Saturday, February 12, 2005

Government makes libertarians of us all; terrorism breeds statism says Stephenson

Reason has an vital interview with science fiction writer Neal Stephensen. Notable and quotable:
Speaking as an observer who has many friends with libertarian instincts, I would point out that terrorism is a much more formidable opponent of political liberty than government. Government acts almost as a recruiting station for libertarians. Anyone who pays taxes or has to fill out government paperwork develops libertarian impulses almost as a knee-jerk reaction. But terrorism acts as a recruiting station for statists. So it looks to me as though we are headed for a triangular system in which libertarians and statists and terrorists interact with each other in a way that IĆ¢€™m afraid might turn out to be quite stable.
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Thanks to Instapundit.

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