Pages

Saturday 1 January 2011

WERE THE FOUNDING FATHERS LIBERTARIANS?










STORMBRINGER presents David Frum's excellent three-part series on the political philosophies and sentiments of the Founding Fathers.












Let me toss in my 5 cents worth on the question of whether the Founders were “libertarians.”

This seems to me a question approximately as meaningful as asking whether the Founders would have preferred Macs or PCs: it exports back into the past an entirely alien mental category.

Libertarianism fuses two ideas, one political, one psychological. The political idea is that the central state should be confined within the narrowest possible limits. The psychological idea is that each person should enjoy the widest possible scope to live as he or she thinks best.

Libertarians see these two ideas as very consistent. But . . .

. . . back in the 18th century, each on its own would have been inaccessible, never mind both together.



Read the rest of this incredible piece in its entirety HERE

3 comments:

JP said...

true libertarianism is very much like true communism. They never work in the real world we live in. Of course, of the two libertarianism is by far the better of the two. The problem is some grade A ass (or asses) will take advantage of the system and ruin it for everyone. At least you are able to have more fun under libertarianism.

RRR said...

From is seemingly a total idiot!

He bends over backwards to tie these four items as proof Libertiarian ideals could not have been present.;
* Latinity
* Calvinism
* material scarcity and
* slaveholding

Reading and writing, religion, not having much around and owning slaves.

Me thinks his eyes are brown because he is full of S***!

Minicapt said...

Macs, except to Thomas Jefferson who always wanted to be different. As a Virginian, he also aspired to be in the Top 72. George Washington was ambivalent as long as he could play Bejewelled 2 + Blitz. Ben Franklin wanted an iPad, but only if it had HandWriting Recognition built-in. Madison was in the corner with John Adams, sampling the Sam Adams. The beers was deemed acceptable, but both were still unhappy that Montgomery's failure had meant that Molson was still Canadian.

Cheers