Rick
My background is in formal philosophy, and it’s a schizophrenic background at that: I’m as equally at home in the works of Heidegger or Nietzsche as I am in the words of W.V.O. Quine. That background informs the way I approach things. I try to be aware of unspoken assumptions, and am suspicious of “common sense” in many areas, but especially in the political sphere. “Common sense” is often a manifestation of a collection of severely flawed assumptions that happen to be commonly shared.
Politically, I am anti-authoritarian by instinct. I believe that government serves its highest function in protecting the autonomy of its citizens. There is always a tension, however, in that the very mechanics of government –no matter its form– often pose the greatest threat to that same autonomy. That threat, I believe, tends to grow without an educated, aware and engaged citizenry. I break from many Libertarians, however, in that I see “private” forms of centralized power and wealth as creating the same potential for threat. Government, at times, serves its protective function best in counter-balancing the exertion of coercive power through those other forms. I am not registered to any party.
