I don’t like ideologies. Many theories have some purchase on the truth, but taken to their extremes they make you blind. They also can become cults.
That includes libertarianism–for all its vaunted freedom and respect for the individual. Much of it is attractive, but followed through to its conclusions it is almost solipsistic. No man is an island, as that British fellow said. So I appreciated Glenn Reynold’s review of Ron Paul’s book today, with Glenn’s differentiation between Rombardian and Heinleinian libertarians. Clearly I would be more comfortable with Heinleinian, not just because I loved Stranger from a Strange Land as a boy. But I still wouldn’t want to join them. I had my flirtation with Marxism when I was younger, and, free of tht, I’m not keen on signing up for other “isms.” For the rest of my life I think I’ll remain a Groucho Marxist–as in “I wouldn’t join a club that would have me as a member.”
For similar reasons, I don’t think folks like this and this are living in the real world.
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