Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /var/www/html/fr/freeliberal.com/textpattern/lib/constants.php on line 136
Free Liberal: Coordinating towards higher values

Free Liberal

Coordinating towards higher values

"You can't put Che Guevara on the cover of a libertarian magazine!"

The responses are still coming in about our latest print issue of the Free Liberal.

One Libertarian Party member admonished me, "You can't put Che Guevara on the cover of a libertarian magazine!"

My response was, "well, I did." This was right before another LPer told me that I shouldn't watch "Law and Order" because it is one of the most authoritarian shows on TV. I guess I'm in trouble, because even though I'm not a big fan of big government, I still breathlessly follow Kiefer Sutherland's hit series "24."

A pro-hemp, pro-democracy, Rastafarian guy I know critiqued Carl Milsted's organic labeling article with a single sentence, "I'm still in favor of organic food." As if the good doctor ever suggested that he was against it!

When I was passing out the Free Liberal at the Reason/IHS blogging event, a self-proclaimed "Marxist" from the State Department told me that I "seemed" very conservative. His reasoning: my short hair and my suit and tie. Can't a guy manage his receding hairline and hide his gut with a nice suit?

All of this goes back to a core problem that prevents many people from understanding the transpartisan outlook: Being afraid to embrace those people who are seen as being “on the other side.”

You can learn from people you would generally disagree with, just as libertarians can appreciate Che Guevara's commitment to direct action without themselves embracing communism.

Furthermore, you can enjoy something while disagreeing with it. I think it is far more dangerous to isolate one's self from divergent opinions, than to be influenced by a media experience and have to sort out conflicting emotions and ideas. Being challenged could even strengthen a previously held view.

A person can critique the effectiveness of a current way of doing something, without wanting to throw it completely out. Carl Milsted's suggestions would promote organic food, not undermine it. In a binary world, you don’t have many options. You’re either with us, or against us!

And then there’s the easiest refuge of them all: you don’t look like one of us. I’m sure it would give my Marxist friend comfort to know that much of the time, my hair grows out and sticks up at odd angles, and I slog around town in the same jeans and sweat shirt all week. That would make all the difference, wouldn’t it?

-- Kevin D. Rollins



Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /var/www/html/fr/freeliberal.com/textpattern/lib/constants.php on line 136