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What does one mean by state? I'll try and play devil's advocate. Let's say I'm a fan of the state. Let’s say I’m a Statesman. This bears down to a few key points in ideology. To spare people from having to grind their gears I’m going to play a game of truth. Be honest...
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If something is owned, then by definition there is something external to it that is doing the owning. Likewise, something that is owned is by definition something external to the agent that owns it. Taking this very basic point into account, does it really make that much sense to think in terms of "self...
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"The government is necessary. The government is legitimate. Democracy is representative of the people. Democracy is the best form of government. Majority rule is legitimate. Checks and balances actually function. Voting is meaningful or even an obligation. We have a meaningful choice between political...
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I've always been a stickler for the notion that objects are morally neutral. This notion usually comes to play in debates about gun prohibition, to counter people essentially claiming that guns are causal determinant for violence in and of themselves, but of course they truly aren't causal determinants...
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Conservatism is a defense of the existing order or past existing orders as "natural". Any potential alternative to the existing order or to the romantisized past order is immediately brushed aside as "unnatural" and "utopian" or "idealistic". In the conservative...
Posted to
Brainpolice
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Brainpolice
on
Wed, Jun 25 2008
Filed under:
Filed under: Determinism, Collectivism, Social Evolution, Equality, Philosophy, Human Nature, conservatism, History, Vulgar Libertarianism, Marxism
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I'd like to explain why I think that traditional judeo-christian morality does not synch up very well with the principles of liberty and does not provide a beneficial cultural framework for a free society. In many ways, I'm not going to be saying anything particularly new here, as this criticism...
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Walter Block recently wrote an article at LewRockwell.com on the topic of religion and state. He critisizes what he considers to be an irrational hatred of religion that many libertarians have apparently inherented from Ayn Rand. While he is an atheist himself, he defends the premise that religion is...
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I was having a bit of a debate with an Objectivist and we got into some questions about morality and rationality. It related to the question of suicide, and I maintained that suicide is irrational but not immoral and that the individual has the liberty to commit such an irrational act. The Objectivist...
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Theism is not the only kind of mysticism. Collectivist and political ideologies are also forms of mysticism. The nature of politics involves blind faith in a "highest essence". The abstractions of these "highest essences" function as arbitrary authorities to appeal to. The most common...
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Conflict between the socialist oriented and market oriented camps within anarchism can get very tedious. Many anarcho-communists and anarcho-syndicalists appear to emphatically claim that market anarchism isn't truly anarchism, that opposition to private property and capitalism is a requirement for...
Posted to
Brainpolice
by
Brainpolice
on
Mon, May 5 2008
Filed under:
Filed under: Anarchism, Competition, Subjective Value, Capitalism, Socialism, Economics, Philosophy, Free Association, Labor, History
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It is common for many libertarians, especially those in America, to assume that they have a natural alliance with "the right". This is based on certain assumptions, such as the notion that contemporary libertarianism grew out of the old American conservative movement and that "the right"...
Posted to
Brainpolice
by
Brainpolice
on
Fri, Apr 25 2008
Filed under:
Filed under: Racism, Collectivism, Religion, Capitalism, Socialism, Libertarianism, Economics, Philosophy, conservatism, Corporatism, liberalism, Nationalism, History
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So I put together some relatively witty definitions of my terms. If you're not offended by at least one of these, then you are awesome! Constitutionalism - The belief that a piece of paper drafted and signed by a tiny aristocracy of men is a legitimate perpetual contract that makes the government...
Posted to
Brainpolice
by
Brainpolice
on
Fri, Apr 18 2008
Filed under:
Filed under: Anarchism, Objectivism, Minarchism, Non-Aggression Axoim, Racism, Collectivism, Democracy, Altruism, War, Constitution, Social Contract, Religion, Libertarianism, Economics, Philosophy, Thomas Hobbes, conservatism, Environmentalism
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Political philosophies often involve views of history. There seems to be two fundamental views of history, as I have touched on in " Traditionalism as Stagnation " and " Radicalism and Moderation ". These two views are what I would call the "conservative" and "progressive"...
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An atheist criticism of contemporary secularism Most atheists and agnostics still have a religious mindset, only they have replaced the formal concept of a god with other concepts. In the absence of faith in an all-knowing and all-loving god outside of the universe, they have substituted faith in other...
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Clearly, conservatism and liberalism have become anti-concepts, devoid of any objective meaning. They used to have fairly clear definitions, but now they are meaningless terms that change with the context and times at the drop of a hat. The people refering to themselves as "conservatives" don't...