Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Tom Palmer has new anthology, "Why Liberty"
Author (editor): Tom G. Palmer
Title: “Why Liberty: Your Life, Choices, Your Future”
Publication: 2013, by Jameson Books, Atlas and Students for
Liberty; ISBN 978-0-89803-172-0, 143 pages, paper, indexed, A Preface and
twelve essays.
Mr. Palmer is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, and is
Executive Vice President for international programs at the Atlas Network.
The book comprises essays by a number or authors : three by
Tom Palmer himself, as well as John Stossel (former ABC News producer and
reporter), Clark Ruper, James Padilioni, Jr., Alexander McCobin, Sarah Skwire.
Aaron Ross Powell, Olumayoma Okediran, Sloane Frost, and Lode Cossaer and
Martin Wegge (together).
A few high points need to be stressed. Tom Palmer’s “The History and Structure of
Libertarian Thought” talks about the “Libertarian Tripod”: individual rights,
spontaneous order, and constitutionally limited government. The idea of spontaneous order occurs with
social insects, and Palmer seems to have more confidence than some that it can
generate eusociality (see the concern by Charles Murray about social capital in
his “Coming Apart”, March 14, 2012 here).
The chapter “The Political Principles of Liberty” by McCobin
seems to get at the deepest controversy.
McCobin compares these to other political principles, which stress ideas
like “fraternalism” (or “fraternity”), the idea that people have an intrinsic
responsibility to provide for others outside of the scope of their own personal
choices or voluntary “contracts”; and “equal outcomes”. McCobin goes on to discuss the difference
between politics and ethics. McCobin
writes that the heart of ethical behavior is to act as if “you” respect the
other person as an independent moral agent. That sounds pretty much like the
“Golden Rule”.
People who are “different” (like me) often report that
others expect them to take responsibilities that they did not elect, and that
these responsibilities compete with or interfere with their own personal goals,
pursuing things that they are good at.
This may happen even though they think they are honest and ethical in
the narrower sense understood by libertarian.
They experience “coercion”, which
may be from the state (the military draft, previous anti-gay social policies),
from family or sometimes other agents like employers. Libertarians obviously focus on not letting
the state apply coercion in personal matters.
But libertarians may not want to interfere with the ability of families
or employers to implement their own notions, as they trust that a properly
functioning free market inhibits irrational discrimination. This often works, but in some areas,
“different” people find that they experience resentment or indignation from
others who claim that “the special” benefitted in the past from the unseen
sacrifices of others, who started farther back in line. Parents, when making wills, may want
unmarried or childless adult children to be prepared to help raise the children
of siblings or care for other family members, and could stipulate that in
wills, and libertarians would not interfere with estates. Libertarians might have an issue when
debating “filial responsibility laws” if
the result of such coercion is to save the taxpayer from supporting other
people’s elders (but you have the same concept with mandatory individual health
insurance under Obamacare). I think that
the ukase (or lack of ) to be prepared to take care of others when necessary
(and not just when you “choose” to have children) is a fundamental moral issue,
transcending ethics even as Palmer and McCobin describe it. .
Okediran (“Africa’s Promise of Liberty”) discusses
libertarian principles in more rural, primitive communities and maintains that
libertarianism can be commensurate with commutarianism, found in intentional
communities (with “income sharing”), which is not the same as communism.
Sloane Frost (“The Tangled Dynamics of State
Interventionism: The Case of Health Care”) gives the usual conservative
arguments against nationalized heath care and traces our current problems to
preferential tax treatment in the past to employer-sponsored health care with
pre-tax dollars.
Aaron Ross Powell introduces an interesting notion of
humility in politics with “The Humble Case for Liberty”.
Amazon does not have this book yet. There is a similarly titled book by Marc Guttman.
Students for Liberty has a site for it here. Palmer handed this out at a GLIL gathering
Sunday September 8, 2003.
The video above shows Palmer talking about an earlier book, “The
Morality of Capitalism:: What Professors Wont Tell You”.
This would be a good place to mention a pair of companion books by David Boaz from the Free Press in the 1990's, "Libertarianism: A Primer" and a companion "Libertarian Reader", a book of essays.
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