Libertarians vs Tories

Tuesday, 1st December 2009

This, from E.D Kain at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen is a good paragraph:

Conservatism is not only about limited government, and where it seeks to limit government it does so because it sees government as a force of instability. But what about those times when government is instead a force for stability? Defense leaps to mind. Conservatism, I would argue, is first and foremost about preserving or regaining a stable society. Liberty and prosperity are two of the most profound ways we can achieve a stable civilization. Limiting government often leads to both these things, and thus it is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. And when limiting government actually brings about social chaos rather than social stability, then it’s outworn its use. Perhaps this is why anarchy is such an impossible goal. At some point the benefit of removing the state from the equation no longer outweighs the cost.

Along those lines, my heart leans libertarian but my head nags me and does its best to persuade me that Toryism is the safer, more prudent, option even if some, perhaps many, of the products of Toryism are highly regrettable. Toryism has the virtue of reducing risk and of advocating a reasonable scepticism towards the unknown and the utopian. And, in a sense, libertarianism is utopian. Similarly, with religion everything leads me to think it's the most awful bunk and yet it's also easy to see that even if it is bunk it has, or can have, a useful social purpose.

Which leaves me in the position of being a bad Libertarian and a bad Tory. In as much as those categories overlap at all. Happy days.

Filed under: Libertarians (143 more articles) , Tories (273 more articles)

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ndm

December 1st, 2009 1:30am Report this comment

my head nags me and does its best to persuade me that Toryism is the safer, more prudent, option even if some, perhaps many, of the products of Toryism are highly regrettable.

I'm glad that this used Toryism rather than Republicanism. It is certainly not true of a Republican Party that strives to demonstrate the innate failure of Government by showing that it is incapable of Government. Safe and prudent are not words that feature in the Republican tag cloud.

Beafeater

December 1st, 2009 7:07am Report this comment

ndm:

Why do you flaunt your vulgar foreign party-political certainties in the face of a man who is not feeling good about himself and his local loyalties?

A pointed reminder that the ballot is secret may offer solace to the anguished soul, though I fear it doesn't do much to discourage Hamlets from exposing their sensitivities.

Avudale

December 2nd, 2009 12:19am Report this comment

I highly doubt the Tories would ever espouse libertarianism to such an extent that they would veritably extinguish their own jobs.

There are fewer and fewer men of principles in politics. But you're right - better the devil you know than the socialists you don't.

Avudale

December 2nd, 2009 12:19am Report this comment

I highly doubt the Tories would ever espouse libertarianism to such an extent that they would veritably extinguish their own jobs.

There are fewer and fewer men of principles in politics. But you're right - better the devil you know than the socialists you don't.

E.D. Kain

December 2nd, 2009 7:43pm Report this comment

Alex,

Maybe you're just a libertoryan!

http://www.ordinary-gentlemen.com/2009/10/libertoryanism/

Cheers, and thanks for the link!

Bruce Smith

January 6th, 2010 4:58am Report this comment

This debate is old. The Socialists, the Tories and the libertarians are all in denial that the sociopathic is to be found in both the state and capitalism and that the answer lies in devising the best checks and balances we can in representative and participative democracy at all levels of human association.

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