Re: organizing lessons for libertarians

Starchild wrote:

SC) that metaphor is not up to your usual standards (SC

"It's only a flesh wound!" said the Black Knight. :-)  If my metaphor weren't apt, you'd point out something that makes it inapplicable, instead of blatantly trying to appropriate it.

SC) This elevator's final destination is the ground floor. If you want to get off sooner than that, feel free to do so, but don't push the emergency stop button and prevent the car from continuing down. (SC

Nobody is arguing that we shouldn't make progress toward more freedom.  This clumsy strawman is a handy gauge of your unwillingness to grapple with the substance of our differences.  Another gauge is your dodging of my question:

BH)  Do you seriously claim that the way to maximize their unified political impact is to ask them to line up under a banner of personal secession, immediate non-enforcement of all tax laws, no default fines/regulations for pollution, privatization of all streets, and immediate unlimited immigration? (BH

SC) If you mean to ask, "Do you seriously claim that a radical movement for freedom could attract the support of the 13-20% of United Statians who favor more economic and personal freedom, even though they didn't agree with its ultimate goals?" my answer is absolutely yes. (SC

So is mine.  When I ask you a question, it's to explore our disagreements, not our agreements.  If you're so "uncompromising" and "unapologetic", then why do you flee from my question above?  That you don't reply "Hell yes!" is all the answer we really need.   The fundamental question here is: which is better for rallying lessarchists -- anarchism or minarchism?  It pretty much answers itself.

Attending a rally against the Iraq war -- a very explicit short-term goal -- isn't the same thing as joining (or voting for) one party over the alternatives.  Interestingly, the 2000/2004 elections were nearly a perfect natural experiment demonstrating that anti-war doesn't grow the LP: http://knowinghumans.net/2007/06/anti-war-doesnt-grow-lp.html.

The success of feminism and environmentalism has been in spite of their most radical advocates, not because of them.  As for wanting to organize the freedom movement like a religion, my only response is: can you please say that again into this tape recorder?  :-)

Bruce, Starchild is hardly a poison activist.  I wish every radical were as intelligent, civil, well-intentioned, intellectually honest, hard-working, and well-spoken as Starchild.