Thursday, December 11, 2008

Will Makes a Sound Point

Will W thinks about l'affaire Blago.

And cites Ed L as the voice of reason here. (Ed the voice of reason? Just THAT fact frightens me a little).

Will does pose the interesting question: do we need BETTER government, or LESS government? And would less government always, be definition, be better? (For what it is worth, even I think the answer to the last question is "no.")

I do not advocate ZERO government. But I do think less government IS better government, on most grounds. Drugs, war, privacy, ag subsidies....Stop it.

But, it is fair to interpret my earlier screed as a call for no government, even though I would not defend that position. I'm not sure this is really a fight worth having, though. We don't generally ask "liberals" what their nirvana would look like. We are satisfied with a direction: more government, more redistribution. The "Libertarian Vice" only exists because people look at the reductio ad absurdum version, not the direction.

Anyway, Will is, as always, worth reading in full.

UPDATE: I have no idea what I was doing with the all-caps words above. Sorry. And, Will's use of the word, "Neener" made me spit coffee. Nicely done, lad.

2 comments:

Tom said...

I'm for no government in the same way I'm no crime and no sickness. It's an ideal that I'm not likely to ever see.

Choosing a government solution to a social problem is (precisely) choosing to solve it using violence. Okay, maybe the problem is worse than the violent solution, but we need to come to the point where we admit to the failure and strive to do better.

If that's anarchism, sign me up.

custom written essay paper said...

Thank you for the article, is necessary for the education of our minds, hearts and ears!