“Libertarianism is perhaps the most toxic mixture of liberalism (ala Hobbes and Locke) and capitalism.”

It should not be a huge surprise for anyone who reads this blog to learn that I am not a huge fan of the political philosophy known as libertarianism. One of the things I hate most about libertarianism is it’s stubborn, insular insistence on exclusively honoring “blue” rights (read more about the three kinds of rights here). Below is a graphic (which a Facebook friend of mine shared) discussing human rights from a libertarian perspective, and my rant that accompanied it:

The critical thinking skills for libertarians seem to have shut off at the grade school level…

Libertarianism is perhaps the most toxic mixture of liberalism (ala Hobbes and Locke) and capitalism. Most libertarians don’t even realize that their precious philosophy is based on antiquated and twisted Enlightenment theological assumptions about human nature (more on that here: http://turri.me/?p=1631).

Accordingly, individualism is one of the worst ideologies/doctrines to come out of the Western, dualistic, mechanistic, rationalistic, Modern worldview. This distinction between “exclusive claims” and “positive claims” is a complete false dichotomy: even the so called “exclusive” claims discussed in this graphic are actually positive claims because a person’s values, (social) identity and personality are largely molded by community relationships, and if there are any sort of social/communal relationships happening (even familial or non-human ones ((not to mention the relations between the organic living microbes, cells, molecules etc., that make up the human body; i.e. the body itself is a society of living things!))), ANYTHING one does is a social act which is bound to affect someone (or something) in some way; it’s a difference of degree NOT kind.

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Painting above by Ji Kim

Tags:confucianismlibertarianismmarxismpolitical philosophyprocess philosophysocialism