Hello Ernie:
It looks as if you have not done your homework and instead believe the
soundbites you may have heard.
Paul pushes hard rhetorically because we have strayed so far from the
constitutional intent. Progressives have shifted the discourse so
completely that it will take revolutionary fervor to regain equilibrium.
Paul's actual positions reflect the balance between freedom and
responsibility you and I want.
You are employing a straw man fallacy by equating Paul's limited government,
maximum freedom position with a live in the woods anarchist position.
In any event, despite your objections, Paul is shaping the discourse. My
guess is he will eventually run as an Independent. I wrote this today:
http://www.examiner.com/independent-in-manchester/republican-party-needs-ron-paul-s-supporters
Kevin
Kevin,
I appreciate the attempt to help Billy like Ron Paul, but no fear you are
only making things worse...
Liberty built civilization. It can rebuild civilization.
Nice rhetoric. Very inspiring, clear and simple, which is undoubtedly a big
reason people love Ron Paul.
It is unfortunately false. And not just in a small way, but completely
backwards.
Civilization has been around for thousands of years, and the idea of liberty
at most a couple hundred. In fact your vision of liberty is far close to a
society of hunter-gatherers than to civilization as we know it.
In reality the foundation of civilization was and is the willingness to
*give up* personal freedom -- sometimes severely! -- for greater "freedom of
action" due to network effects, reciprocity, and externalities.
Liberty didn't create civilization. Civilization created liberty (and yes,
tyranny -- both are artifacts of -all- human systems).
Before that, there was only autonomy and self-sufficiency, which you can
still have if you live by yourself in the woods. Yet oddly I don't know any
Libertarians who actually values that liberty more than the comforts of
civilization -- even Ron Paul himself. Which makes his whole argument sound
like wanting all the benefits of civilization without having to understand,
much less pay, the true price -- yeah, the exact same thing they accuse
their opponents of. And both are right.
Unlike Billy, I can respect Ron Paul's personal integrity and valid
critiques. But I agree with Billy that his conceptual model of society is
the intellectual equivalent of believing in a Flat Earth. Or, ironically, a
fee lunch.
Liberty is important, but like happiness is best understood as a side-effect
or measure of a healthy system. Not the *basis*.
E
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Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community
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Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
--
Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community
<[email protected]>
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism
Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
