poly: Libertarians as reactionary liberals?

Is there a reactionary mindset abstractable from any specific political
positions? I was reflecting on Hayek's statement that the US never had
a strong liberal movement because it was fundamentally liberal in
government to begin with. In that light, what is the significance of the
recent libertarian movement, which seems like a shriller and occasionally
anarchist version of classical liberalism? Most simply, that it is a
standard reaction against the veer the US took away from the classical liberal
program after WWII and then the 1960s.

This idea as such has probably been had before, but I wonder if there's a
difference in the mindsets of forward-looking radicals and reactionaries
suffering a sense of 'paradise lost'. I also don't know of past radical
liberals; this could be a selection effect, or a perception effect from being
one myself, but perhaps liberalism doesn't lend itself to dogma without a
reactionary origin or a different supporting philosophy such as Objectivism.

-xx- GCU Mangyn of Chaos X-)

"My usual description of the Culture for Banks newbies is: They don't
optimize people for tremendous strength or tremendous intelligence,
because that's what machines are for. They optimize people for what
people are for: sex, drugs, and parties." -- Andrew Plotkin
Received on Tue Apr 21 21:51:27 1998