The Ancient Chinese Libertarian Tradition?

[sean]

Via Lao Tzu - Libertarian

 

Was Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, who was born as early as 600 B.C., the world's first libertarian? He very well might have been, according to libertarian scholar Murray Rothbard.

 

In an essay in The Journal of Libertarian Studies (Fall 1990), Rothbard wrote: "The first libertarian intellectual was Lao-tzu, the founder of Taoism... For Lao-tzu the individual and his happiness was the key unit and goal of society. If social institutions hampered the individual's flowering and his happiness, then those institutions should be reduced or abolished altogether. To the individualist Lao-tzu, government, with its 'laws and regulations more numerous than the hairs of an ox,' was a vicious oppressor of the individual, and 'more to be feared than fierce tigers.'" Read the rest

 

Sean

[Peregrino]

Interesting . . . The Marxist philosopher Slavoj Zizek critically notes that Taoism is at least as compatible with capitalism as Protestantism. I do have a strong libertarian strain on issues of individual rights, but wonder about the excesses of what I would call "free market fundamentalism." Maybe I'm just not fit for Taoist "orthodoxy"!

 

(Geeze, I'm using a lot of smilies these days. Maybe I should adjust my guarana dosage.)

[sean]

"Free market fundamentalism". Nice term. I know exactly what you mean.

 

Did you ever listen to the talk between Ken Wilber and John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods? He touches on this. He refers to himself as a progressive libertarian, a term I can identify with, and Wilber refers to the idea of second-tier libertarianism. I remember him saying he often feels ostracized from libertarian circles because he considers communities, donates to charities, gets involved in well thought out environmental organizations, etc. It's pretty hilarious how you can take anything too far.

 

Sean

[Peregrino]

Haven't heard that diaglogue, but it sounds like something I can relate too. There are lots of sentimental "reds" here in Europe who can't give a clear answer on how to maintain the mechanisms of wealth generation that are so necessary for their schemes of wealth (re-)distribution. Still, I'm convinced that "socialist" policies like universal health care are simply sound societal insurance against the resentments and pathologies that can develop when extreme inequalities go unaddressed. On that note, Sean (and any other California Tao Bums--with a shout out to my old 'hood in Long Beach!)--what do you think of Gov. Schwarzenneger's new proposal for universal health care?

 

I also think that reparations for African Americans would be a sound policy--not simply as "hand-outs," but investments in specific, positive goods like free college tuition (as Native Americans are eligible for in many states), small buisness loans, etc. In other words, following through on the never fulfilled promise of "40 acres and a mule"--allocating resources specifically to develop economic and educational infrastructure, *for those who choose to take advantage of those opportunities*, rather than simply providing free income. As for the ethical element, I would say that reparations would simply be the right thing to do, something to address dispassionately, without either timid supplication ("white guilt") or defensive denial of the lingering malingnancies that resulted from the slave-driven economy.