Blogging has not happened here for a while, due mostly to a certain seasonal torpor on the part of the bloggers. But we're back now, and aim to update a bit more regularly.
We return with a critique of libertarianism. Libertarianism is generally seen as a consistent, principled ideology, and gains respectability with white-collar professional types (and the media that caters to them) because its so supposedly philosophically sound.* Critiques of libertarianism often take its philosophical soundness for granted or refuse to dispute it, and rely instead on practical arguments about the consequences of libertarian policies for poor people, the environment and the rights of minorities.**
These are good arguments, and I have made them before, but I wanted to critique libertarianism on a more fundamental level and argue that its consistency is not the result of sober thought, but of a glib desire to reduce all politics to a single goal -- maximizing liberty.
To do this I will not look at the world through a theoretical lens, but looking at the world as it exists.
