The Godtfather kører i fjernsynet og Michael har lige fået myrdet de andre mafiabosser i New York og har lige konfronteret Connies idiot af en mand Carlo, der snart bliver stranguleret i en kørende bil.
Today I settled all family business so don’t tell me that you’re innocent.
David Boaz, Cato Institutes Martin Ågerup, gør præcis det samme i det nyeste nummer af Cato Policy Report. Forsøger at få orden på tingene igen, altså. Myrder gør han dog ikke. Heldigvis.
It’s not only avowed critics of libertarianism who mischaracterize our ideas, but even some friends who offer a subtler critique. They are people who give an overly radical definition of libertarianism so that they can present themselves as the reasonable advocates of limited government, not the crazy libertarians.
Ayn Rands objektivistiske tilhængere er de første der — med rette — for klø for deres kritik af de klassisk liberale/the libertarians:
Rand condemned libertarians as “hippies of the right,” who lacked a sound philosophical foundation for their defense of capitalism and individual rights. But anyone who believes in individual rights, free enterprise, and strictly limited government—as Objectivists do—is a libertarian.
Lidt mere konkret bliver Boaz dog, når han bruger spalteplads på at mane ideen om, at libertarianere er imod love i jorden:
But libertarians believe in the centrality of law. As John Locke so memorably put it, “Where there is no Law, there is no Freedom.” It just isn’t accurate to say that you’re not a libertarian because you believe in liberty under law.
Og så kommer dundertalen ellers om, hvordan det hele hænger sammen:
Libertarianism is the view that each person has the right to live his life in any way he chooses so long as he respects the equal rights of others. Libertarians defend each person’s right to life, liberty, and property— rights that people have naturally, not as gifts from government. In the libertarian view, human relationships should be voluntary; the only actions that should be forbidden by law are those that involve the initiation of force against those who have not themselves used force—actions such as murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, and fraud. Legitimate governments act to protect us from others and do not themselves violate rights.
Libertarians believe in the presumption of liberty. In contemporary politics, they want to make government a lot smaller in order to expand the scope of human liberty.
We need to continue to work to correct the mischaracterizations of libertarianism presented by critics such as Dionne, Krauthammer, and Gerson. But it would also be useful if there were some agreement on terms, that a libertarian is someone who believes in liberty, not in chaos; in the rule of law, not in lawlessness; and in a voluntary social order, not in anomie and isolation.
Libertarianism is the heart and soul of the modern world. There’s no reason to run away from it.
