printFrom “Libertarianism Lite,” on WND.COM: “A certain establishment-endorsed libertarianism is currently being touted on the Fox News and Business channels as the only legitimate brand of libertarianism. This life-style libertarianism, or libertarianism-lite, as I call it, tends to conflate libertinism with liberty, and appeals to hippies of all ages, provided they remain juveniles forever.
As I noted, when defending Ron Paul, in 2008, from attacks by the same libertarians,
Beltway libertarians … are moved in mysterious ways by gaping borders, gay marriage, multiculturalism, cloning, and all else “cool and cosmopolitan.” Judging by Reason Magazine’s “35 Heroes of Freedom,” “cool and cosmopolitan” encompasses William Burroughs, a drug addled, Beat-Generation wife killer, whose “work is mostly gibberish and his literary influence baleful.” … Madonna Reason has exalted for, as they put it, leading “MTV’s glorious parade of freaks, gender-benders, and weirdos who helped broaden the palette of acceptable cultural identities and destroy whatever vestiges of repressive mainstream sensibilities still remained.” That sounds like the unscrambled, strange dialect spoken by a professor of Women’s and Gender Studies. [Or is it “Wimmin’s Studies”?]
Much as the Left does, libertarians-lite divine, in the country’s founding documents, all kinds of exhortations to let it all hang out. …”
The complete column is “Libertarianism Lite,” now on WND.COM.
UPDATE (July 9): SMALL L, PLEASE. Guys: We’re talking small “l” libertarianism. Capital “L” Libertarainism refers to the Libertarian political Party.
My new book, “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa,” is available from Amazon.
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Man up!
I don’t realy understand libertarianism as it is practiced or advocated by people like Ilana Mercer. As best as I can call it it’s a matter of doing what you pretty well please and allowing your neighbors to do the same as long as neither you nor your neighbors enter someone else’s space. Probably a good approach to things but maybe a little too simplistic in a complicated world. Like every other non-mainstream idea the ill informed and self important kooks take it and run with it to the detriment of the original premise. I don’t totally understand or agree with it but if Ilana is for it I at least give it credit for being a viable idea. So who knows what the half educated nuts of our culture will do with libertarianism or any other “ism” their fevered, trendy little brains attempt.
Just started to read Into the Cannibal’s Pot, and was struck by the statistics of crime after the “change”. I fear it will be a preview of what is coming here. Hope to get deeper into it today. Fascinating to say the least.
Ilana, Today, your WND column has hit the proverbial nail on the head.
Discriminating taste & manners requires and stimulates much more reasoned thought than overt displays of libertine sexual acts and copious ingestion of mind-numbing
beverages, inhalation of organic substances, and injection of chemical compounds. The individual’s choice is, indeed, an internal mental one.
And yet, just today, California is beginning a college sexual orientation choice of male, female, transgendered dorm / room-mate selection process and will soon require, I believe I heard correctly, that history books provide information about the sexual orientation of historical figures…starting in elementary schools(?).
This is, in my opinion, INSANITY being forced into the minds of children and the creation of MORE subsets of special laws and group privileges. Thus, politicians, bureaucrats, societal parasites, and busy-bodies will rule and eventually crush all who oppose them. MADNESS!
Mirror, mirror on the wall. Whose the most libertarian of them all?
To adopt a “life is complicated” point of view is to lick the boot of tyranny. A more complex society is not in need of a bigger bully to keep order. Ilana, once again you help crystallize my thinking in many areas concerning this “Libertarian Lite” scourge upon the landscape. I’m Currently reading your EXCELLENT “Into the Cannibal’s Pot”. Your native South African experience is a serious warning to the West’s cultural destruction on the mantle of “multiculturalism”. Look forward to getting you on the show for a discussion.
[Yes, Bill, I hope to come on for a few segments. The book is so wide-ranging. Let me know your initial focus via email. You are one of the most intelligent interviewers out there.]
@ James huggins on 07.08.11 4:46 am – in it’s complete form, it would not be “too simplistic” – each individual’s right of discrimination would tend to regulate the community.
For example, if someone engaged in behavior that’s disruptive to his neighbors, then they will shun him, not buy his products or sell food/clothing/supplies to him…eventually he would have to either stop or move somewhere else.
Hello Abelard…
I think you are the only one who can answer your question so that the answer will satisfy your intellectual curiosity.
I do suggest that you will have to read a lot of books and authors – not just libertarian ones – and visit with a lot of people to converse about things as well as research websites described as libertarian, objectivist, etc. Reading Ilana’s site and participating in submitting your comments is a great step towards getting your answer.
With my utmost respect for you, Ilana, I think being a “libertarian” today is a bit like being a Methodist; you can pretty much believe in anything you want and still be a “member”.
I’m still not real sure of all the ins and outs of being a libertarian other than I won’t bother you so you stay out of my space and I will stay out of yours. I’ve always pretty well thought that way myself, so maybe I’m a closet libertarian and don’t know it.
[You said it; that’s all there is to it. You are one, just not the lite kind of libertarian.—IM]
Since some of you have taken the opportunity to mention “Into The Cannibal’s Pot” while commenting on this particular post I would like to add my 2 cents. I have read the book and find it to be excellent in all respects. Ilana has a heart for this particular subject and wrote what was badly needed to be written. She will get no awards for this work. Not because of a lack of excellence but because she touches a raw nerve in our culture. Good work Mercer.
One of the best examples of libertinism being mixed up with Classical Liberalism is Bill Maher’s characterization of himself as a “libertarian” which basically meant that he wanted his sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll. As you point out, the lifestyle brand does not challenge the state in terms of taxation, economic regulation, and warmaking – e.g. the welfare warfare Leviathan.
However, because lifestyle is the responsibility of the (adult) individual, it is permitted by Classical Liberalism, properly practiced.
Probably redundant; however, the way I see Libertarianism [sic] is that there should not be laws restraining a person’s private liberty. An example being that I should be able to go to a pharmacy and obtain a medicine for a common malady without having to get a doctor’s permission. However, Libertarianism sings the virtue of someday a doper can toke a joint in public. Open borders libs, miss colonization for diversity. In other words, ‘Lites’ have no real substance.
“SMALL L, PLEASE. Guys: We’re talking small “l” libertarianism. Capital “L” Libertarainism refers to the Libertarian political Party.” Sorry, weren’t thinking, no excuse. Further correction- “libertarianism lite sings the virtue of someday a doper can toke a joint in public.”