I Guess I Am Wrong to Believe....

Interesting dust-up over a Liberty Fund conference.

I should note that I attend quite a few Liberty Fund gigs, and believe very much in the format and discussion. So I am hardly objective.

But:

I am struck -- you may think it is absurd for me to be suddenly struck by this -- but I am struck by how deeply and seriously libertarians and conservatives believe in their ideas. I'm used to the way lefties and liberals take themselves seriously and how deeply they believe. Me, I find true believers strange and -- if they have power -- frightening. And my first reaction is to doubt that they really do truly believe.

One of the reasons 9/11 had such a big impact on me is that it was such a profound demonstration of the fact that these people are serious. They really believe.

"These people"? Does she mean Al Qaeda, the Taliban, or George Bush? Does she think there is any difference?

I think the divine Ms. A wants to rethink the wording, and I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Surely being serious about the fact we are skeptical of the government to enforce any one point of view is different from being serious about the exclusivity of any one view. George Bush is not a Libertarian. The Taliban are not Libertarians. Whether George Bush is an American, Protestant Taliban...a question for another time, perhaps.

It is interesting that one of the core beliefs of squishy American liberalism seems to be that anyone who has any core beliefs at all is suspect. But surely the hallmark of liberalism, the good kind of liberalism, is a belief in a transcendant norm of forebearance. I have to accept, and respect the fact that, your beliefs are different from mine. I can't pretend to do that, and then go back to my little bunker in Madison, WI and snipe out of the rifle slits. Liberals even have to accept the fact that some people believe in things.

ATSRTWT

Also, do see Virginia P's entry. Remarkable.

I don't know Ms. Althouse, and I do believe that you get to try out arguments on your blog, at a different level than other kinds of writing. But what was A.A. going for here? This was the intellectual equivalent of flashing your shaved girl parts at photographers as you get out of a limo. Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, meet your new friend, Annie.