Political Theory

Re: How long have you been libertarian?

Aristotle100 — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:37:36 GMT

Cato Institute conferences?!? Nurse, get this man 1 week of Mises U., stat!

lol I agree and I would love to go to Mises. However I don't go down south almost ever and I have a guaranteed trip to DC every year and Cato is all I have. Don't get me wrong though I know damn well Mises kicks Cato's ass.

Re: How long have you been libertarian?

macsnafu — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:55:07 GMT

I first discovered libertarianism back in 1990. That's when I read Ayn Rand's "For The New Intellectual". I went Ancap around '97 or '98.

Re: How long have you been libertarian?

CShirk — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:30:14 GMT

Philosophically, I've been a libertarian since about the time I took my first course in Microeconomics at GMU, which was heavily Austrian. Politically, I've been a libertarian since about a year and a half ago when I learned that there were more political choices possible than just "Republican or Democrat", even though I really couldn't tell the difference between the two. I learned about the LvMI about the same time, amongst other things, and started poking around looking at articles and stuff. Got really hooked into it over the summer and fall.

Re: How long have you been libertarian?

shazam — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:48:22 GMT

I have been more or less a libertarian for my entire life interested in policy. However, I hadn't really gone into the depths of libertarian thought (i.e. Austrianism, anarcho-capitalism, etc.) until the past year.

Re: How long have you been libertarian?

maxpot46 — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:43:47 GMT

Aristotle100:
I mainly go so I can attend speeches and conferences at the Cato Institute.

Cato Institute conferences?!? Nurse, get this man 1 week of Mises U., stat!

Re: How long have you been libertarian?

Aristotle100 — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:33:52 GMT

I read Ayn Rand back when I was 15 in high school. I wasen't in the honors class but the same teacher taught both honors AP and the regular college prep classes. She new my political views and my personal views on religion, egoism and such. I had yet to find a philosophy/philosopher that reall spoke to me other than Aristotle. She recommended I read The Fountainhead, the book she was giving the honors students to read. I read it, loved it and picked up everything she wrote. I then discovered the Austrian School when I was about 18 or so, same with Milton Friedman. I go to DC every year for the Model NATO conference in which I participate. I mainly go so I can attend speeches and conferences at the Cato Institute. So I've been libertarian/pro-free market since I was about 15 or 16. I'm 22 now.

Re: How long have you been libertarian?

Spideynw — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 04:55:21 GMT

I became pro free-market about three years ago. Right now I am a minarchist.

Re: How long have you been libertarian?

nhaag — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:30:02 GMT

All my life. In between I thought I was a christian fundamentalist, zionist, socialist, liberal, statist, pot smoker, sexist ...[put your favorite ..ist in here]

What I want to say with this is, that you find new concepts on your way through life and all of them seem to be kind of attractive and make sense, on the first glance, but basically you find in all of them some contradiction that thrusts you toward another system. This is called life and learning i suppose. Until you start asking one simple question "qui bono", hence the question is simple but the answer might be very hard to catch.

Re: How long have you been libertarian?

Jon Irenicus — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:30:37 GMT

It doesn't. Austrian Economics is adhered to by persons ranging from anarcho-capitalist to centre-right conservatives. The Austrian School does have its own political economy/philosophy, though, which is decidedly libertarian, and flows in the natural rights direction.

-Jon

Re: How long have you been libertarian?

JAlanKatz — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:29:25 GMT

JonBostwick:
No, it vindicates (natural rights) morality as the supreme form of rationalism.

Why should a theory of positive economics imply any moral theory, persay?

Re: How long have you been libertarian?

Stanislaw — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:20:27 GMT

BWF89:

Can someone be an anarcho-capitalist and not an Austrian?

Sure you can, neoclassical an-caps such as Bryan Caplan or David Friedman do exist. It's pretty funny though, to see how they argue for an-capitalism with all those indifference curves, equilibrium maximalisation of utility and stuff like that :)

Re: How long have you been libertarian?

Bostwick — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:35:18 GMT

Ego:

Doesn't the Austrian school imply utilitarianism?

No, it vindicates (natural rights) morality as the supreme form of rationalism.

Re: How long have you been libertarian?

Nitroadict — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:16:51 GMT

liberty student:

I know I have written that I am a minarchist flirting with anarcho-capitalism, but to be honest this forum has given me a lot of new perspectives in the last week or so.

I think ultimately, I might settle in as a Radical Marxist Capitalist Objectivist, or a New Right Libertarian Quasi-Fundamentalist.

Or maybe I'm just kidding myself and I am a Rothbardian Misesian Hayekian Sapien.

Is Radical Marxist Capitalist Objectivist even possible? The only scenario I could imagine would be a clone spliced from Marx & Rand's genomes. What has science done????!!?!?!

Re: How long have you been libertarian?

liberty student — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:52:35 GMT

I know I have written that I am a minarchist flirting with anarcho-capitalism, but to be honest this forum has given me a lot of new perspectives in the last week or so.

I think ultimately, I might settle in as a Radical Marxist Capitalist Objectivist, or a New Right Libertarian Quasi-Fundamentalist.

Or maybe I'm just kidding myself and I am a Rothbardian Misesian Hayekian Sapien.

Re: How long have you been libertarian?

Ego — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:46:21 GMT

You're right, I phrased that poorly; I guess I was trying to say that Austrians don't seem concerned with natural rights.

Keep in mind that I'm too lazy to read about anything, so I'm probably wrong! I didn't even know that anarcho-capitalism had a name until found it by accident on Wikipedia. It was reassuring to find that I wasn't the only one... I thought everyone was in favor of taxes!