--- http://hotwired.com/synapse/feature/97/36/mccullagh4a_1.html HotWired - Synapse (http://hotwired.com/synapse/) 12 September 1997 In Defense of Libertarianism by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com) and Solveig Singleton (sberns@cato.org) Libertarianism, as a rule, attracts the most strident criticism from those who understand it the least. Expending little or no effort on research, critics barely familiar with libertarian ideas concoct an unappetizing stew of ideas - anarchism, egoism, and plain selfishness and greed - and mistakenly dub it libertarianism. Small surprise, then, that this ideological bouillabaisse tastes revolting. Such critics aren't describing libertarianism, but their own fanciful creation. Libertarianism is not about anarchy, utopia, or selfishness. Instead, libertarians simply are skeptical of "nanny government," and recognize the many ways state power has been abused in the past. They believe that government programs like health assistance, Social Security, foreign aid, and corporate welfare do more harm than good. They argue that everyone must be equal before the law, and everyone has human rights to personal security, to property, and to free speech that the government must protect, not violate. Synapse columnist Brooke Shelby Biggs recently suggested that such skepticism about authority is a sign of immaturity, asking us to remember how we felt about authority when we were 12. "Despite the fact that you knew exactly where everything was in your, uh ... alternatively organized bedroom, Mom still insisted you clean it up," she writes. Eventually you grew out of it. Now you're an adult and can think for yourself. Or can you? Not according to nanny government. Together the left and the right conspire to dictate what you can eat, see, read, smoke, and talk about. Leftists contend that the state should regulate the economy (and technology), but not morality. Conservatives claim that the government should leave the economy alone, but should legislate what you're allowed to do online or in your bedroom. Only libertarians have a consistent philosophy: The state can't be trusted to screw around with the economy, to control your private life, or to police the Internet. Consider the recent bipartisan onslaughts against the Net. Democrats have been particularly unrelenting in their attacks. President Clinton endorsed the Communications Decency Act, signed it into law, then dragged the fight all the way to the Supreme Court. Ridiculously, he insists that Cold War-era restrictions on overseas shipments of encryption products are a good idea. Adding insult to injury, Clinton has backed copyright laws that would require Internet providers to police what their users talk about online. Then there are Clinton's demands for more and more wiretapping authority for the FBI - a plan that might have made even J. Edgar Hoover blush. (And this president once taught constitutional law?) Republicans have been just as censorship-happy. They, too, supported the CDA, which the Senate approved overwhelmingly. Even after the nation's highest court ruled such broad censorship unconstitutional, some GOP senators pledged to try again. Others are teaming up with the White House to make the Internet easily snoopable by spooks, expand government databases, issue national ID cards, and wrest away your privacy and freedom, one Social Security number at a time. [...]