Libertatianism says the best person will rise to the top, and most libertarians somewhere think that person's going to be them, and they really could just fix everything if they had the money.
Somewhat OT threadjack here, but this isn't really the impression I get from the Libertarians I know -- most Libertarians seem to be more of the mindset that any government is going to inevitably become corrupt and abusive, and the best thing you can do with it is give it as little power as possible, to limit the amount of fucking up it can do when it gets out of control.
Ironically I think most Libertarians hold a more optimistic view of human nature than I can bring myself to subscribe to -- the idea that humans, if left to their own devices without a government holding them in check, will treat each other well and make sensible decisions. History does not seem to bear this out.
More on topic, this whole discussion has reminded me all over again of the lack of democracies in spec fic, especially fantasy, and reminded me that I want to write one, someday.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2011-09-09 04:02 am (UTC)Somewhat OT threadjack here, but this isn't really the impression I get from the Libertarians I know -- most Libertarians seem to be more of the mindset that any government is going to inevitably become corrupt and abusive, and the best thing you can do with it is give it as little power as possible, to limit the amount of fucking up it can do when it gets out of control.
Ironically I think most Libertarians hold a more optimistic view of human nature than I can bring myself to subscribe to -- the idea that humans, if left to their own devices without a government holding them in check, will treat each other well and make sensible decisions. History does not seem to bear this out.
More on topic, this whole discussion has reminded me all over again of the lack of democracies in spec fic, especially fantasy, and reminded me that I want to write one, someday.