Fourth Post

Here is a half-formed thought.

Tyler Cowen writes that the US is “good at destroying things” (link) and about how the current cultural forces in our society have been quickly repurposed, in the circumstances of this new Russo-Ukrainian war, to destroying Russia. But I’m not sure I agree with what he has made his thesis statement: I really don’t think the US is in any way uniquely good at destroying things. Yes, the US is good at destroying things, but only in the sense that all human polities, in all eras, are good at destroying things. I suppose I will concede that because the US has, historically, been a quite competent polity that is good at other things, that means it is more effective at destroying things, too. Perhaps this is what Cowen means.

Author: JL Jones

I live in a rural part of a “red state” in the western USA. Most of my local friends, neighbors and coworkers are unabashedly Trumpist. At worst, they are openly racist, gun-hoarding xenophobes, and at best, they are anti-government, Randist “libertarian” or “prepper” types. Most of them are also weirdly quite kind and generous. I came to my current political position as a self-described libertarian. I am sympathetic to libertarian ideals, but the question I have is: if libertarianism is advocating maximum liberty, exactly what sort of liberty are we speaking of trying to maximize?