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Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla
Griff, destroying ultra-statists isn't an anti-libertarian act, but one of the strongest possible pro-libertarian actions: dead oligarchs can neither rule nor oppress, nor act to impede libertarianism. This means a good chance for us, no?
All this is the plainest of horse sense. Is it not so that if you want libertarianism to succeed, you shouldn't shrink from implementing it just because the opposition gets violent beyond a certain threshold? I should think the contrary is the case: be prepared to neutralize enemy goon squads. Goon squads without survivors would seem pretty well neutralized. If they're antilibertarian anyway, shouldn't we see to it that they experience either a libertarian epiphany or a sudden death?
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The problem you and I have is that our perceptions of our current governmental system are so opposed. You see a system, significantly better than others, seeking to spread our freedoms across the planet. I see a statist system generally growing stronger with each administration, seeking to control lives and economies. The machinery of government is fullfilling the prime directive of any bureacracy, sustaining itself and growing. We get a nominal rollback, like Bush easing off on the gun grab, but it is always paired with the pet enslavement project, which for this administration is subsidizing the oil economy. I know you were part of the system so are comfortable with it but the idea that the American System would become an increasingly centralized controlled economy, while attractive to the Federalist/Whig/Republican, is repugnant to those of us who see the American Revolution of a triumph for individual freedom.
I think that you compare us to the Islamists and rightly see a people more free. I think we should compare ourselves to Jefferson's hopes for us. The flaw in the neo-conservative dream of a democratic domino effect is in thinking that we represent freedom to the folks on the Arab street, when our own freedoms are just a ghost of what they should be, in large part because of our world-wide military activities.