These are hard times for libertarians. Free-market solutions to the current financial crisis sound as credible as homeopathic solutions to the swine flu, and Barack Obama continues to ride high in the polls on his activist-government platforms. Their increasing marginalization has many libertarians rethinking the basic underpinnings of their philosophies. Writing for the Cato Institute, the libertarian stalwart think tank, Peter Thiel explains a fundamental shift in ideology. For example, Thiel writes, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
The great hope for libertarians, according to Thiel, lies not in politics, but in escaping politics through technology. He offers a metaphor: “we are in a deadly race between politics and technology.” He urges libertarians to harness the power of the internet and other emerging technologies to spread freedom, outside of the political realms of governments and voters.
(Thanks, Marginal Revolution.)
Source: Cato Institute
