Libertarians Criticizing Each Other.

Part of the "Critiques of Libertarianism" site.
http://world.std.com/~mhuben/libindex.html

Last updated 12/20/08.

Libertarians are by no means unified in their positions, and some of their strongest criticisms are aimed at each other.

Links

Archimedes Shrugged: The Great Libertarian Racket: Hugh Akston's critical review of the Libertarian Party, emphasizing the capture of the party for personal profit by a Harry Browne clique. Scathing.
Commentaries by Jacob G. Hornberger: A Libertarian Party activist who's leading the assault on Harry Browne and David Bergland. Excellent political infighting, exposing the basic problem of treating political parties as private property.
The Libertarian Quartet.: Richard Epstein criticizes the deductive absolutism of Randy E. Barnett's "The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law". See especially the part about Coase's lighthouse example.
Fuzzy Logic: Lynn Scarlett reviews Richard Epstein's criticisms of "libertarian absolutists" in his Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty with the Common Good.
Some Problems with Ayn Rand's Derivation of Ought from Is: by David Friedman. Illuminates a few of the gaping holes in Rand's "logic".
The Machinery of Freedom: Chapter 41: Problems.: An introduction to the newest and best section of David Friedman's otherwise evangelical text. He takes most libertarians to task for their much too simplistic philosophical claims.
Axioms and Egoisms: John Hospers points out the errors in axioms such as "non-initiation of force", such as intermediates between consent and force.
Children's Rights versus Murray Rothbard's The Ethics of Liberty: John Walker credibly dissects some ludicrous Rothbard drivel about self-ownership to back a less tenable pro-life position.
Hayek's Road To Serfdom (a criticism by Walter Block) Hayek On The Role Of The State: A Radical Libertarian Critique (Radnitzky) F. A. Hayek On Government And Social Evolution: A Critique (Hoppe) Socialism: A Property Or Knowledge Problem? (Hoppe) Hayek: Some Missing Pieces (de Jasay): While Hayek is widely claimed as a libertarian and an Austrian economist, he's not pure enough for these libertarians (who find him a coercive socialist.) Oh, and of course von Mises is the one, true, infallible Austrian economist too.
Robert Nozick And The Immaculate Conception Of The State: Murray Rothbard criticizes "Anarchy, State, And Utopia" from a natural rights perspective. He swallowed the cow to catch the goat... he's dead, of course.
Are you a Real Libertarian, or a ROYAL Libertarian?: Geolibertarians (a splinter group) have adopted Georgist single tax philosophy, and roundly lambaste other libertarians and Objectivists, ridiculing their ideas of land as private property.
A Geolibertarian FAQ: Todd Altman's rebuts common libertarian arguments against land value taxes, including some really pathetic ones by Murray Rothbard.
Ask a Silly Question: David Gordon, of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, judges that Virginia Postrel doesn't have a hairy enough chest to be a true libertarian in this scathing review of her book "The Future And Its Enemies".
Libertarianism: An Objective Evaluation: Logan Feys is evidently the one true objectivist, who has the goods on how both the ARI and TOC objectivist factions are irrational. As if we didn't know. Libertarians need his philosophical guidance too.
Funding Liberty: George Phillies book-length recounting of unprincipled behavior at the "party off principle". Part of a reforms movement within the LPUSA. Lots of dirty laundry.
Anarcho-Capitalism: Opposing_Views: The DMOZ Open Directory catalog. Heavy on criticisms by other libertarians, quite incomplete, but otherwise good.
Libertarians & Corporations: Libertarian ideology is so radical that it would sweep away corporations. They very seldom mention this, lest they offend their right-wing and corporate donors.
"What's Wrong With Libertarianism" [PDF] "The Libertarian Straddle: Rejoinder to Palmer and Sciabarra" [PDF]: Jeffrey Friedman, editor of Critical Review magazine, details how libertarian philosophy and economics rely on each other, and neither can bear the weight.
Libertarianism Is Defunct: Joseph S. Bommarito shows that for libertarians, plagiarism (of the Critiques web site) is the sincerest form of flattery.
A Fatal Instability in Anarcho-Capitalism Anarcho-Capitalism Dissolves Into City States: Paul Birch shows some good reasons to think anarcho-capitalism is a utopian pipe-dream.
For Mises' Sake: Tom G. Palmer savages Llewellyn Rockwell, the Ludwig von Mises Institute and Hans-Hermann Hoppe for Austrianism above and beyond the call of sanity.
NEW 1/06: Excuses for Liberty: Carl Milsted Jr. harshly criticizes natural rights, utilitarian, and a priori justifications for libertarianism. But then he just as naively proposes economic arguments, which fail for similar reasons.
NEW 2/07: The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult: Murray Rothbard makes a very convincing case for Objectivism as a cult. It's delightful to see it compared to the communist party.
NEW 3/07: Ask a Libertarian, Part II: The Constitution as Libertarian Myth: Logan Ferree does a good job of dispelling libertarian myths about being like classical liberalism and the early USA. He also tries to distinguish between libertarians and objectivists.
NEW 12/08: The Dallas Accord Is Dead: Less Antman criticizes the Libertarian Party truce between minarchists and market anarchists. Looks like the LP is headed for another purge.

Print References

The links here are to Amazon.com, through their associates program, primarily because of the review information. Books without links are generally out of print, and can often be easily found at AddAll Used and Out Of Print Search. Good sites for bargain shopping for sometimes expensive new books are Online Bookstore Price Comparison and AddAll Book Search and Price Comparison. Both of those list applicable coupons. Another is BookFinder.com.

Harold Kyriazi "Libertarian Party at Sea on Land": Robert Schalkenbach Foundation 2000. A libertarian criticizes the Libertarian Party positions regarding ownership of natural resources for inconsistency with its own principles.

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Copyright 2007 by Mike Huben ( mhuben@world.std.com ).
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