Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 exptools; site whuxl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!cbdkc1!desoto!packard!edsel!bentley!hoxna!houxm!whuxl!orb From: orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER) Newsgroups: net.politics.theory Subject: Re: Democratic decisions in everyone's interest Message-ID: <669@whuxl.UUCP> Date: Mon, 1-Jul-85 08:49:48 EDT Article-I.D.: whuxl.669 Posted: Mon Jul 1 08:49:48 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 2-Jul-85 05:21:12 EDT References: <234@umcp-cs.UUCP> <28200016@inmet.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Whippany Lines: 40 > > Excuse me, but challenging you to find a person who can know your wants > better than you do consistently seems to me to be a perfectly valid > question to ask of those who claim that governments should have the power > to force their decisions on you for your own good. For any choice > you face with respect to your own interests, another person may > > A) Feel you are qualified to make the choice better than he is. > > B) Feel that he knows better than you what the choice you should > make is (and be right). > > C) Feel that he knows better than you what the choice you should > make is (and be WRONG). Again, I should like to point out that I don't think government has any business intruding in my private decisions which affect primarily only *my* self-interest such as the decision to smoke or not to smoke tobacco, the decision to smoke or not to smoke marijuana, the decision to engage in whatever sexual activity I may prefer (so long as it involves no physical harm to another) On the other hand, my right to commit suicide by smoking tobacco does not include my right to kill others with my tobacco smoke and the same for marijuana smoke. Libertarians have talked a lot about "straw-men" - I think it is a blatant strawman to insist that democratic socialists on this net support the suppression of individual liberties which involve solely the individual. On the other hand I also think I have the right as the citizen of a democracy to join with other citizens to enact laws which benefit all of us. Stopping at red lights is not a question of simply my own interest but in every motorists interests. For government to enforce such a law benefits all motorists. Speaking of civil liberties: what do Libertarians think about the New Jersey law to force high school students to take drug tests? tim sevener whuxl!orb