, that is, the purchaser of a book
signed a contract agreeing not to reveal the contents of a book and agreed
to only sell the book to those who similarly agree....not a likely scenario.
People might agree not to reveal contents of a book for a certain number of
months so as to give the author's publisher a headstart?
Police and court systems provided by a minarchist state are socialist
and unjust from a libertarian perspective. Police protection and courts for
those who do not contract for such would be charity in an anarcho-capitalist
society. In this, a minarchist state should be considered a welfare state.
Libertarianism leads to conclusions you disagree with? So what?
Libertarianism is what it is.
Why are {you} so adamant in desiring re-distribution? Your fear that
someone will be without means, charity, or opportunity in the absence of the
State is quite misplaced. A detailed analysis shows that such dire
circumstances generally occur because of State, or more properly, the ruling
class that uses the State as its instrument.
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