Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 8/23/84; site ucbcad.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ucbvax!ucbcad!faustus From: faustus@ucbcad.UUCP Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Re: Exactamoondo! Message-ID: <40@ucbcad.UUCP> Date: Mon, 31-Dec-84 14:57:54 EST Article-I.D.: ucbcad.40 Posted: Mon Dec 31 14:57:54 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 1-Jan-85 06:31:08 EST References: <2148@umcp-cs.UUCP> <1468@ihuxl.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: UC Berkeley CAD Group, Berkeley, CA Lines: 21 > > .... What libertarians want, and > > what rational people want, are as different as night and day. > > Now really, Paul, what do you believe libertarians want? > > Libertarians, as libertarians, want this and only this: > A world where there is broad agreement that the only proper use > of force is in responding to those who initiate its use. > > If this be night, what then is day? What I have trouble with is why, out of all the possible "basic goods" people could want, libertarians seem to have a fixation for freedom from force. Whenever a philosophical position claims that one thing is an absolute good, to be followed to the exclusion of everything else, I think that this shows there is something fundamentally wrong with it. What is wrong with saying, "coercion only in a few cases where the situation justifies it"? Or, "coercion only when the majority opinion is in favor of it"? Wayne