>
>For many of these, I'll venture the prediction that sooner or later
they'll
>become disillusioned with the market as well, and the marketing that
goes
>with it. However, they will never become leftists. Merit, together
with a
>constellation of surrounding concepts, is just too important, too
central
>to their thinking about people and society.
>
I first read Ayn Rand in high school. By the time I graduated, I was a raving Libertarian. I have been drifting left ever since, to Rush-listening conservative (Not something I like to admit...) to "establishment" liberal, to more-or-less anarchist. But then, "merit" was never too high on my list of for believing in libertarianism. I guess almost failing out of college a few times tends to disabuse one of one's place in the "natural aristocracy". ;-) It just seemed logical to me; it is, after all, just the conventional beliefs found in Capitalism taken to their logical extreme; which is why groups like Cato find such a welcome in the mainstream media.
Jim Baird
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