Forum Post: Please Clarify: AynRand/RonPaul and OWS
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 30, 2011, 1:48 p.m. EST by Rico
(3027)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I'm confused. It seems to me that AynRand and RonPaul are both died-in-the-wool Libertarians who believe Private Enterprise is king. This directly contradicts what I understood to be the purpose of the OWS movement; reign in the private sector bankers and corporations and stop their abuses. In spite of the contradiction, there are a LOT of people here supporting RonPaul. I don't get it? What IS this movement about ?
While I'm no supporter of Ron Lawl, he does seem to be an honest libertarian (or at least as honest as you can expect any politician to be). He certainly opposed the bank bailouts, and has made common cause with Bernie Sanders (independent senator from Vermont, and decidedly left leaning) in investigating the Fed. While I don't think Paul's libertarian approach is the best for the 99%, he is at least opposed to corporatism.
Ron Lawl? I need typing and proofreading lessons. Also the website's "edit" function doesn't seem to work for me.
Interesting, Rico. You really find Rand just to be an interesting epistemologist, which is why you defended her, but you don't agree with her diehard supporters? Is that right? This may be perfectly valid but it's outside my realm of experience w/regards her supporters.
Anyway, regarding your question, I have the same concerns. I think there is a disingenous contingent of people that sidle up to us (on the "left" - those that do believe the state has a role not just in protecting liberty of wealth, property, but also in protecting citizens from private tyranny) and nod in agreement with our concerns, then propose Libertarian solutions...
It's probably a product of the intentional muddying by RonPaul himself - there's another post that hits the nail on the head regarding his left-sounding rhetoric coupled with far-right solutions. It's intentionally misleading IMO. These things are not compatible.
My post did not support or criticise any person or position. It simply asked whether this movement is for or against the policies AynRand and RonPaul advocate.
If this movement would restrict itself to TAKING BACK OUR GOVERNMENT per my proposal at http://occupywallst.org/forum/we-the-people-in-order-to-a-proposal/ , I would be 100% on board. As it stands, the contradicting positions I hear in these forums simply make my head spin, and I can't figure out whether to support this movement or not.
Right now, this movement is about anything and everything.
http://occupywallst.org/article/enacting-the-impossible/
I disagree. I would say the movement has the same aim. If you limit the gov't to it's constitutional purposes, you won't have banks getting bailed out. You wouldn't have huge student loan debt. YOu wouldn't have had a housing bubble.
Gov't has been in the business of picking winners and losers. That's why corps spend billions on lobbying them to make sure they are on the right side of the equation. If you got rid of corporate welfare, subsidies, bailouts, tax loopholes, etc. . . you would greatly reduce the influence of corporate lobbyists. They wouldn't bother wasting their money if there was nothing to come from their influence.
If you're really against corporate welfare/cronyism, you have to go to the source: D.C.
[Removed]
I thought OWS was about learning how to live in a commune? Am I missing something?