What Libertarian government ever ruled on Earth???? What country was that again?

[devilgrrl]

How long were they in power for? And what have historians had to say about their society? Was it successful like they say it would be?

Golly, there are so many "libertarians" around you'd think they'd have a track record of their accomplishments. Looks great on paper though, don't it?

:sarcasm:

[Solo_in_MD]

1. Could much the same be said of Communism?

We keep getting told that *true* Communism has never been tried, that China, USSR, Cuba and others are not truly communist.

[devilgrrl]

8. We're talking about Libertarianism not communism. Quit trying to change the subject.

eom

[Solo_in_MD]

10. My point was that none of the fringe governmental systems have or could really be implemented

since they are impractical and make assumptions inconsistent with the real world.

[devilgrrl]

11. Understood.

eom

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. It was called the wild, wild west.

Libertarianism works when there is so much acreage and resources between neighbors, that everybody can be their own boss hog.

[Richard Steele]

9. Only if you get that unpleasant "genocide" business finished quickly and quietly enough.

If you can do that, PerfectLibertarianism™ can create the illusion
of a functional society for a generation or two...until the peasants
revolt.

And, G*D love 'em, they always do.

[Justitia]

3. Aren't "libertarians" just conservatives who like to smoke pot?

And read Ayn Rand while high?

}(

[EstimatedProphet]

4. Reading Ayn Rand straight takes enough time as it is

I can't picture reading that blowhard stoned, and taking 5-6 times the amount of subjective time to read her crap! Yuck!

[Marr]

7. Ayn Rand is for people who secretely believe themselves to be part of the "elite".

I read that in an interview with a comicbook writer of all things. I thought he about had it.

Every Ayn Rand fan I've ever known fell into one of two categories:

1) Upper middle class person who believes they're wealthy. Usually because everyone they know is lower middle class.

2) person who thinks they're soon *going to be* wealthy.

[piedmont]

12. No, that's Libertarians.

different from libertarians.

[devilgrrl]

13. Randites use crack cocaine...

Grover Norquist for example. :+

[zanne]

5. The country of "Me, Myself and I". nt

[guitar man]

6. It does look good on paper

Just like Marx's work did, it just doesn't quite work that way in the real world.I don't think verbatim Ayn Rand would be any better of a way to run a country that verbatim Karl Marx would be.

I have a bit of a libertarian bent myself, especially when it comes to personal freedom, not as much on the economic side, to the frustration of some of my libertarian friends.

The one thing they can never adequeately explain is how to keep the whole thing from devolving into a feudal state due to the effects of uncontrollable greed by the powerful.

[ourbluenation]

14. answer of course, is none. it's a nice idea to be totally free, but I for one

need some semblance of order to the thing, and guess what, that means my neighbor is not "free" to sell crack to me.

[Odin2005]

15. Libertarianism is based on obsolete, disproven notions of human nature.

Libertarianism is a mix of outdated notions of man as an entirely rational being and Kantian ethics. The first notion was overturned by Freud and Jung (the folks who pushed consumerism on American society back in the 1920s got thier notions straight from Freud). Kantian ethics is nonsense because it is full of logical contradictions that result into going back to the ends-based thinking (such as Utilitarianism) that Kant attacked.