General

Re: Libertarian Focus

A New Hope — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 00:33:34 GMT

I started a libertarian organization on my campus last year. We mostly read books and articles on various related topics, such as Austrian economics, and discuss them. We've converted several people who were just curious about libertarianism. Many students have told me that they are libertarians and interested in our organization, but only a dedicated few regularly show up at our meetings. Our student organization fair is coming up soon, so I hope to gain many new members and supporters of liberty.

Re: Libertarian Focus

Bert — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:28:17 GMT

You could always use various propaganda and staple LvMI and LRC fliers to telephone poles in downtown sections, bumper stickers, etc.

Re: Libertarian Focus

Jeremiah Dyke — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:24:45 GMT

One possibility is to increase the traffic to our fourms. At 20,000 individuals (whereas we only had 4,000 in 2008) we are really growing but it would be great to concentrate our efforts on increasing our efforts. Does anyone have any advice for how i could go about directing traffic? I assume one possibility would simply be to hyperlink our blogs but what else?

Re: Libertarian Focus

Jeremiah Dyke — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:20:46 GMT

mgmcintyre:

When it comes to the general public, all I do is "plant seeds." If you can interact with the same person repeatedly, multiple "seeds" have a powerful effect .... and the poor victim never realizes he is being converted =).

Kudos. I think this is a great approach!

Re: Libertarian Focus

mgmcintyre — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:39:32 GMT

As far as converting people, I focus mainly on the general public. I don't particularly care about subtle differences in opinion among Libertarians, as we are already so far away from a Libertarian society these subtleties are of little relevance.

The only exception to this (in my opinion) is the common feeling among Libertarians that political activism and 'working-within-the-system' are not effective. I like to think there are less-complete reforms which could be made that would get us a lot closer to where we wanted to be (drug war, tax code, privatization, etc.)

When it comes to the general public, all I do is "plant seeds." If you can interact with the same person repeatedly, multiple "seeds" have a powerful effect .... and the poor victim never realizes he is being converted =).

Re: Libertarian Focus

mgmcintyre — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:20:30 GMT

Currently, I have been thinking a great deal about the viability of an an-cap society (faith recently shaken by watching the movie "Seven Samurai," which is in insta-watch on Netflix if you've got it).

Also, I'm writing an informal paper on the (austrian) economics of MMORPGs and developing a commodity based model for use in such projects (maybe i can get a cool job). I might post parts of the paper as I go in order to get feed back, if anyone else out there is as dork as me.

Here is the intro:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The fundamental element of any social or economic system is human action. Under conditions of scarcity, individuals face choices about how to employ scarce means to satisfy a multitude of ends. Thus any system (virtual or real) which is defined by human action under conditions of scarcity, must necessarily succumb to economic law.

Failure to acknowledge this fact, or to fully dissect its implications on the functioning of simulated economies, has lead to many unintended and undesirable consequences for designers of MMORPGs. These problems include, but are not limited to:

· Rampant price inflation in player to player trades.

· Rampant or uncontrollable economic growth leading to game-play imbalances.

· Currency collapse.

· Marginalization of NPC Merchants.

· Distortion of the value of fixed quest rewards and fixed prices.

· Unnecessary economic isolation of new or weak players.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the source of these (and other) problems and to develop the outline of a simple, virtual-economy which overcomes them. The model should be as simple as possible to allow maximum freedom for game-play considerations, while still achieving its goal of a stable economy. Also, it must provide a method for game-designers and game-masters to access and alter fundamental variables which describe the economy and to predict the outcome of any adjustments. Lastly, the model must be comprised of discrete, well-defined, elements which can easily be modeled in an object-oriented paradigm.

Re: Libertarian Focus

ricarpe — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:00:05 GMT

My short-term goal is to figure out which way I want to take my life professionally. I'm looking into grad programs, but I'm also trying to figure out which would lead to a more self-fulfulling career in addition to being profitable. Currently, I've been looking into two areas: an MBA specializing in Operational Research--which could allow me to venture out on my own to consult; or, find a position with a company--or going to law school and getting my Juris Doctorate--which could also allow me to work for myself or a law firm or company.

Re: Libertarian Focus

Marked — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:25:15 GMT

In the short term, I'm still focusing on ironing out any weak spots I have in debates.

Re: Libertarian Focus

ViennaSausage — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 07:03:24 GMT

Environmentalism.

Re: Libertarian Focus

Michelangelo — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 06:11:35 GMT

My short term goal for the time being is to increase interest in economics in my general community, i.e. my college campus. I would enjoy to stand on my little soap box and preach the benefits of libertarianism, but I aknowledge that the average person is still skeptical about economics as a science. I could still make the case for libertarianism on a purely philosophical basis, but I'm of the opinion that ultimately I'd sound like I was just making emotional arguments to outsiders; and I wouldn't want to copy the mainstream in doing that. So far in my head I have the rought sketch for founding a "Carl Menger Economics Club", but its still up the air.

In the short-short term, my goal is to finish all the Hayek books I keep putting off.

Re: Libertarian Focus

Jeremiah Dyke — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 05:03:03 GMT

Aside from continued reading and learning what goals do you have to spread our ideas? Is your concentration more on converting libertarians within the movment to embrace some other facet not yet fully embraced or are you looking more toward the general public or those on the margin of libertarinism? Whats some of your actions outside of reading an learning?

Re: Libertarian Focus

jmorris84 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:36:52 GMT

To be able to get my beliefs across in such a way that the person I am talking to gives it some thought or consideration themselves. Usually, when I get into a discussion, it turns into a debate where the person gets on the defensive and I often wonder if it was the way I approached the discussion or the way in which I presented my beliefs or thoughts. Had I been able to approach it in a different manor, maybe the other party would have been a little receptive. So this is my goal. I don't care to necessarily change someone elses beliefs but to be able to at least get them to consider it or think about it further. Every now and then I am successful in that and it is an extremely rewarding feeling, whether the person changed their way of thinking about a certain topic or not.

Re: Libertarian Focus

Libertyandlife — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:13:26 GMT

Finishing more Rothbard books. Conquering Human Action, or reading some mises. Talking about anarchist pluralism, and trying to get in touch with more an-caps in the real world.

Re: Libertarian Focus

pentahedron — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:12:11 GMT

I want to continue learning about austrian economics so I can hold my own here. Philosophy and ethics is also something i'm interested though right now there isn't really anything in that subject I want to focus on.

Re: Libertarian Focus

razerfish — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:10:18 GMT

Libertairian philosophy is a lot less interesting to me than the econ. stuff, but I'd probably like to learn more about how people see a Libertarian or Ancap society functioning. Then maybe read a few of the real classic works from the econ. giants that I've been holding off on like Mises Theory of Credit or Man of Action, a few of Hayek's works.