TO PARAPHRASE THE aphorism attributed to Leon Trotsky: You may not be interested in the culture war, but the culture war is interested in you. Just as ignoring the reality of war won't keep your house from being bombed, ignoring the culture war isn't going to obviate the threat it poses to individual liberty. As society and daily life become increasingly politicized, it is time for libertarians to accept that to preserve individual liberty, the government must affirmatively intervene in the culture war.
The use of government power can be liberty-enhancing-most obviously by restraining the exercise of government action through the rule of law and constitutional limits, but also by restraining private actors by protecting property rights against theft or vandalism, enforcing contracts, protecting against assault or other bodily harm, and other exercises of government power that restrict some people's freedom of action in order to enhance others'.
Libertarians, including myself, have traditionally navigated these competing rights claims through a simple and highly effective dichotomy oriented around property rights: The primary threat to freedom is the exercise of government (public) power, whereas the exercise of private power to exclude via property rights and freedom of contract is generally considered not only untroubling but actually freedom-enhancing. Moreover, asking government to do more (such as by limiting the power to exclude or freedom of contract) is fraught with the risk of unintended consequences of unleashing Leviathan.
In an ideal world-the world of the "first-best"-this public-private binary has much to commend it. The arbitrary exercise of private power will be checked by market forces and freedom of choice. Employers or restaurants that discriminate will find themselves bankrupted in competition with those that do not. Adapt or die.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 2023 من Reason magazine.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 2023 من Reason magazine.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
A Brief, Biased History of the Culture Wars
THE FIRST PAR AGR APH of the book jacket lays it out: “There is a common belief that we live in unprecedented times, that people are too sensitive today, that nobody objected to the actions of actors, comedians, and filmmakers in the past.
FAMILIES NEED A VIBE SHIFT
THE AUTHORS OF FOUR NEW BOOKSWITH 24 KIDS BETWEEN THEM-SAY THE AMERICAN FAMILY NEEDS A COURSE CORRECTION.
"The Past Is There To Teach Us What Can Happen'
Hardcore History's Dan Carlin on hero worship and moral assumptions in the study of the past
Cutting Off Israel
ENDING U.S. AID WOULD GIVE WASHINGTON LESS LEVERAGE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. THAT’S WHY IT’S WORTH DOING.
WHAT CAUSED THE D.C.CRIME WAVE?
GOVERNMENT MISMANAGEMENT, NOT SENTENCING REFORM OR SPARSE SOCIAL SPENDING, DESERVES THE BLAME.
GIMME SHELTER
THE U.S. CONFRONTS A GROWING HOMELESSNESS PROBLEM. DOES MIAMI HAVE THE ANSWER?
States Turn Their Backs on Criminal Justice Reform
IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE to avoid the “strange bedfellows” cliché when reading about the criminal justice reform movement in the 2010s.
Florida's Citrus Slaughter
MANY SOUTH FLORIDA residents remember with grief a day in the early ’00s when the government came for their citrus trees.
Q&A Bryan Caplan
BRYAN CAPLAN IS known for his unconventional approach to tackling big issues.
Republican Defenders of Abortion in Arizona
THOUGH STILL ON the books, Arizona’s near-total ban on abortion was buried deep in the state’s history—until recently.
