Customer Reviews

Liberty in Troubled Times: A Libertarian Guide to Laws, Politics and Society in a Terrorized World

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved this book. It gives you a good understanding of what "libertarian" means and why so many people say they're "libertarian on some issues." I also like the way he explains that the liberal-conservative scale doesn't work any more. Lots of people say the major US parties are the same. This book explains HOW and WHY. They both believe in expanding the state, so they agree to focus on fake issues like Medicare drug coverage and gay marriage. Meanwhile BOTH SIDES supported the Patriot Act. I just wonder if any media will cover this book, because it slams both parties...and political posers like Al Franken, Dennis Miller and Bill Maher.

This is a great read! Mr. Walsh is spot on in his evaluations of the libertarian movement in America. If your a Libertarian,"l"ibertarian, Classical Liberal, or just an "Old School" Conservative, you will enjoy being brought up to present time to all things concerning the US liberty movement.
For those who consider themselves none of the above, it can be a very informative read as well. "Conservative" and "Liberal" are terms that simply don't apply correctly to todays current US political spectrum, learn why..read this book!

When the Founding Fathers started the United States of America, they had a strong notion of what liberty meant. It meant freedoms and rights; but it also meant taking responsibility for your beliefs and actions. They expected every American to balance these rights and responsibilities in his heart and in his life. We've drifted such a long way from that....
This book gives you a road map for getting back to those strong notions. Walsh explains the rights that Americans should expect--and the responsibilites they should accept. He makes it really clear.
I've read lots of books about politics and society but I've never read one that puts things so well. In such a balanced way.
To me, libertarians have always seemed like a kind of wacky and extreme group. But this book isn't wacky at all.
I don't know anything about James Walsh. But why isn't he better known in mainstream political circles?

There's a reason that the Libertarian Party uses the Motto "Party of Principle": its applications of philosophy are determined by principle, not a pinball-style bouncing from moment to moment. However, Walsh criticizes this as rigidity. Which explains why his view of libertarianism is actually a mish-mash of libertarianism and statism. His chapter on immigration is excellent. On the other hand, his economics are tainted with Keynsianism. He claims that government has role in "sustaining the efficiency of the market", an impossibility. Specifically, he advocates government action to prevent monopolies. An understanding of free-market economics naturally leads one to conclude that a destructive monopoly can only be sustained by government intervention. Government doesn't prevent monopolies; it CAUSES them! Another example is the chapter on the Drug War, which opens with the remark, "The War on Drugs bothers libertarians because it blurs important distinctions between law enforcement and the military." No, it doesn't! While that is a concern, it is 'way down the list. The primary concern is the nanny-state violation of personal sovereignty; then we discuss the harm done to communities by the Drug War, then the erosion of civil liberties justified by the fight. Walsh does go on to deal with these in the chapter, but his priorities are off. I suggest A Liberty Primer instead.

The terrorist attacks of 2001 have been much less dangerous to the average American than the massive government grab for power that happened in the succeeding months. The author asserts that liberal/conservative or Democrat/Republican no longer apply. The new designation should be statist/libertarian.

Libertarians believe that liberty is about fundamental rights, while statists feel that liberty is about quality of life. Libertarians feel that self-ownership is vital to human dignity; government should adopt a laissez-faire attitude as much as possible. Statists believe in a powerful central government that delivers quality of life to the people. This book explores a number of present-day political issues from a libertarian perspective.

The right to privacy is an important check on the power of the state. It should be the right of every citizen to have, or not to have, a faith. But that does not mean that all mentions of religion should be removed from public life. Libertarians need to do a better job of convincing the public that an open-border policy and a vibrant immigrant population is a sign that the economy is growing and that a rising tide lifts everyone. Among the state's few, legitimate purposes is to ensure safety for its citizens. Risk-free existence is not possible, but steps can be taken to stop groups that will destroy the citizens of a free state if they get the chance. A proof that the Patriot Act is a bad law is that the best argument by its defenders is that it is not used as often as people think. The state should get out of the marriage business; offer civil unions to any qualifying couple and leave the granting of marriage to churches. Prohibitions of drugs like marijuana are a bad idea for several reasons: prohibiting the behavior of reasonable adults erodes self-ownership, passing laws that won't be enforced leads to a disregard for all laws, and laws that "send a message" misuse the state's powers and are redundant.

Perhaps it is time for a different way of looking at politics in America; the present system doesn't work very well. The author says that it is not easy to be a libertarian, but for those who are interested, this book is an excellent place to start. It is recommended for everyone, including that who simply want to know what libertarianism is all about.

The book gives a broad but shallow libertarian perspective on current events. I would have liked to have seen more historic context. On the plus side the book is well written and organized.

If you're unsatisfied with Republican abuse of power, then don't expect the Democrats to save the day with an even more powerful government on which the people are even more dependent. That's the unifying theme of this insightful overview of libertarianism.

