Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Somalia: Libertarian Paradise
The inimitable Andy Cobb is at it again, taking libertarians to task for their hatred of all things government. You know what has no government? Somalia. So Cobb and the Public Service Administration have made this video encouraging libertarians to vacation in the broken country maintained by "rational self interest and libertarian magic dust." Watch:
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2 comments:
Cute! But there is a difference between a libertarian and an anarchist. Libertarians advocate small government, anarchists advocate the abolition of all government.
As a Libertarian, I would go as far to say that I would prefer having too much government than no government at all. If I lived in Somalia, then I would be pushing for the formation of a national government.
Government is like food. It is necessary, but too much is bad for you. Not having any at all is even worse. Most Americans eat too much and have too much government.
Well, there are two camps in the libertarian movement, the anarchists (or anarcho-capitalists) and the minarchists. They believe heavily in the concepts of rule of law and free association above regulation and state-imposed mandates (e.g. taxes, selective service, regulations, drug control, etc.)
Somalia is a poor example of a libertarian paradise, but more an example of military-imposed corrupt rule that libertarians try to avoid. Perhaps a "Bush/Cheney Paradise" would be more appropriate.
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