Libertarianism as the "Marxism of the Right"

Robert Locke has a well-argument brief against libertarianism in the American Conservative.

The most fundamental problem with libertarianism is very simple: freedom, though a good thing, is simply not the only good thing in life. Simple physical security, which even a prisoner can possess, is not freedom, but one cannot live without it. Prosperity is connected to freedom, in that it makes us free to consume, but it is not the same thing, in that one can be rich but as unfree as a Victorian tycoon’s wife. A family is in fact one of the least free things imaginable, as the emotional satisfactions of it derive from relations that we are either born into without choice or, once they are chosen, entail obligations that we cannot walk away from with ease or justice. But security, prosperity, and family are in fact the bulk of happiness for most real people and the principal issues that concern governments.

Read the whole thing.

Catallarchy has an equally well-argued response. This, however, isn't convincing.

Meanwhile, try Brian Caplan's Libertarian Purity Quiz.