Oct
30
Posted on 10-30-2007 at 11:21am
Time Magazine Spells Out Libertarianism
Filed Under (Opinion, Government & Politics) by Katherine Coble on 10-30-2007

I’m a bit late to this party, but it seems that Time Magazine had an article about libertarians a few days ago.

I’ve now read it a couple of times, and I’m not quite sure what I think.

Libertarians and communitarians (to continue this unjustified generalizing) are different character types. Communitarians tend to be bossy, boring and self-important, if they’re not being oversweetened and touchy-feely. Libertarians, by contrast, are not the selfish monsters you might expect. They are earnest and impractical–eager to corner you with their plan for using old refrigerators to reverse global warming or solving the traffic mess by privatizing stoplights. And if you disagree, they’re fine with that. It’s a free country.

The chance of the two political parties realigning so conveniently is slim. But the party that does well in the future will be the one that makes the better guess about where to place its bets. My money’s on the libertarians.

I’m glad that Michael Kinsley thinks he’s got his fingers on the pulse of us libertarians. But I’ve never in my life thought we should privatise stoplights. I’m not even going to touch the analysis of communitarians.

(Hat Tip: Allen Co. LP Blog)

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Comments

Sarcastro on 30 October, 2007 at 11:27 am #

Time Magazine is always on the cutting edge of The New!

One step behind the Today Show and one step ahead of an Amish quilting circle in ciphering the latest trends and divining the national zeitgeist.


Number9 on 30 October, 2007 at 11:29 am #

What in the hell is a communitarian?

Second question, Michael Kinsley? Consider the source…


Jay on 30 October, 2007 at 11:45 am #

9-
I asked the same thing on VV and never got an answer. The best I could figure, it’s a new way of saying socialist, without saying socialist.


Eric on 30 October, 2007 at 1:57 pm #

What in the

[heck]

is a communitarian?

I was just about to ask the same thing.

But communitarian almost sounds like communist (or socialist as Jay says)


Southern Beale on 30 October, 2007 at 3:06 pm #

A communitarian is sort of the modern manifestation of a hippie .. someone who might, in the day, have lived on a commune or embraced the “communal” ideals that living in a commune represented. Note this is NOT “Communist,” which is an economic model. Rather, it’s valuing the ideals of “communal good.”

Communitarians tend to be bossy, boring and self-important, if they’re not being oversweetened and touchy-feely.

This may sound petty, but can we at least clarify that this piece in Time Magazine was not an article but an essay? That puts what some of us would regard as biased opinions like the one above in its proper perspective.

Just sayin’ ….


Jay on 30 October, 2007 at 3:07 pm #

This may sound petty, but can we at least clarify that this piece in Time Magazine was not an article but an essay? That puts what some of us would regard as biased opinions like the one above in its proper perspective.

Bossy.
;)