It's not really, but I have to same feeling of just wanting this to be the hell over with. Each week this goes on I define success downward. Today I feel finishing the class without withdrawing or taking an imcomplete is almost valorous. Eeeeh. Not much to report because it's all-math-all-the-time, but I found this succinct criticism about Libertarianism. A movement, a politicaly philosophy I've not studied and yet have an instinctive aversion towards. What follows is as good a response as any of what I see as some of the inherent contradictions of it all. It's in reply to a Eunomia (Daniel Larison) blog post, Does the GOP Have a “Libertarian Problem”? Not Really:
Sad Paul Ryan says: November 17, 2012 at 10:41 am
As Ken_L and mercurino suggest, the GOP
does have a libertarian problem. More correctly, they have a LIBERTARIAN
FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS PROBLEM. The Republican base feels that they are
prospering in spite of the government that seeks to create dependency
among “others”. That is to say, if the government would just get out of
the way and leave them alone (economically), they would have even more
money to spend as they please.
What’s wrong with this picture? Well, if the most ardent base supporters are really the Tea Party old white people with an aversion to a black president who is confiscating their assets to pay for “Obama phones” and the like, then you can’t be a bold truth-teller and serious policy wonk who solves the deficit by ignoring the fact that most federal government spending goes to old people. It comes FROM the young and rich, Republican and Democrat alike, but it goes to maintain the standard of living of the elderly, who are disproportionately white, Republican, and possessed of crotchety policy views. Get your government hands off of my Medicare people.
This is a problem that Republicans will continue to have, even as the Tea Party rump slowly dies off. There will always be people pushing for a more authentic libertarianism, whether that be in Ron Paul’s memory or not. However, there’s a reason that libertarianism does not a governing coalition make. If you want to live the Randian life, go and build your mansion, private roads, and private wells amid the squalor in developing countries where the government is so small and weak that it couldn’t harm or tax you if it tried. (emphasis mine) In these United States, however, if the Republican Party becomes the libertarian party, it will never be heard from again.
What’s wrong with this picture? Well, if the most ardent base supporters are really the Tea Party old white people with an aversion to a black president who is confiscating their assets to pay for “Obama phones” and the like, then you can’t be a bold truth-teller and serious policy wonk who solves the deficit by ignoring the fact that most federal government spending goes to old people. It comes FROM the young and rich, Republican and Democrat alike, but it goes to maintain the standard of living of the elderly, who are disproportionately white, Republican, and possessed of crotchety policy views. Get your government hands off of my Medicare people.
This is a problem that Republicans will continue to have, even as the Tea Party rump slowly dies off. There will always be people pushing for a more authentic libertarianism, whether that be in Ron Paul’s memory or not. However, there’s a reason that libertarianism does not a governing coalition make. If you want to live the Randian life, go and build your mansion, private roads, and private wells amid the squalor in developing countries where the government is so small and weak that it couldn’t harm or tax you if it tried. (emphasis mine) In these United States, however, if the Republican Party becomes the libertarian party, it will never be heard from again.
And now back to my regularly scheduled, "Truth or Dare! Use the PMI to prove that
for all natural numbers, 8 divides 52n
– 1."
