Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 (MC830713); site vu44.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!hao!seismo!mcvax!vu44!jack From: jack@vu44.UUCP (Jack Jansen) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Libertarianism: Anarchism, Schools, Defense, Society Message-ID: <542@vu44.UUCP> Date: Fri, 28-Dec-84 16:12:19 EST Article-I.D.: vu44.542 Posted: Fri Dec 28 16:12:19 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 30-Dec-84 00:12:13 EST References: <399@ptsfa.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: The Retarded Programmers Home, VU, Amsterdam Lines: 35 > From: bdp@ptsfa.UUCP (Barbara Petersen) > A libertarian (my personal definition, which seems to be fairly well > accepted) is a person who believes: > > 1) That individuals heve the right to control their own bodies > and the products of their labor, and therefore in private property. ^ *THIS* is where libertarians go wrong. They pretend to be a kind of anarchists who believe in private property, but the whole reasoning they use to defend the right to private property is *WRONG*! I (being an anarchist, by the way) agree with everything before the comma, but the rest of the sentence is wrong. Libertarianism allows you to do anything you like with your own property, for instance, give it away to your kids. While I can, to some extent, see that the founder of a big company could be granted some privileges (although I think these should be given to him by the companies employees, and should not be enforced by a government, or by the man himself), I think his heirs have *no right whatsoever* to these privileges. The problem with libertarianism is that it accounts for the fact that a goverment should allow a greater amount of freedom for the individual when the individuals are getting better educated, but, on the other hand, they want to make one exception, PROPERTY. Thus, while anarchy is a simple and beautiful theory (although unattainable in the near future), libertarianism is a complicated (and, in my opinion, rather messy) theory, because they have to make numerous exceptions to the overall phylosophy to make sure that the notion of 'private property' is retained. -- Jack Jansen, {seismo|philabs|decvax}!mcvax!vu44!jack or ...!vu44!htsa!jack If *this* is my opinion, I wasn't sober at the time.