tdh@frog.UUCP (T. Dave Hudson) (06/17/85)
I took a second look at Schwartz's article "Libertarianism: The Perversion of Liberty", in order to see if Stubblefield's following argument (upon which I have already commented) was contained within it (since I had not remembered seeing it) (I cleaned up the careless margins.): > Schwartz's whole article to this point has been illustrating > the theoretical argument that in the context of today's > culture a political MOVEMENT to promote liberty is doomed. > The theoretical argument is as follows: > 1. To defend the value of liberty, you must defend the > basic philosophical ideas on which it depends--to name a > few: in politics, individual rights; in ethics, selfishness; > in epistemology, reason; in metaphysics, reality. > 2. The success of a political movement is measured by its > popularity-- its ability to get its members'representatives > in office. > 3. The basic philosophy on which liberty depends is not > popular. > 4. To the extent that a political movement for liberty > becomes popular before the basic philosophical ideas on > which it is based are popular, it must hide its basic ideas > from its members or it must collaborate with those who hold > other basic philosophical ideas--i.e., ideas more consistent > with slavery than with freedom--ideas such as collectivism, > sacrifice, and irrationality. It wasn't. Part of point (1) was used as a premise for the published first segment. Point (4) was partially used, but not in the form of showing necessity, to show collaboration. I then skimmed the past 2 1/2 years of issues for articles that might have contained such an argument. I didn't see the argument in the few articles that might have been appropriate. So, assuming that I didn't goof in my search, I am left with two possible conclusions: 1) Stubblefield is arguing from imagination that such an argument appeared. 2) Schwartz is not only not a very good thinker, but also is an incompetent writer. That I have no previous evidence for, and much against. David Hudson