Libertarian Purity

Via Brian’s Study Breaks, I scored 14 out of 160 on the Libertarian Purity Test.

It seems not only am I unlikely to vote for the Libertarian party, I am in danger of being delinked by Unqualified Offerings.

Deltoid has a list of blogger scores on this test.

By Zack

Dad, gadget guy, bookworm, political animal, global nomad, cyclist, hiker, tennis player, photographer

9 comments

  1. Zack:

    Libertarian Purity

    Yeah, in my haste in reading the headline, I thought this was some sort of kinky sex quiz. Imagine my disappointment when I found that it wasn’t.

    It seems not only am I unlikely to vote for the Libertarian party

    I can’t say that I find this a bad development. I like to think that I am pretty open-minded and tolerant when it comes to different ideological political perspectives; okay, I know that I am not really but this is one of those ‘polite fictions’ that it is more useful in everyday life to adhere to. Having said this, I always found Libertarianism bit of a ridiculous school of thought; in part no doubt due to the fact that it isn’t exactly very pre-dominant in most of the places where I have lived for any length of time. From an Indian or an African perspective, it looks like kind of a crazy ideology to espouse.

  2. And India and (especially) Africa are surely the gold standards when it comes to sound political arrangements, after all.

    Well, I was talking about ideologies and beliefs here, not practises; while it makes sense that where one comes from will have an impact on shaping such convictions and conclusions, it doesn’t mean that prevailing political standards or arrangements that exist there are the golden standard to be used. In fact, anybody who does come from any part of SSA or South Asia will most likely arrive at their political beliefs precisely because politics in these countries suffer from the chronic problems and shortfalls that they do – i.e. in order to change what does exist instead of somehow condone it. In this light I would be kind of suspicious of anybody who would hold up their own country or adopted state as some sort of putative standard but that maybe because I tend to believe in Universalistic values rather than particularistic nationalist ones, in anycase I doubt the USA would figure highly on my list of near-ideal political arrangements as it currently (or even indeed historically) stands. As most Afro-Asian states face significant challenges in nation-building and human development; I would hope that we manage to carry out these political projects without making the same mistakes incurred elsewhere (while no doubt making new ones). Under the existing conditions in many of these countries, Libertarianism sounds almost like, certain collective suicide. But then I might be ignorant of a Libertarian success story of a polity that exists somewhere out there, which can prove me wrong.

  3. Jim: You disappoint me. I thought you were the uber-libertarian. I expected a score of 150-160 from you.

    Conrad, Jim: The quiz was extremely US-oriented which is sort of OK for me since I live here, but might not be for the rest of the world. On the other hand, having lived outside the US, I don’t seem to understand the passion of some people here about specific issues. Abortion and gun rights come to mind as examples.

    I am in general in favor of at least some libertarian positions, mor ein fact than my score would indicate. However, sometimes relativism is the way to go. Some libertarian positions might be great in the US because of its particular history (and myth) but make no sense elsewhere. I understood Conrad to be stating something to that effect. For example, I remember a long discussion with a friend about gun rights and how they protected liberty. Obviously, my friend had never been to the tribal areas in Pakistan where every kid has a gun.

  4. Munira: You seem to be much moe libertarian than I am.

    Jonathan: Now that you mention it, I think my score on economic libertarianism was probably zero as well.

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