: : In my opinion, the root of statism is born out of a contempt for people and the belief that they are inherently bad, whereas libertarianism is a political-economic belief on the assumption that people are essentially good. : SDF: Propertarianism is a taboo upon sharing based on a contempt for other people and what they might do with things, based on the assumption that people are essentially bad.
I know a number of propietarians who donate generously.
None of the ones I know would appreciate the idea that
they are obliged to participate in a system of forced charity,
a contradiction in terms.
[snipped ad hominem, Fassbinders favorite tool of oppression.]
: : or despotism, begins with the presupposition that people are unfit to rule themselves,
[snipped non sequitur]
: : whether because of mass stupidy, immorality or whatever; and therefore need rules, regulations, bureaucrats and despots to be ruled by. Totalitarianism also believes that the interests of individuals are antagonistic when left to themselves and therefore need to be subjected to nationalistic objectives such as war.
: SDF: By this definition, the United States, which spends more than four times as much on its military than the second-largest military spending nation, is a totalitarian dictatorship.
That covers some of it, but not nearly all. This bureaucrazy
is also intent on the imposition of *their* morality in the
form of what each American is allowed to buy, eat, drink, shoot up,
etc. etc.
: : On the obverse side of the coin, classical liberals, libertarians and supporters of a free-market begin with the assumption that people are inherently good and are fit to be the sole arbitrators of their own lives.
: SDF: Based on the illusion of "every man a Robinson Crusoe," and ignoring the interdependencies that make up real-life society. People are not, never have been, and never will be the sole arbitrators of their own lives, they've always been and will always be hemmed in by social connections.
Fassbinder's society: We are all victims of each other now.
Don't do your thing. Always ask the all knowing and wise in power
and your neighbor before you take a crap. He might want to take
one with you. In any case, there's always someone around to
dis it, whatever "it" might be.
: :They believe that the individualistic interests of people are naturally compatible. Libertarians generally like people and think the best of them.
: SDF: A free-market system makes government into a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder. And if government is to produce a profit for those who put up the highest bid for its services, it must be coercive, preferably in the most totalitarian mode possible.
Bald assertion and full of sound and fury...also proving, in your case,
Sheldon's point.
