Bob Barr Live Stream Tonight!

For those who can't make it to the Bob Barr event in reason's DC HQ tonight, we'll be experimenting with a live stream online. The stream will go live here at 8:55 with Bob Barr answering debate questions in real time. Comments will be enabled on the streaming site, so you can participate in the festivities no matter where you are.

Until then, the channel will be running some of reason.tv's political videos and a bunch of Bob Barr clips. Go over now, check it out, and tell us what you think so far.

Comments

[gb]

If libertarians actually ever walked their balk they would turn their little venal crusade supposedly waged on behalf of "freedom" and "the individual" at the "private" realm of concentrated power and wealth which dominates their own lives - as well as the very economy they want to liberate.

Libertarians deny that the realities of overwhelming bureaucracies are not distinctly the work of "federal" planning but actually endemic to liberal capitalism itself, to both the "private" and "public" realms, where interest group bargaining and the forming of corporate cartels with high-priced lawyers have always been the norm. Ever hear of Frederick Winslow Taylor? JP Morgan? Henry Ford? Enron?

The ugly truth is that the banking and financial sectors, the whole discipline of economics, are themselves the absolute epitome of hierarchical command and control, mindless paper trails, and a bunch of middle-class stiffs in business suits whose job it is to serve The Man.

[Thomas L. Knapp]

gb,

Not to split hairs too much, but I think it would be more correct to say that capitalism, like socialism, has an observed tendency to evolve into a managerialism that spans both economy and state (see Burnham's The Managerial Revolution for details).

Those whom Kevin Carson refers to as "vulgar libertarians" do have a tendency to conflate laisez-faire with, and mistaken managerialism for, capitalism.

[sixstring]

gb

I was on a school board with a guy who talked like you. He would say lots of words, very little of which was connected to a cogent argument.

[gb]

hey Thomas, thanks for the thoughtful reply! I've recently been considering many self-proclaimed "libertarian" voices but find a disturbing subterfuge on their part on the issue of "managerialism." Is it too much ask for a democratic dimension, i.e., the decentering of power, to libertarianism, even capitalism itself...without becoming anachronistic of course??? thanks for the Carson reference..

[Vlad]

Any chance he'll talk about this?

Russia engages in 'gangland' diplomacy as it sends warship to the Caribbean

Russia flexed its muscles in America's backyard yesterday as it sent one of its largest warships to join military exercises in the Caribbean. The nuclear-powered flagship Peter the Great set off for Venezuela with the submarine destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and two support vessels in the first Russian naval mission in Latin America since the end of the Cold War.
"The St Andrew flag, the flag of the Russian Navy, is confidently returning to the world oceans," Igor Dygalo, a spokesman for the Russian Navy, said. He declined to comment on Russian newspaper reports that nuclear submarines were also part of the expedition.
The voyage to join the Venezuelan Navy for manoeuvres came only days after Russian strategic nuclear bombers made their first visit to the country. Hugo Ch?vez, the President, said then that the arrival of the strike force was a warning to the US. The vehemently antiAmerican Venezuelan leader is due to visit Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian President, in Moscow this week as part of a tour that includes visits to Cuba and China.
Peter the Great is armed with 20 nuclear cruise missiles and up to 500 surface-to-air missiles, making it one of the most formidable warships in the world. The Kremlin has courted Venezuela and Cuba as tensions with the West soared over the proposed US missile shield in Eastern Europe and the Russian invasion of Georgia last month. Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, said recently that Russia should "restore its position in Cuba" - the nation where deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles in 1962 brought Russia and the United States to the brink of nuclear war.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4804157.ece

[voxpo]

gb,

short answer: Walmart doesn't break down people's doors and take their weed. Starbuck's doesn't make people buy their coffee.

long answer: Aw man, do I have to? More thoughtful libertarians don't just agree but actively point out that many businesses and their representatives have spent many person-decades collaborating with, bribing, and persuading governments in order to hamper their competitors, trap their customers, and disadvantage their workers. Therefore, many people in business, like many in the population at large, have historically been anti-libertarian. This has had some very ill effects on society.

the realities of overwhelming bureaucracies are...endemic to liberal capitalism itself

Overwhelming how? If a business becomes too bureaucratic, it will tend to decline unless anti-market (and anti-consumer) means (tax subsidies, protection from imports, etc.) are used to prop it up. Frankly, I don't worry my pretty little head about how bureacratic AT&T or Sprint or Verizon are. I just pick the best deal for me. Now, if one or more are being favored by my government, I object.

I'm always happy to read up on specific historic examples. It just seems that every time I look up a supposed sin of capitalism, I find government grime at the scene of the crime.

[Dan]

Will this video be be available to watch after the fact? Some of us can't watch live.

[Anonymous]

gb: "It's not the abuse of power, but the power to abuse."