fagin@JI.BERKELEY.EDU (Barry S. Fagin) (03/25/87)
Robert H. writes: > Back to poli-sci... I think that this culture, that is, North > American, has generally agreed that a neighborhood should generally > have houses of equal worth. Since libertarianism denies this... I certainly do *not* deny it! I understand that for the most part most people in most cities in most states feel that houses in a neighborhood should have approximately equal value. This is a fact of life in America that we are both obviously aware of. I simply said that I believe that decision to be unjust, and gave my reasons why. The idea of criticising certain aspects of American life as unjust even though most people think otherwise can't be all that foreign to people out there. Consider a slight rephrasing and time change of the original quote: "I think that this culture, that is, the Old South, has generally agreed that the ownership of slaves is acceptable. Since abolitionism denies this, I expect that abolitionism is and shall remain, a theoretical concept only..." I think you would agree that there are fundamental principles that no society can justly betray. We simply disagree on what they are, and at what point we stop accepting the situation as a fact of life and start complaining that a situation is unjust. > ... I expect that libertarianism is > and shall remain, a theoretical concept only. Perhaps we should > move the main topic of this list away from libertarianism to > something a little bit more practical. Alas, I've been saying for months that libertarianism is quite practical. This touches on something that's been bothering me for a while. I'll post on it shortly. --Barry