I et interessant ind hos mit yndlingmagasin Reason fortæller Brian Doherty om, hvorfor New York City – i al sin kaos og dynamik – er et formidabelt udtryk for libertarianisme.
Men hvad kan man sige andet end, at byen har en stor grøn dame ved indsejlingen til sin havn, som holder frihedens flamme i sin ene hånd og i sin anden en tavle hvorpå datoen for stiftelsen af frihedens hjemland er påskrevet.
Iøvrigt: Happy 4th of JulyÂ
Her er et par udpluk:
[N]ew York also is the breeding ground for a unique and growing American political tendency — the modern American libertarian movement. It might seem ironic that a city that has been, at various times, one of the most overly governed and poorly governed of American cities should be a launching point for the political philosophy of strictly—sometimes totally—limited government. But it is, because of virtues that no amount of poor, local government can kill.
New York has the magnetic charisma to attract the young, the energetic, and the smart, and those who want to be a vital part of the world and who have the energy to change it. Mises at NYU drew the likes of Rothbard who wasn’t even seeking a degree there, his doctorate was from Columbia, and Israel Kirzner, an immigrant from England via South Africa who became a tenured economics professor at NYU.
But it is, and has always been, a place where you’ll witness the glory and the world-changing energy of building something new against great odds and with a winning assurance. So it’s not surprising that the founding fathers, and mother, of libertarianism considered it the only American city truly suitable for them.
In its concentration of grand human achievement, in its cosmopolitanism and grace, combined with a winning self-assured pugnaciousness, New York is the living embodiment of the openness, dynamism, and sheer human will that energizes the free markets that libertarians celebrate — and that makes New York the richest, biggest, wildest metropolis in human history.
