Barry Goldwater was Wrong

[akirlu]

"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." --Barry Goldwater

This sounded good when I was younger. I called myself a libertarian back then. But looking around me these days and observing various internet flame wars, the state of Congressional politics, and all the other places where unbending extremism exacerbates disagreements and completely undermines the possibility of communication, I now think that extremism in defense of pretty much anything is precisely that: vicious.

Comments

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

You're right, definitions are where the shoe rubs, as usual. I wouldn't consider your position extremist. Thinking about it, I guess the kind of extremism I'm thinking of may be better described as dogmatism.

[history-monk.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. Can I check an observation about US Culture? I've gradually come to the opinion that having strongly held beliefs is considered a virtue within the culture, almost irrespective of what the beliefs are. This seems as if it might be a side-effect of the importance of idealism in the US Constitution, and the thinking that surrounds it.