On the Fact that Willis Hart Is 94 Years Old and Still Believes in Libertarianism

So much for putting childish things aside.

Libertarians believe they're rebels, but they are really political children who scream through tears. Christopher Hitchens, in typical blunt force fashion, undressed Rand and her libertarian followers, exposing their obsequiousness toward the operational standards of a selfish society: "I have always found it quaint, and rather touching, that there is a movement in the US that thinks Americans are not yet selfish enough". The rejection of all rules and regulations, and the belief that everyone should have the ability to do whatever they want, is not rebellion or dissent. It is infantile naïveté. (You're Not the Boss of Me! Why Libertarianism Is a Childish Sham by David Masciotra. AlterNet 6/5/2015).

Also...

Hardcore libertarianism is a fantasy. It's a fantasy where the strongest and most self-reliant folks end up at the top of the heap, and a fair number of men share the fantasy that they are these folks. They believe they've been held back by rules and regulations designed to help the weak, and in a libertarian culture their talents would be obvious and they'd naturally rise to positions of power and influence. (Here's Why Libertarians Are Mostly Men by Kevin Drum. Mother Jones 6/5/2015).

So, despite being 94, Willis is but a childish little boy. Whereas Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders embraces the fact that we're all in this together.

The denial of the collective interest and communal bond, as much as libertarians like to pose as trailblazers, is not the road less traveled, but the highway in gridlock. Competitive individualism, and the perversion of personal responsibility to mean social irresponsibility, is what allows for America to limp behind the rest of the developed world in providing for the poor and creating social services for the general population. (You're Not the Boss of Me! Why Libertarianism Is a Childish Sham).

That Willis is 94 is just a guess, btw. Although I do know that he isn't a young man. Also known is that Willis previously considered himself to be a "Moderate Democrat" (Willis: "I like to refer to myself, Lista, as a Rockefeller Republican/Boren Democrat").

His path to Libertarianism has been an evolution. Although I'd call it a devolution, given the fact that most people (males, mainly) abandon Libertarianism when they grow up.

8/9/2016 Update: "I'm 54 years old" WTNPH wrote on 8/29/2011, meaning that he was 59 or 60 when this post was published. (this factoid added 2 months after post publication because I just ran across it).

OST #150