Do you ever wonder what's in the Patriot Act? Do you ever wonder why the Democratic Party, for all its railing against statist Republican policies, did little to oppose them, and why the Democrat-controlled congress does little to curtail them? The answers may surprise you.

This book goes a long way toward exploding many of the common misconceptions about libertarians, in particular, that they are conservatives. Libertarians are liberals, as evidenced by the fact that they primarily value the liberty and well-being of the individual. However, libertarians differ from statist liberals (largely represented by the Democratic Party), who believe that the greatest threat to individual liberty is from corporations and from other individuals. Walsh argues, convincingly, that both history and economics support the view that the much greater threat to individual liberty is from the government itself (whether democratically elected or not), and moreover, that the framers of the United States Constitution were keenly aware of this.

Chapter by chapter, we see the relevance of this debate to contemporary issues, and how libertarianism offers pragmatic solutions.

Walsh's arguments are eloquent and passionate, although not always convincing. (Even the most dyed-in-the-wool libertarian will find a thing or two to disagree with here.) But most importantly, this is a rare glimpse into the clear thinking of a true libertarian.

In its zeal to deemphasize the economics of libertarianism in favor of its principles, the book overlooks the crucially important point that the history of government intervention ostensibly to benefit the working class at the expense of corporations has largely had the opposite effect. The interested reader should consult Free to Choose: A Personal Statement.

Perhaps most striking are the proposals that this supposedly radical political viewpoint does *not* make. It does not advocate anarchy or the abolition of the federal reserve. It does not call for an end to intellectual property rights or anti-trust litigation. Even the Libertarian Party gets a well-deserved shunning. Ultimately, it all comes down to upholding sensible values.

This great book explains clearly and thoroughly what "liberty" and "libertarian" really mean. A must read!

Libertarians tend to live in a Manichean world of right and wrong where the means justifies the ends. Ironically the author insists that Libertarians are pragmatic. He does this without backing up this assertion but insists on it strongly and repeatedly. Mr. Walsh relates a story about a man with a habit of threatening people with his large collection of guns. Pulling a Beretta on his estranged wife he cocked the trigger in front of their child. He told a coworker he was going to visit her boyfriend with an AK-47. After being scolded by the courts he continued to threaten her and her friends so a federal court indicted him for unlawfully possessing a firearm. And the victim in this story? The gun owner. On economics he writes, "It's a fundamental libertarian belief that people ought to have unrestricted - or nearly unrestricted - liberty to accumulate, control and transfer property, whatever the consequences or constraints may be for other people" Pragmatic??? Oh boy. In one flash of honesty the writer refers to Libertarianism as an "extreme philosophy" Much truer than calling it pragmatic.

Generally I've found Libertarians to be pleasant but James Walsh is a rather prickly character. He refers to Atheist Michael Newdow as a "grandstanding jerk" and writes that, "An American who calls himself a libertarian but doesn't support the right of a citizen to own a weapon is an as*". He states that, "If you put all your retirement money in Enron stock while it was flying high, you were greedy and stupid" That's pretty cold and ignores the fact that investors were up against a large cadre of talented people (including auditors) who worked hard to make the failing company appear highly profitable.

It's funny that the author accuses the ACLU of being partisan's hacks when Libertarians, including James Walsh, are often loyal sycophants to the GOP. Sure, the author criticizes many Republican politicians but given the last 8 years Libertarians should be burning them in effigy. Even when he agrees with the left he can't resist attacking, calling the 2003 anti-war protests "infantile" He writes, "Loyal Democrats despise Bush because he's not one of them and is fairly popular to the general public" Yes, THAT'S the reason Democrats despise Bush and even in 2004 when this book was published calling Bush "fairly popular" was a stretch. About the Dems he writes his confusion that, "a party that will do anything to protect a `woman's right to choose' an abortion won't support her right to choose a school for her child". Talk about some logical contortions.

The author also supports some truly bizarre ideas. He's a fan of the abandoned `terror futures" project proposed by the Pentagon where investors could wager on when and where terrorist strikes would occur. In my opinion the problem with this scheme (beyond the horrifying image of a national dead pool) would be that unlike crop or mineral futures a terrorist could conceivably influence this market with an opportune bombing. The author also thinks that video surveillance should be monitored by private citizens in their spare time using the internet. I cannot even fathom how that would work.

For me the coup de grāce was the following line, "To political activists who complain that the 2003 war in Iraq was all about oil money, the libertarian response is...of course it's about oil money. That's the best reason that exists for attacking someone" This follows a lengthy defense of Libertarianism by those who claim they are nothing but greedy, amoral corporate tools. I don't think I even need to add anything to this one. If this is the kind of thinking that gets you charged up by all means rush out and get this book.