Don Boudreaux recently shared this video where he described why he is a libertarian. The strange thing is, I could have taken the words right out of his mouth for the things that have shaped my view of the world. The values of his parents seem very similar to the values of my parents, and of course what I've learned about market efficiency has shaped my world view too.
And yet I'm definitely not a libertarian (indeed, it's as I've grown up and put those values to work in my life, and it's as I've learned more economics that I've become less libertarian than I was, say, as a freshman in college). My parents certainly were never libertarians or particularly political either.
Which makes me think whatever it is that makes Don a libertarian is something else entirely. I'm not quite sure what it is though. I think the values he describes and the insights about markets he describes do undergird a worldview, but they undergird a much broader classical liberal worldview than just libertarianism. These sorts of things explain why Don and I (and many others) are in the liberal tradition. But lots of people are in the liberal tradition. What is it that makes Don a libertarian and me a somewhat-left-of-center neoliberal? I'm not quite sure, but I'm guessing very specific life experiences play a pretty big role in how our general structure of values (which Don describes here) get directed into a particular ideology.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
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I am getting annoyed at all these progressivetards, libertariantard, consevotards, libertards, communotards, and various other politotards boasting of their working class background.
ReplyDeleteEverybody came from a working class background in some point of their family. So did mine, so did anyone I know - even the wealthy ones. WHO. THE. HELL. CARES?
I tend to agree with you on the "working class" issue, but I think the major emphasis here was on the values - which of course sometimes come with the "working class" and sometimes don't - and can be instilled in a non-working class family too.
ReplyDeletePrateek, was it your parents who taught you to append "-tard" on people you hate, or is that your innovation this generation?
ReplyDeleteIt's just internet talk, no big deal.
ReplyDeleteI suspect it has a lot to do with lots of things; genetics, epigenetics, environment, etc. Could be that some day that the neuroscientists, etc. untangle all of that. Right now it is an unanswerable query that leads rather quickly to psycho-babble for the most part. Indeed, given that humans have so many areas of our own, hmm, "brain life" I guess, that humans have no or little control over and which are friendly to areas of action or thought that we would rather them not be, we can't even answer the question of ourselves, much less of someone else.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I think the key difference between a libertarian and you may be when you think it's appropriate to use force.
ReplyDelete"For the true conservative, all out-groups -- socialists, environmentalists, feminists, immigrants, unions, homosexuals -- are manifestations of the same phenomenon: losers try to cheat, trying to rig the system, to get what they couldn't win fair and square and don't deserve."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.grist.org/politics/2011-11-03-gop-brain-explained-cliff-stearns-wants-to-subsidize-companies
IB
http://www.reddit.com/r/CafeHayek/
Don agrees with economic models ("oh I understand why there were gas shortages!") fit his life experience but rejects those that dont. If a model doesnt align with his previous held views it is worthy of scorn (or if someone has had different life experiences that it doesnt make sense). I understand the fetish about "confirmation bias" at cafe hayek now.
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