"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." - Thomas Jefferson 1820

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Saturday, November 5, 2011

What You Probably Didn't Learn in School about Libertarianism Presented in a Nifty New Website.


Can it be argued true education teaching critical thinking and political theories may not be occurring in many schools today? We've written about how the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's standards are to teach students they live in a "constitutional democracy", not a republic. We'll be writing more about that in the next few days and the response from DESE (it doesn't see the distinction between a democracy and a republic) but in the meantime, we wanted to tell you about a new site dedicated to libertarianism.

It is a project from the Cato Institute and a resource for those students (in school and out) who want to know more about libertarianism . From Cato's website:

I’m pleased to announce the immediate launch of Libertarianism.org, a new project from the Cato Institute.

Libertarianism is more than a set of policies about education, health care, defense, and trade. Libertarianism is more than a set of policies about education, health care, defense, and trade. Behind those, providing their foundation, are ideas and history, the writings and actions of great men and women who have argued and fought for liberty. The mission of Libertarianism.org is to express and discuss those ideas directly.



There’s a great deal to explore on the site. You can watch never-before-seen videos of talks by Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Murray Rothbard, and Joan Kennedy Taylor, and read the first in a new series of weekly columns from George H. Smith.

I’ve written an introductory blog post with highlights–but I encourage you to just click over and look around.

And over the coming days, weeks, months, and years, we’ll be adding much more to Libertarianism.org, including new videos, books, and essays. If you’d like to stay up to date, we’re on Facebook and Twitter.

So welcome to Libertarianism.org. I hope you’ll stick around for a while, come back often, and join us in exploring the theory and history of liberty.


This site could be a valuable resource for students. I doubt they are learning much of what is on this site. If our state social standards writers don't understand we aren't structured as a constitutional democracy, rather, we are structured as a republic, I doubt students would have much instruction on libertarianism:

Libertarianism got a major boost in scholarly respect in 1974 with the publication of Anarchy, State, and Utopia by the Harvard University philosopher Robert Nozick. With wit and fine-toothed logic, Nozick laid out a case for rights that concluded that

a minimal state, limited to the narrow functions of protection against force, theft, [and] fraud, enforcement of contracts, and so on, is justified; that any more extensive state will violate persons’ rights not to be forced to do certain things, and is unjustified; and that the minimal state is inspiring as well as right. (emphasis added)

That doesn't sound much like the United States today, does it? All students of political theory (in school and out) should check it out from time to time and learn about an ever increasing political movement in the country. Perhaps you should forward the site to any politician in your state who voted for Obamacare which violates persons' rights and forces them to participate in a program they do not wish to participate or need. Maybe he/she could be educated in libertarian thought as well.

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