I ask because my father's sister has has five daughters who had several boys who are now mostly in there early to late 20s, and it seems they are nearly all entranced by Rand, Nozick, and libertarian tripe in general.
[WS:] I find that hardly surprising. The "twentysomething" is a stupid age in which people tend to go on self-empowerment trips. Consequently, they tend to be susceptible to arrogant anti-social ideologies proclaiming the virtues of the heroic individual, with whom they identify, over the faceless mass enemy, which stands for their parents, teachers and other authority figures from which they feel recently "liberated." It explains the popularity of such youth movements like Hitlerjugend, Komsomol, Red Guards, anarchists, Young Republicans or libertarians.
It seems to work like that. In their adolescence, these people (mainly of middle class background) are inculcated with feelings of self-importance through the middle-class socialization and education that emphasizes individualism, personal achievement, leadership etc. Yet the social and institutional reality provides little actual opportunity for the realization of these individualistic ambitions, as most of these "young self-made eagles" will land on entry level corporate positions where they have to kowtow to their bosses or customers and submit to a myriad of rules, regulations, codes, and protocols to stay afloat. So any ideology that extols the virtues of self-made individualism, creativity, innovation, risk taking etc. over the ossified social structures, tradition, authorities etc. provides a nice escapist fantasy land for these folks.
It is a virtual power trip for frustrated middle class kids, if you will. Rational rebating their newly found ideological glorification of the unbound by social norms individualism is as futile as appeals to control their hormonal surges. It just feeds into their self-gratifying delusions. A better approach is to ask them to postpone that debate until they grow up and get some real-world experience.
Wojtek
On Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 7:57 PM, Bryan Atinsky <bryan at alt-info.org> wrote:
> Oh god. Has there been a large surge in Randian and libertarian worship
> among the 20 something crowd?
>
> I ask because my father's sister has has five daughters who had several
> boys who are now mostly in there early to late 20s, and it seems they are
> nearly all entranced by Rand, Nozick, and libertarian tripe in general.
>
> Lately, some of them have taken to use Facebook as their soap box. It is
> embarrassing to read their nonsense.
> I was wondering if others notice this trend, have to suffer this silliness.
> Do I just have the bad luck of the draw, or is this a trend among that
> generation?
>
> Here are some sadly funny quotes from them of late:
>
> "Why is it that buildings in America can withstand earthquakes and strong
> hurricanes while buildings in countries in Russia and China crumble like
> Saltine crackers under similar conditions? "
>
> "When the strongest free nation is reduced to a socialized welfare state
> the entire world be will threatened by the tyrant with the biggest army and
> the most destructive weapons. In the end, only a one world government
> imposing their ideology of how much enough is will be capable of controlling
> us and that will be a disaster for those of us that love our freedom. "
>
> "Our Country donates more money, resources, knowledge, and manpower to help
> humanity all around the globe than all other countries combined. Only in a
> free country can free people help others in need. Capping freedom in the
> name of "social justice" will hurt efforts to end human suffering globally."
>
> I mistakenly tried to answer a quote of their's from Nozick: "Taxation of
> earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor"
>
> With this quick critique from me: "One big problem with Nozick's minimal
> state (and libertarian nonsense in general) is that as the differential
> distribution of resources inevitably grows more and more monopolistic in a
> feedback loop, in your dream society, the percentage of the population
> impoverished will grow, and unlike Nozick's utopia, they will not take this
> sitting down, and the only way to ensure a retention of this distribution
> would be an extremely large police state. Oh goody!"
>
> Which just set them off on a feeding frenzy:
>
> "Ouch Brian...the liberal personal attack method is growing weary. Your
> dream society seems more like communism, where the distribution of resources
> is supposedly equal (unless of coarse you are part of the communist elite).
> Only problem is that production is reduced because there is no motivation to
> even meet demand. Eventually, distribution of basic products requires an
> extremely large and brutal police state - as history has shown and that is
> your reality. Your criticism of Nozick's minimal state is missing a very
> basic unmeasurable component: Risk. In a free society, individuals have the
> freedom to take risks based on perceptions of rewards. Many risks are not
> successful and thus individuals economic status changes, sometimes
> drastically. Sure, you consider your self to be a well indoctrinated liberal
> elitist who has all the answers and just wishes others would listen -
> because you know it all. You have the inane ability to detect injustice
> where ever it's perpetrated anywhere in the universe and immediately
> understand what it will take to level the playing field in a fair and just
> system. If only others could see things as clearly as you do....But the real
> reality is your thoughts are extremely far to the left. Libertarianism
> promotes a free society which is what this Country's constitution is based
> on. Freedom also offers you the liberty to have an unpopular viewpoint and
> the ability to espouse it where ever and when ever you please without fear
> of government retribution, jail, or death as was the fate of those fighting
> for freedom in Tienanmen Square.What I don't understand is why we need faux
> freedom fighters, like you, to correct self perceived injustices. "
>
> "That is right, you are not a liberal, you are a communist. For some reason
> it is more important to you to have social equality than justice and human
> rights. You can say that I am prepubescent and i don't care because its not
> true but at least I don't have something mentally wrong with me. There are 2
> stages to communism, and until you get to the ... See Morepure communist
> state human rights doesn't matter. That is why over 60 million people have
> died in the last century in the name of equality. Also what do you do
> besides live off the teet of your wife's work. Well I guess this just proves
> that you value your life more than others and so live like a parasite and
> live off the work of others. You may not agree with my views but you have
> never stated yours. Get off your ivory tower, just because you have been
> stuck in college for the last 25 years doesn't mean you know everything or
> anything."
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>