Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Don't Advocate Gradualism

I came across an old article by Sheldon Richmond today. Here's an excerpt from the ending, on gradualism:
While we should advocate quick abolition of intervention, abolition all at once is unlikely to happen. (Although we can hope, can’t we?) But while liberalization is likely to be gradual, it doesn’t follow that we should advocate gradualism. As the great anti-slavery activist William Lloyd Garrison understood, “Gradualism in theory is perpetuity in practice.”
Advocates of liberty are often afraid to push the whole message. We water it down before we even bring our demands to the table. We may be afraid of being seen as extreme, or it could be ignorance holding us back. Fear and ignorance are not a recipe for success. No wonder we are always loosing the war even if we win a battle here and there.

Working to bring more people to our ranks is imperative for ultimate victory, and a practical tool for that is the political process. But teaching the concepts of liberty, however the method, must follow learning. With the Ron Paul presidential campaign over, it seems to be time for all of us newcomers to focus more on educating ourselves*. Tom Wood's Liberty Classroom or his free resource page on Austrian Economics is a nice place to start.

For me, it's back to the books, and less commenting on political forums- which has yielded little if any fruit at a great cost of time. I'm tired of not giving statism the smack-down it deserves.

*This doesn't mean abandon everything for education; just shift more focus towards it.

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