Libertarian Islands
Comments (0) I’m normally not too tough on Libertarians, some of them are pretty well meaning. Unfortunately it seems that Libertarian in the last few years has become codeword for Republican. You’ll talk to someone, they’ll have a bunch of Republican positions, and then they’ll look at you outraged if you ask if they are a Republican. It doesn’t help at all that the Libertarian movement was also highjacked by the Koch brothers who proceeded to astroturf it into the Tea Party Movement. But this latest scheme, whether it’s a true Libertarian idea or not, is hilarious.
They want to build Oil Platforms out in international waters in order to be able to implement Libertarian ideas. Now before I go any further, let me give you a quote:
Details says the experiment would be “a kind of floating petri dish for implementing policies that libertarians, stymied by indifference at the voting booths, have been unable to advance: no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons.”
Yes, Looser building codes WHILE YOU ARE BUILDING ON TOP OF AN OIL PLATFORM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN! BRILLIANT!
I’m an anarchist, and I can see the many, many ways this wouldn’t end well. Hell, if I was a bunch of Somali pirates, I’d find a way to raid or even take the thing over. It doesn’t even have to be Somali Pirates, most major drug cartels in South and Central America have a strong military presence. It would be a great place to take over and use to co-ordinate drug activities considering it would probably be built near the American shoreline. Then of course our military is probably going to have to get involved and fix their mess.
There are reasons you have some of these laws. Now I do believe in some of the things the government does to insure people’s rights. The mix here sounds like a dangerous one, a bunch of stubborn people who are so unwilling to negotiate they proceeded to BUILD THEIR OWN ISLAND! They are also going to have limited restrictions on weapons, which goes well with people unwilling to compromise. No minimum wage will work well too. Some of these restrictions exist in order to keep people from doing extremely stupid things that will hurt large numbers of people. Considering they are outside the reach of the government, I also wonder what currency they plan to use?
I believe it is possible for people to have a Utopia, but not like this. It’s going to end up being either everyone for themselves, or a huge mess. Mostly I see an invasion by a Drug Cartel causing the end. The weird thing is that if you really wanted to do this and people volunteered to join you you could just buy many acres of land in the middle of nowhere. When people tried to create little Utopias in the past that’s what they did. But hey, if these people want to throw away their money and possibly their life, they can feel free to!
