Historical Libertarianism
This
article over at
LewRockwell.com takes Jared Diamond to task for to using Iceland as a parable on the
futility of libertarianism. I tend to get disheartened when I see liberals arguing for big government on historic precedents, since of course history is not an ally of liberalism or progress in general (be careful when you use the past to justify the present-rather than inform it. In my opinion it is a fine but crucial line-one social conservatives blur constantly).
TAPPED over at
The American Prospect seemed almost gleeful about the collapse of the monarch-free Iceland. Since when did liberals go from seeing government as a necessary coercive presence to combat injustice to the end via any means necessary?
To me, there is an ugly streak in modern liberalism, where ideology trumps facts. Certainly, right-wingers of all denominations are capable of it as well, but it is among liberals that a sizable contingent rejects the idea of objective facts (being rebels against the hegemonic white male paradigm, they'll probably discount the likelihood that they're just souped-up
Pyrrhonists). Its irrationality on issues of race, gender and certain hot-button topics such as guns makes me a man of the Right-despite my relative comfort to social change.