Real people battle with the real problems, which they confront in the real world. The libertarians dwell in an abstract reality where they contemplate an idealistic society. The gap between the political opinions of the real people and the libertarians is unbridgeable. The politics of the real people is focused on resolving short-term political concerns, because they fear that if these concerns are not addressed their life will become much harder. The libertarians, in their abstract world, tend to focus on long-term plans which are utopian: having a stateless society, a global free market, a world free of wars. These utopian plans are unachievable. Some libertarians might have good intentions, but the character of their intentions is irrelevant to the real people who want concrete and workable solutions to their problems.
2 comments:
I think that you are right in that many libertarians advocate positions that seem utopian, in that it their implementation would require that special privileges for certain pressure groups, enacted through (for example) the liberal welfare state would no longer be allowed in the proposed libertarian society. Other political persuasions (liberal, conservative, socialist) also favor certain privileges, to the detriment of others (as those not in power. stridently point-out).
Conservatives (broadly speaking) are not so quite doctrinaire as are most libertarians and Objectivists. An examination of positions advocated by the writers in National Review, especially in its early years (1955-1965) advocated for socioeconomic changes that were largely "forgotten" once they had a taste of power, such as the Reagan Administration.
@Jerry Biggers, You are right. The broader point is that the libertarian agenda can never be achieved. The idea that the entire world will be free and have a free market economy is not possible. There are multiple cultures in the world and each have their own system of evolution. By turning the aspects of liberty and free markets into a utopian notion, the libertarians have actually caused harm to the cause of liberty and free markets. They have made it more difficult to achieve these goals.
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