Doherty on Libertarianism's Biggest Enemy(ies)

Over at Cato Unbound, Reason Senior Editor and Radicals for Capitalism author Brian Doherty starts off a discussion of libertarianism's past and future. A snippet:

The biggest enemy of the libertarian is both optimism and pessimism: short-term optimism that, whether through moral passion or scientific certainty that the state's actions just cannot go on much longer, makes one so mad for libertarian victory now that any setbacks lead to despair and surrender-and long-term pessimism that refuses to see the enormous strides over centuries toward a more libertarian world of contract over status, of ordered liberty over unbridled tyranny, of individual choice over state pressure, and to recognize that the principles of free minds and free markets are most suited to making a rich and varied and lovable world, and thus are likely to triumph in the long term.

Read the whole thing here.

And when you're done with that, check out this fun Radar Q&A with Brian, doing his best Bernard Henri-Levy with the shirt and all (see pic to the right).