Like Claire, I wasn’t going to do the 9/11 thing this year because what’s left to be said? Then she found something that certainly deserves remembrance.
I wasn’t going to write anything to mark this anniversary. I can’t stand the annual rehashing, the verbal digging up of the dead, the demand that we always remember, remember, remember — but somehow never analyze, reflect, or correct.
Then Jim Bovard reminded me of something that really matters. He noted that Thomas Szasz, who just died, was one of the prominent libertarians who stayed true to his principles after that handful of villains wrought their havoc 11 years ago.
So many didn’t. So many people who claimed to be libertarian tossed their alleged principles out the window as fast as they could make the throw.
Individualism? What’s that? No, let’s punish all the Arabs. Or all the Muslims. Or whoever. Non-aggression? No, we must have war-war-war! Privacy? How can we be so selfish as to think of our own petty little concerns when our government needs to protect us? The Bill of Rights? That might be okay for Americans in peaceful times, but it doesn’t apply to foreigners or in emergencies!
I didn’t understand then and I don’t understand now how people who believed in individual rights and claimed to hold solid principles of freedom could scurry like rats to groupthink and statism the moment they felt scared.
My response to the “Nuke ‘Em All” faction back in January of ’02…