[238] in libertarians
seat belts, practicality, the Constitution party, and Perspective
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (mjacknis@MIT.EDU)
Sun Sep 25 14:52:48 1994
From: mjacknis@MIT.EDU
Date: Sun, 25 Sep 1994 14:35:08 -0400
To: libertarians@MIT.EDU
Seat Belt Laws:
I realize that seat belt laws are contrary to the philosophy of
individualism, but I think we have to be REASONABLE and PRACTICAL in
what we as Libertarians target. I think we should have higher
priorities than criticizing these laws, since it is difficult to explain
to the masses why we are against them. At the moment, we appear to have
a random and crazy outlook to those who don't yet understand our
philosophy, and we have to start out by pushing reforms that would have
practical benefit (such as canceling minimum wage & drug laws, etc.)
We have to EXPLAIN clearly why these reforms would work... and prove our
points using SIMPLE arguments. T-shirts against seat belt laws just
confuse the issue to those less informed by presenting information in an
illogically ordered fashion. That approach hurts our cause.
Think from the point of view of an uninformed simple-minded person, and
you will realize that the Libertarian campaign needs to be rewritten and
simplified to be effective.
the Constitution Party:
It sounds like they have a good idea... I think the Libertarians and the
Constitution party should run the same presidential candidate. Let's be
practical... to move in the direction of Libertarianism we have to take
one step at a time. It took 200 years of evolution to digress from the
Constitution; we will have to be patient in working our way back. As
long as the two parties have similar views, we should temporarily
overlook the details, because the details won't matter for a while.
Perspective:
It is interesting that Harvard's "Liberal" monthly, Perspective, has an
article advocating privatized schooling... p. 18. They also have a paid
advertisement against drug laws, p. 5.
Mike
