So what’s wrong with the political philosophy of libertarianism?
This.
“The philosopher Charles Taylor explains in his book, ‘The Ethics of Authenticity,’ that the search for self-actualization is a noble and important enterprise in life,” wrote David Masciotra. “Authenticity is important, and
people should not compromise their principles or passions to placate
expectations of society. Taylor complicates the picture by adding the elemental
truth of individuality and community that personal freedom is empty and meaningless
without connections to ‘horizons of significance.’ That beautiful phrase
captures the essentiality of developing bonds of empathy and ties of solidarity
with people outside of one’s own individual pursuits, and within a larger
social context.”
“Competitive individualism, and the perversion of personal
responsibility to mean social irresponsibility, is what allows for America to
limp behind the rest of the developed world in providing for the poor and
creating social services for the general population.
“It also leads to the elevation of crude utility as a
measurement of anything’s purpose or value. Richard Hofstadter, observed in his
classic ‘Anti-Intellectualism in American Life,’ that many Americans are highly
intelligent, but their intelligence is functional, not intellectual. They excel
at their occupational tasks, but do not invest the intellect or imagination in
abstract, critical, or philosophical inquiries and ideas. If society is
reducible to the individual, and the individual is reducible to consumer
capacity, the duties of democracy and the pleasures of creativity stand little
chance of competing with the call of the cash register.”
“Opposition to any conception of the public interest and
common good, and the consistent rejection of any opportunity to organize
communities in the interest of solidarity, is not only a vicious form of
anti-politics, it is affirmation of America’s most dominant and harmful
dogmas. In America, selfishness, like blue jeans or a black dress, never
goes out of style. It is the style. The founding fathers, for all the hagiographic
praise and worship they receive as ritual in America, had no significant
interest in freedom beyond their own social station, regardless of the poetry
they put on paper. Native Americans, women, black Americans, and anyone who did
not own property could not vote, but ‘taxation without representation’ was the
rallying cry of the revolution. The founders reacted with righteous rage to an
injustice to their class, but demonstrated no passion or prioritization of
expanding their victory for liberty to anyone who did not look, think, or spend
money like them.”
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