This sounds good to the person who doesn’t understand libertarianism and anarchy. It gives them easily understood guiding posts – but not necessarily good ones. For instance, most of the libertarians I know are not wealthy, though some are. Secondly, though many punks might identify themselves with anarchy, that is only a stereotypical view of an anarchist, as was the luddite terrorists of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. And Lysander Spooner, who could be described both as a libertarian and an anarchist was neither wealthy nor could he be described as a tattooed, pierced, offensive antagonist, though he was certainly outside the norm for the average citizen of his time. And though libertarianism and anarchy might touch and agree on many points the twain shall never meet due to the fact that libertarians are for protections of individual rights from both their fellow man and from the state whereas anarchists often attack private property as well as the property of the state. This has made anarchy quite popular with many communists and primitive socialists who couldn’t be further juxtaposed to true libertarianism.
Remember, though symbols can simplify ideas often they over simplify to the point that they lack veracity in their portrayal of the idea. This cartoon is one such case. Don’t fall into the trap of accepting symbols at first sight. Think about what you are exposed to at all times!
Mike
March 5, 2010
I think there are considerably stronger links between libertarianism and anarchy than your post implies, indeed, ultimately they’re one and the same thing for many forms of either. Just because there are arseholes who claim to represent both groups doesn’t mean that for followers of each philosophy (both of which, when correctly tracked through their histories and interpreted in the light of same) don’t share a huge selection of their viewpoints albeit they may choose to couch them differently. If there were a Venn diagram, there’d be far more overlap than difference…