Question
Are libertarianism and solidarity incompatible?
Answer
The short answer is yes, they are incompatible. And it has nothing to do with political or economic philosophies. It has to do with psychology.
Collectivism/individualism is not so much a moral choice or a social design variable as a personality trait.
The relation between this psychological observation and Libertarian philosophy became clear to me when I wrote an article on my blog whimsically exploring the "cat-like people vs. dog-like people" idea (treating cats as the archetypes of individualism and dogs as the archetypes of collectivism).
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/0...
A commenter tied my argument to Libertarianism as follows:
This is the shortest, simplest critique of Libertarian philosophy that I know of, and the reason I don't consider myself a Libertarian.
They set themselves dog goals and try to achieve them with cat talents. A means-ends gap that renders them basically ineffective.
Collectivism/individualism is not so much a moral choice or a social design variable as a personality trait.
The relation between this psychological observation and Libertarian philosophy became clear to me when I wrote an article on my blog whimsically exploring the "cat-like people vs. dog-like people" idea (treating cats as the archetypes of individualism and dogs as the archetypes of collectivism).
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/0...
A commenter tied my argument to Libertarianism as follows:
Libertarians are cats who want to scale like dogs. Is such a thing even possible? I’m beginning to fear the answer is no.
This is the shortest, simplest critique of Libertarian philosophy that I know of, and the reason I don't consider myself a Libertarian.
They set themselves dog goals and try to achieve them with cat talents. A means-ends gap that renders them basically ineffective.