"The smallest minority on earth is the individual."

@Burnley123 Spoken like a true Commie follower. What a fucking dumbass.

@Burnley123 Society is comprised of individuals, much like a tissue is comprised of cells. I'm not sure how you infer the quote is assuming there is no society or the other items you mention.

I think the quote implies that there are differences even between people of the same race, which there are and humans do not operate collectively. They can for a time on certain things, but humans have individual differences, opinions, intelligence, experiences, preferences, even traits and skills.

It's interesting that you brought up power. The state is comprised of people. Individuals. The state has some power and that power is accountable to the people. Power doesn't always mean it's being misused and the ability to remove those misusing it is the sign of a functioning hierarchy, you know, those things that have always existed in human history and even in animals such as lions, wolves, and chimps. If there is a tyrant, that tyrant is often removed as shown in history, granted that can take a while.

@quietlitany My problem with libertarians (as in Conservative libertarianism) is not that they see the state as having power, its that they see the state as the [i]only[/i] source of power which matters.

The state has power and only some aspects of it are democratic. Corporations also have power but are autocratic. My ultimate society would be one of worker cooperatives coupled with a strong and multi-democtratic state.

The libertarian mistake is to see the unbridled power of capital as utterly inseperable from individual liberty, when their objectives frequently contradict each other. A sweat shop worker has no liberty and freedom of speech won't feed her children.

Mine is a classic argument from the libertarian left. I see individual freedom and choice as good things but that is not something which is constrained by equality or collective action. In fact, these things are mutually necessary.

@Burnley123 This wasn't meant to be a Libertarian post. I think we agree on individual freedom. I think collective action should be a choice and the moment it's not, there is a problem. Obviously, laws are needed, but I think people are trying for equality of outcomes and are trying to legislate things like respect and personal interactions. The primary mover being collectivism.

@quietlitany the nanny state is alive and well here in the USA like my father calls it.

@SoftServe I do see it time and again. I blame us, unfortunately.

@Burnley123 You see individual freedom and choice as good things. What a breakthrough that must've been.

@fancyboy Its to pre-empted a predictable (and wrong) criticism from the political right.

@Burnley123 So, you don't really believe it?

@fancyboy ??????

Lol. Yes I do and I gave reasons why. Respond to my arguments please, not what you expect my arguments to be. Its there above on the text.