The War Liberal and I are now firing salvos back and forth. Here’s my response to “An open response to Trevor”. Mac’s (the War Liberal) in italics, in case you’re confused.
1. The claim that technology would have made slavery go away is a laugh — and an oh-so-typical Libertarian claim that the “market” will take care of any injustice. It reminds me of nothing so much as the Marxist claim that the state would wither away. There’s no evidence of it and in fact experience shows otherwise. It took almost a hundred years after the legal end of slavery in the United States for southern blacks to gain basic civil rights. Slavery still exists in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. The only technologies that ever did anything to end slavery were printing and the Springfield rifle.
I’m not famialiar with whatever Marxist claim you’re referring too. And I certainly won’t argue that it took a long time after the Civil War for blacks to gain their civil rights. Hell, they still get treated differently than whites.
As far as technology supplanting slavery, I think I have a valid point. Technology would have made it economically impossible for a Confederate States of America to compete against the Northern United States of America if the CSA had been allowed to secede. I realize it is easy to gloss over the fact that Northerners practiced slavery too, and so most people do. But slavery in the North was ending by itself, without a Civil War, due to social pressure and economic realities that included new technology.
Some have argued that the Civil War was actually the great turning point in enslaving all of us. I suppose that depends on your personal definition of slavery.
2. Another Libertarian problem is that they can’t seem to get their minds around the fact that just because an injustice will go away “someday” that actual human beings are suffering now. We have a duty as members of a society to fight injustice even if in a few generations that injustice will be gone. In the long run, we are all dead. (Ooh, I quoted Keynes at him. Now we’re really going to have a flamewar.)
We have a private duty to fight immorality. The federal government has no appropriate role in any such activities. I’m a transhumanist, so I don’t believe that in the long run, we’ll all die. I might die. Maybe. I don’t like to watch humans suffer, but I tend to tend to my own needs first.
3. Libertarians may be quarrelsome, but every one I’ve ever run across agrees on two central points:
* The Federal income tax is the worst thing ever.
* Guns are neat.
Very astute of you.
4. Seriously, the Libertarian obsession with the supposed horror of Federal government control has blinded them to the very basic and obvious fact that local authorities are at least as capable of oppressing their people as the central government. In fact, they’re usually more capable, because they can focus more closely upon individuals. Even with modern information technology, the 280 million people of the United States are pretty much an undifferentiated mass to the Feds, while local governments can focus and micromanage.
Local governments are also easier to fight or run away from. If you don’t like a local government, you have options. When the FedGov does turn lumberingly to focus on an individual citizen it’s like a big dumb mean kid with a magnifying glass burning an ant. The ant has very little chance. Hell, fleeing the country isn’t good enough anymore, if the FedGov decides you’re a bad man, you may find yourself hunted down in Borneo. Which is OK, when the FedGov is right. But the FedGov f**ks up a lot.
5. Similarly, Libertarians are (bizarrely) incapable of understanding that personal liberty depends upon a strong government, one that keeps the wealthy and powerful from exploiting the poor and weak. American history is rife with examples of individual citizens and corporations denying personal liberty to countless individuals. The checks and balances between the public and private sector are just as important as those between the branches of government.
I suggest you purchase and read the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers so we may continue our discussion with both parties appropriately armed. A strong central government always decreases the rights of individuals. While you’re waiting for your books to be delivered, find the nearest inner-city crack house to your geographical location and ask some of the addicts inside if they think our strong federal government is doing a good job of protecting the poor and the weak from the strong and the rich. I’m sure they will all agree that a strong federal government has vastly improved the quality of their lives. And I’ll bet that they too find us libertarians to be bizarre creatures.
6. This is my site, I’ll do what I want with it. Very Libertarian.
Got no argument with this.
Update: After reading my entry comparing the IRS to slavery, Mac claims he’ll ignore me from now on because I’m crazy. I’m not sure why Mac got all angry all of a sudden – perhaps he is offended that I want to keep my life’s work instead of being forced to share it while being told the whole process is voluntary. Maybe he is unware that if I refused to cooperate with the IRS I would have all my assets seized and end up in a fine federal penitentary, which is certainly a form of slavery. Or maybe Mac is just a fan of organized theft, as long as it is done by officials in bad suits. I guess I’ll never know since I’m crazy and he is ignoring me. Maybe I should just throw up my hands, starting watching sitcoms like everyone else and give up my dreams of smaller government.