Sunday, May 23, 2004

Useful Reminder


Many Conservatives are attracted to Libertarianism. Speaking personally, I despise it. To adapt an old joke, two Libertarians are walking down a street when they see a badly-beaten OAP and one says to the other 'How awful! That's just the type of thing that'll encourage government intervention'.

Nowhere has the Libertarian love of abstract principle over sanity been more obvious than in the War on Terror. Take the question of the French hijab ban. Liberatarians - who are almost always atheists - have screamed the house down with talk of religious liberty yet, as Mel P reminds us, the hijab was always a political, not a religious symbol, and pretty nasty politics at that.

No doubt some will claim schoolchildren should still be allowed to wear it, but can we expect them to mount a similar defence of white children in Alabama who wish to turn up wearing sheets and hoods ? After all, we do know how LIbertarians love their principles.

No comments: