Three Articles: Freedom, Iran, Libertarianism
Three important articles worth reading:
10 reasons the U.S. is no longer the land of the free - Op-Ed by Jonathan Turley in the Washington Post, 1/13/12
This op-ed is a list of the questionable ways our government can currently deprive people of their rights.
It is easy to be afraid of terrorist attacks and subsequently pass laws that give the security bureaucracies more power. It will be slow, tedious, and difficult to reign these powers back in. I would suggest that a Ron Paul candidacy would be good in the sense that it would get more people talking about these issues, but I had the same thought in 2006 – that an Obama candidacy would be good because he spoke to the aspirations of the levelheaded middle. Presidents and presidential candidates do not solve problems. A lengthy application of political pressure on lots of representatives and the president does. We’ll see if that happens…
How Obama should talk to Iran – Op-Ed by Trita Parsi in the Washington Post, 1/13/12
Parsi outlines a more comprehensive, sensible, and courteous approach the U.S. could take to its decades-long standoff with Iran which has been particularly rankled for the last half-decade on the issue of nukes.
It exasperates me TO NO END that the leaders of countries act like ten-year-olds. I even wrote one of the short essays in my college application five years ago about how stupid the U.S.-Iran escalation was. The fact that this problem has continued and then heated up to threats over the Strait of Hormuz is irritating beyond words. There is no good reason why the U.S. should dislike Iran. Sure, Iran and Israel might have disagreements, but the India-Pakistan (they both have nukes!!) disagreements are clearly just as worrisome. The U.S. and Iran don’t get along purely because they don’t get along. It is THAT stupid. This article is the adult in the room (along with, apparently, Turkey and Brazil).
Libertarian Illusions – by Jeffrey Sachs in the Huffington Post, 1/15/12
In this post, Sachs argues that libertarians (and Ron Paul) ignore other vital societal values, like civic responsibility and compassion.
It was tempting to insert quotes from this post, but the whole thing practically needed quotes – so go read it. I have my own private theory about some of the large strains in philosophical thought which I will outline briefly here but elaborate on more another time. It goes like this… Liberty, equality, and utility are all important ideals worth striving for. But any one of them taken to the extreme at the complete expense of the others creates a society that nobody wants. So beware extremists, like pure libertarians. For instance, imagine an equalitarian party (everyone gets the same salary!) or a utilitarian party (well these rich people are SUPER rich and happy, but hey, it’s a net plus for society, right?). Preposterous. Get over yourselves, libertarians.
January 28, 2012 at 4:25 pm
Lucas, I’d love to hear more – your thoughts on Ron Paul’s candidacy and more broadly libertarianism as a political philosophy. From the tone of your final paragraph it sounds like you must have a pretty strong opposing argument. You should do a full article on the topic, explaining why libertarians should “get over themselves”. I’d be happy to reply in kind with an article of my own.