(2002-10-15) Brin Libertarian

In July'02 David Brin gave a keynote at the Libertarian Party convention. He refers to his position as "Cheerful Libertarianism". Highly recommended. Includes many references to his Fundamental Questions survey. Market-s do not arise out of Natural Law. If they did, there would have been more markets in the past. I'd rather look at markets in a completely different way - as ingenious human constructs. The modern market is a magnificent hand-crafted, opportunity-generating machine!... It is the proper role of libertarianism to oppose government regulation and meddlesome Complexity! I'm not saying you should abandon this role. But it should be in a spirit of leadership... even cheerful competitiveness, offering a better way to solve what the people see as problems. Your resistance ought to show the way toward something better... not the glowering temper of a sullen teen, who hates all rules simply because they are rules... When it comes to imposing or eliminating government regulation, which of the major parties is the "lesser of evils"? We are used to the cliché that "Democrats favor freedom in the bedroom while Republicans favor freedom in the boardroom." But look over the last 30 years. How many industries have been deregulated to a degree that's more than cosmetic? I count trucking, banking, real estate, telecommunications, airlines and parcel post. And the "industry" of the Welfare Program. Now ask, how many or these major steps were taken as Republican Party initiatives and how many Democratic Party?... Despite a million Utop Ian promises, each dogmatic prescription failed us, just as badly as all the kings and priests failed us in prior eras. Moreover, recent advances in anthropology, neuroscience, and Complexity Theory converge toward one conclusion; even the most compelling ideological description can never encompass the range of Emergent and often contradictory qualities contained in a single human being, let alone whole societies. As models, they are at best crude trend-indicators. At worst, they are hypnotic lies... Consider instead the possibility that your fellow citizens have been doing pretty damned well with the crude tools at hand. Rising up out of the Cro Magnon ooze, then shrugging off the tyranny of chiefs and kings and priests and magicians and clerks and robbers of all kinds, they have somehow managed to build the first Civilization that raised millions of... libertarians!