What are libertarianism, anyway?
(Category: Ken Gregg) Posted by Wendy McElroy Friday 21 November 2008 – 05:18:05 “The libertarian is in no sense a utopian. He argues only that in a world in which each imperfect individual was left free to make his own imperfect decisions and to act on them in any way that was peaceful, enjoying the fruits of his successes and suffering the agony of his mistakes, man could at least fully attain to the dignity and tragedy and comedy that comes with being a man rather than a thing.”–Benjamin Rogge, “The Freeman” October 1969 Ken Gregg offers a typically insightful response to the question “What is libertarianism?” Let us suppose that an ichthyologist (fish scientist) is exploring the life of the ocean. He casts a net into the water and brings up a fishy assortment. Surveying his catch, he arrives at two generalizations: (1) No sea-creature is less than two inches long; (2) All sea-creatures have gills. An onlooker may object: “There are plenty of sea-creatures under two inches long, on
