From: Josh Glasstetter (jag36@cornell.edu)
Date: Mon Nov 09 1998 - 10:32:10 MST
I'm really confused as to what extropians mean by libertarianism. It seems to
me that from private discussions with a few people on this list I should take
libertarianism to be objectivism; I hope this is not a commonly held
philosophy. I consider myself a "liberaltarian" which combines what I believe
to be the best aspects of the left and right. I think many of you might be
interested in The Revolution®, a new, serious, prankster political party which
embodies many of my beliefs. Below is their 15 point party platform. More info
can be found at www.the-revolution.org. cya
15 Point Party Platform for National Politics by R.U. Sirius
NOTE: All of these platform points are stated simply in three-or-less
sentences.
The reality is far more complex. Each one of these will be detailed, one by
one, in the months to come.
We will repeal five times as many laws as we pass. We need to simplify and
clarify the rules of the game. We will do a better job of enforcing and obeying
a few reasonable rules than thousands upon thousands of incomprehensible
statutes.
End all corporate welfare. Let allegedly free-enterprise stand on its own two
feet.
No Federal Personal Income Taxes for individuals with incomes of less than
$100,000. Encourage states and counties to also end taxation of
middle-class and
poor individuals. Institute a flat tax on income over $100,000.
Legalize most pleasure drugs, prostitution, and gambling. Institute a 'sin
tax,'
taxing these activities at 100% to make up for some of the funds lost as the
result of #3. Use part of this tax income to make counseling and rehabilitation
easily available in all locales.
Close down the prison/industrial complex. Pardon all prisoners who are in for
non-violent crimes involving sums involving $25,000 or less, provided they have
no known history of violent activities. Pardon all prisoners listed with
Amnesty
International.
Defend civil liberties. For the first time in recent memory, let's have a
federal government that respects The Constitution and The Bill of Rights .
Let's
have the ACLU and the EFF and other pro-rights organizations inside the federal
government.
Stop policing the world. Become just another member of the UN, with
responsibilities equivalent to our numbers. Reduce the Pentagon's budget by at
least 50%.
Close down the National Security State. Since the end of World War II,
representative democracy has been hostage to the National Security State.
Release all secret documents (excluding only those recent ones that present a
very clear and present danger), fire the CIA, and reform the federal
intelligence apparatus.
Put environmental concerns before profits and jobs. On the other hand, put
scientific consensus and reason ahead of emotion-based environmentalism.
Protect the environment while limiting Orwellian bureaucratic absurdities.
Open federally-funded birth control clinics all across the country,
guaranteeing
women in every locale reasonable access to her legal right to abortion and
other forms of birth control.
Allow 'autonomous zones.' Offer ways in which localities and even
households can
-- with a very few limits -- opt out of the system.
Re-establish social services at pre-Reagan levels, for starters. Study the
possibility of a 'workfare' state that would create an ultimately
self-sustaining 'generic' maintenance economy that would involve those who
don't receive income independently, or through employment, in the production,
distribution, and receivership of life's essentials. Ultimately, an advanced
high tech society will need to end the employment/make money ethic entirely or
risk a total psychotic break from the social/environmental pollution wreaked by
billions of desperate people on a hustle.
Study the possibility of restructuring the economic/money system toward making
money consistent with actual value in an age where money-as-information is
excessively abstracted from the creation of real wealth and unfairly favors
those who know how to manipulate it. Also, question the oligarchic power of
those who control the money system, such as the Federal Reserve, the IMF, and
the World Bank, reforming or possibly eliminating those organizations.
Fund a 'Manhattan Project Toward Utopia.' Finance and encourage altruistic
scientific and technological projects geared towards breakthroughs that can
diminish or eliminate scarcity, disease, and other forms of suffering that most
people would prefer not to experience. Establish a principal of universal
access to the products of such breakthroughs.
Victory Over Horseshit! The political process in America is hostage to certain
obvious absurdities that are an embarrassment before the civilized world: like
the continuing embargo against Cuba (and particularly the Helms/Burton bill),
the excessive numbers of state executions, our refusal to sign the land mine
treaty, the opposition to policies like needle exchange that are geared towards
slowing down a plague, refusal of funding for international birth control, ad
infinitum. Let's have a national government that calls ridiculous horseshit
what it is.
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