Cal Libertarians Information
Kevin Dempsey Peterson (peterson@autobahn.org)
1 Feb 98 05:16:16 GMT
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I've updated this for spring, and will start posting it regularly. When I
get the CGI script to add people to the list, this will be sent to
subscribers also. I'm thinking of posting every Sunday, with expiration
set to midnight of the next sunday. Anyone who feels inclined to write a
cron script to send this out from the callib@ocf account with correct
headers and all (I think you'll need to use sendmail) should let me know.
Anyone who thinks something should be changed (even little things) before
we start sending this out should reply so we can argue. Should I put up a
Word version to do nice printouts for flyers?
Cal Libertarians Information
This is a short information sheet about Cal Libertarians, a
libertarian student group at UC Berkeley. It is posted regularly to
the ucb.org.cal-libertarians and ucb.politics. Originally, we were
going to have a FAQ for the newsgroup, but there aren't any questions
asked frequently enough to qualify, so this will have to do. If you
received this message through email, it's because, a) you requested it,
b) someone messed up, c) we thought you'd like to know about it or d)
we're desperate for members and are spamming you.
Contents:
What is libertarianism?
Activities
Bureaucratic Stuff
Online Stuff
What is libertarianism?
Basically, libertarians want drastically less government in all
areas. Some argue that government doesn't work, some believe
that government has no moral justification for it's power, but
all agree that we have way to much of it right now.
Libertarians are opposed to government taking money from the
people in the form of taxes, because people can most often
better decide how they want that money spent, and in any case,
are the only ones entitled to make the decision. Libertarians
are also opposed to government limitations of liberties,
believing that there is no reason that government has any moral
jurisdiction to tell people how to live their lives.
Libertarians do not fit on the conventional right/left
political spectrum, but for issues, they will likely agree with
the left on issues of personal freedom (abortion, free speech,
deregulation of drugs), and with the right on economic issues
(taxes, welfare, regulation of corporations). It would probably
help to understand the libertarian position by thinking of them
as both more extreme and more consistent than either the right
or the left. For example, the right only want to end welfare
to the poor; libertarians want to end welfare to corporations
in the form of subsidies as well. The left may want to allow
doctors to prescribe marijuana for medicinal purposes;
libertarians don't see where government gets the moral right to
dictate what you are allowed to put in your body in the first
place. I couldn't (personally), tell you that if you smoke pot
I'm going to lock you in a room for 3 years (at least not
if I wanted anyone to call me sane), but government does that every
day. On the other hand, I do have the right (and an obligation)
to try to prevent you from killing someone (so government, which
derives its authority from people, does also).
Libertarians draw a strong distinction between real crimes,
which have a victim who was harmed (physically, financially or
emotionally) like murder, fraud, reckless driving, and
harassment; and victimless crimes, where everyone involved
consented to the "crime", like drug use, non-mainstream sexual
activities (oral sex is illegal in some states) and gambling.
Liberals want government to be your mother, conservatives want
government to be your father, libertarians want government to
leave parenting to parents and let people run their own lives.
The standard recommendations on where to learn more
about libertarianism are _Libertarianism_in_One_Lesson_
by David Bergland and _Why_Government_Doesn't_Work_
by Harry Browne. For those who are consider themselves
liberals, Ruwart's _Healing_Our_World_ has been recommended.
It's more recent than the above, and is available online at:
http://www.cyberpop.com/ebooks/ruwart/ruhomeframeset.html
You could also come to our meetings or ask questions on the
newsgroup (see below)
Activities
Cal Libertarians meets every Wednesday at 6:30pm in 206 Dwinelle
(when facing the main entrace, go up the steps to your left, go up the
stairway, and it will be on your right). Last semester had a table
on Sproul two or three days a week. We had a "anti-authoritarian
movie night", which was intended to be a monthly thing, but it got
started too late in the semester. Hopefully for spring. This is
likely to be a regular thing this semester.
We're kicking around ideas for something to protest, and
whether we should get an "Operation Politically Homeless" booth
for next semester. Primary elections are coming up soon, which
should lead to some activities. You might want to check out the
newsgroup or the archives (see below).
Some members of Cal Libertarians also go to Berkeley
Libertarian Union (BLU) meetings. BLU is a more discussion
oriented group whereas Cal Libertarians is (or wants to be :-)
an activist group. BLU can be contacted through Jennie Dal
Busco, minerva@autobahn.org.
Bureaucratic Stuff
Mako Shuttleworth is going to be acting president until we have
a chance to do elections (probably at the second meeting). We
will have to do another SAS (Student Activities & Services)
form next semester, but it looks as if we have signatories
lined up. I'll add the officers here as soon as the elections
are done.
Online Resources
Cal Libertarians maintains a web page at
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~callib
It provides some basic information on Libertarianism,
information about the club, and links to other sites of
interest. Getting more information online is one of the goals
for the near future.
There is a newsgroup, ucb.org.cal-libertarians, which is probably
where you are reading this message. It has a charter:
ucb.org.cal-libertarians is an unmoderated local newsgroup for
the discussion of issues of interest to libertarians and things
related to the Cal Libertarians student group.
The newsgroup is archived at
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~callib/archives/
There is an announcement mailing list that currently runs
off UCLink4. We hope to move this list to the OCF eventually,
and set up a web based subscription form. For now, send mail to
cal_libertarians-owner@uclink4.berkeley.edu to have yourself added.
Last Updated: 01/31/98, KDP
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peterson@autobahn.org Home: 510-665-9670
http://www.autobahn.org/~peterson Page: 510-726-8960
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