Re: Operation Politically Homeless

Seth David Schoen (schoen@uclink4.Berkeley.EDU)
5 Dec 1997 23:48:19 GMT 

George J. Lee writes:

>schoen@uclink4.Berkeley.EDU (Seth David Schoen) writes:
>
>> I'd be glad to participate in an Operation Politically Homeless as long as
>> it's not too manipulative.  (Is there anything a little more direct and
>> a little less rosy than the WSPQ?)
>
>I understand what you're saying, but I think it's a good approach. I
>don't think it's manipulative. The WSPQ helps us identify potential
>members quickly in a fun way. The idea is to get people's attention
>first. If they're interested in libertarianism, then we can get
>serious. For those who don't agree with us, at least they get a good
>impression of us.

Here are two parodies of the WSPQ from links from Mike Huben's "Critiques
of Libertarianism" site.

1)

  Personal:
  
     * The military should not be allowed to draft soldiers, even in
       times of national emergency.
     * Government should not restrict the flow of pornography across the
       airwaves and internet.
     * Prostitutes are entrepreneurs. Don't legally restrict their trade.
     * PCP and heroin should be legal.
     * Let impoverished foreigners compete for our jobs.
       
  Economic:
  
     * Government should not help industries or farms at risk of failure.
     * We are better off when our products are in free competition with
       those made by foreigners earning only a small fraction of our
       wages.
     * Employers should be allowed to pay people as little as they can.
     * If people need help from a government program, let them pay for it.
     * Our government should not support struggling democracies, but rich
       individuals and corporations can support rebels who would
       overthrow these democracies.
       
2)

The Claims

    1. Democracy is just an euphemism for mob rule, where two lions and a
       sheep vote on the dinner, and there should instead be as few laws
       as possible to emphasize individual reponsibility and freedom to
       make contracts. Today's political system is completely the
       opposite, and we should return to the less oppressive system that
       existed about a century ago.
    2. The laws of minimum hygiene, approved medicine and occupational
       safety are nothing but ways for the intrusive government to
       regulate free trade and individual liberty, and should thus all be
       repealed.
    3. It should be legal for an employer to inform an employee that s/he
       can freely choose either to give sexual favours or to be fired.
    4. Anyone, regardless of their mental stability and abilities, should
       be allowed to own and carry as much firepower as they want. More
       generally, the whole concept of "mental illness" is nothing but a
       statist lie created to enslave certain people, and everyone should
       have the same rights and responsibilities no matter what someone
       else may think of his or her psyche.
    5. There should be no zoning laws. Anyone should instead be able to
       build a smelly slaughterhouse in their own land in the middle of a
       suburb, provided, of course, that no toxic emissions are spread
       into other people's property without their consent. If someone did
       not accept the aesthetical value of a building/landfill/etc. they
       could always move out or boycott the products and services made
       there.
    6. The TV networks should be able to air "The Running Man"-style
       gameshows where volunteer contestants fight each other to death.
       More generally, anyone should be able to sign a contract to give
       someone else the right to kill, maim or own him/her as a slave.
       Presenting a contract where someone agreed to duel you to death
       should free you of all legal charges of killing him, at least if
       the corpse had a gun in his hand.
    7. People should have the right to discriminate others based on race,
       so that e.g. bus companies could make the blacks ride in the back
       of the bus, a storeowner would not have to let gays in etc. After
       all, the minority that is discriminated against can always move
       out or start their own bus lines and stores.
    8. Monopolies, if formed in the free market without government
       intervention, have gained that position because of their
       unbeatable efficiency, so the consumer is best served if the
       monopoly is allowed to control the market and prices.
    9. People should be allowed to freely decide for themselves which
       chemical substances they want inside their bodies, no matter if it
       is because they enjoy their effects or if they are paid money to
       test their harmfulness, as long as they do it voluntarily.
   10. Certain professions, like that of a medical doctor or a legal
       attorney, should not be regulated with silly rules like that the
       practitioners need a certain degree given by some small set of
       elitist educational institutions. People should be able to decide
       for themselves whose counseling they want in the matters of health
       and law, because of course everyone should e.g. be able to tell
       from a diploma whether someone has got any real expertise in the
       field. If a patient did not heal or a court case was lost, the
       disappointed client could next time use a different doctor or
       attorney. This would weed out the incompetent practitioners in the
       long run.
   11. Trading on the basis of valuable knowledge, like "insider trading"
       in stock market, should not be illegal.
   12. Everyone should have the right to proclaim that they are Jesus,
       gather a group of followers around them and constantly emphasize
       that anyone who wants to leave will end up in hell forever, live
       in isolation from the outside world that is under "Satan's rule",
       and finally commit a mass suicide, as long as no-one was coerced
       into joining the group.

So, in any case, there are different ways of phrasing things, and the WSPQ,
in my opinion, does tend to try to draw people toward a libertarian view
on an issue.

I want people to think about libertarianism rather than just laughing at it,
but I don't want to hide that life would probably be very different without
any government coercion.  These parodies exaggerate things -- but so does
the WSPQ!
       
>> I'm still interested in organizing some kind of debates with non-libertarian
>> groups.  I think that would be a good thing.
>
>That would be great. We should try to contact some other groups and
>see if they're interested.

I used to have lots of ideas on that front, but now I don't remember all of
them.  But I'll try to talk about that next semester.

-- 
   Seth David Schoen L&S '01 (undeclared) / schoen@uclink4.berkeley.edu
Magna dis immortalibus habenda est atque huic ipsi Iovi Statori, antiquissimo
custodi huius urbis, gratia, quod hanc tam taetram, tam horribilem tamque
infestam rei publicae pestem totiens iam effugimus.  -- Cicero, in Catilinam I