Re: Information sheet thingie
George J. Lee (gjlee@uclink4.berkeley.edu)
18 Dec 1997 13:13:39 -0800
schoen@uclink4.Berkeley.EDU (Seth David Schoen) writes:
> >More books - Bergland and Browne are the most common recommendations
> >for "I know nothing about Libertarianism, and I want to know about
> >it." If there's a book that more closely matches the moral rather
> >than economic arguments against government thatpeople in the club seem
> >to like better, I'l love to hear of it.
>
> I had some ideas, but I forgot them. I'll look again.
For people new to libertarianism, especially those on the left, I
highly recommend Ruwart's "Healing Our World". It makes both moral and
practical arguments with plenty of examples and facts. The book does a
great job of showing libertarianism in a positive light. It's very
persuasive and would appeal to liberals a lot more than the most other
books out there. There's a copy online at
http://www.cyberpop.com/ebooks/ruwart/ruhomeframeset.html. Basically,
the moral argument is something like, "If you can force other people
to do what you want, they can force you to do what they want and
everyone is worse off." In my opinion, this is the best introductory
book on libertarianism out there. (Interestingly, it doesn't mention
the word "libertarian" until the last chapter. It refers to the
philosophy as "non-aggression". I guess "non-aggression" has a more
positive connotation than "libertarianism".)
--
George J. Lee
"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. Like fire,
it is a dangerous servant and a fearsome master." --George Washington