tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461028406488684699.post8612606843853941317..comments2023-07-28T05:17:56.507-07:00Comments on Moorfield Storey Blog: Value for Value: A Short Story on Why Libertarians Fail to CommunicateMoorfield Storey Institutehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11847389834688255658noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461028406488684699.post-28392602102440304182012-01-15T13:40:57.075-08:002012-01-15T13:40:57.075-08:00Ralph: We are still awaiting a reply from you rega...Ralph: We are still awaiting a reply from you regarding this unusual claim that Storey was involved with an alleged predecessor of LIO. We would be curious as to what source you are using to make this claim. It would be helpful to us in our research for an essay on Storey, especially since no other source we have used has ever indicated such a thing.Moorfield Storey Institutehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11847389834688255658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461028406488684699.post-1059940105881019162012-01-14T03:57:23.135-08:002012-01-14T03:57:23.135-08:00I would have to ask you to provide evidence of you...I would have to ask you to provide evidence of your claim. I have read much of what Moorfield Storey wrote, and am very familiar with his biography, as well as with the libertarian movement. Mr. Storey was NOT, as far as I know, involved with any predecessor of LIO and, in fact, I know of no predecessor to LIO at all, let alone one that would go back 90 years or more. Storey died in 1929 and his affiliations were widely known. So precisely what group do you claim was the predecessor of LIO and what evidence do you have for his membership. I certainly would like to know as I have been working on a biographical essay on Storey and have never found anything similar to what you are claiming. What is your source for the claim as well?Moorfield Storey Institutehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11847389834688255658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461028406488684699.post-59828488516887905282012-01-14T03:30:54.860-08:002012-01-14T03:30:54.860-08:00Thanks for the article. Storey was also involved w...Thanks for the article. Storey was also involved with the predecessor of the LIO. <br /><br />For info on people using voluntary Libertarian tools on similar and other issues, please see http://www.Libertarian-International.org , the non-partisan Libertarian International Organization...ralphhttp://www.libertarianinternational.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461028406488684699.post-30019608128903363882012-01-14T00:41:40.632-08:002012-01-14T00:41:40.632-08:00You got it. That is precisely it. I've petitio...You got it. That is precisely it. I've petitioned for candidates, joined anti-war protests, worked to abolish conscription registration, defended the right keep and bear arms, etc. I too have never used drugs, don't own firearms, wasn't worried about conscription, and was hardly affected by taxes. I asked one libertarian group to help set up a table at the gay pride fest. They said they couldn't afford it. Yet the cost was less than one of the gun shows they regularly attended. I said I'd pay half. They were not interested. I said I'd help them raise the other half. Still got a no answer. At an LP convention I regularly had people tell me they didn't care about the marriage issue because they weren't gay. <br /><br />That was the sort of mentality that caused us to found the Storey Institute. Storey was man who fought for the rights of all people. He was white, wealthy and highly educated. But he fought for immigrants, campaigned against lynching, fought segregation in the Supreme Court and won, defended black men who were wrongly convicted of murder, fought for the rights of people in the Philippines when the US invaded and as president of the American Bar Association fought his own group when they tried to bar three black men for joining.<br /><br />Storey understood that the way to expand liberty isn't to just fight for your own interests but to fight for the rights of all people. That is precisely why we exist and also the reason I am not active in any political party anymore.Moorfield Storey Institutehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11847389834688255658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461028406488684699.post-11090871828656761932012-01-14T00:21:38.726-08:002012-01-14T00:21:38.726-08:00This is also why burnout is so common even within ...This is also why burnout is so common even within libertarian groups -- new people show up, willing to work for the libertarian perspective on issues that may not affect them directly, with the hope that the favor will be returned for their own pet issue. But the reciprocity never happens.<br /><br />I've done April 15 Tax Day protests when I was fresh out of school and in debt up to my eyeballs. I've done drug war protests on the anniversary of the death of Peter McWilliams, despite having never even tried illegal drugs personally. I've contributed to fundraisers at gun clubs, when I've not been hunting since my teen years in Tennessee. But when it came time to oppose Prop 8 in California, the anti-tax, anti-drug-war, and anti-gun-grabbing people I supported were, with just a few exceptions, absent.<br /><br />Even a well-known anti-drug-war Libertarian candidate for office in California refused to lift a finger to oppose Proposition 8. So when he later was pushing his own initiative and asked me to contribute, I pledged that I would personally match, dollar-for-dollar, whatever the entire board of his organization had collectively contributed to the anti-Prop-8 campaign. The number was zero.<br /><br />Until we libertarians learn to support each other on liberty issues, even when they don't affect us personally, winning the support of non-libertarians has no hope of working.Rob Powerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06926789795114662925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461028406488684699.post-52681161116174725142012-01-12T20:35:07.764-08:002012-01-12T20:35:07.764-08:00It's not WHO you're talking to, but rather...It's not WHO you're talking to, but rather HOW you talk to them.Mark Read Pickensnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461028406488684699.post-16142785902250609642012-01-12T16:40:28.255-08:002012-01-12T16:40:28.255-08:00You have missed the point entirely. The point is t...You have missed the point entirely. The point is that if you want people to be interested in what is important to you then you have to show interest in what is important to them. And given that not a single of the others was requesting ones concern in an unlibertarian way then their is no excuse to "sound badly." It isn't sympathy it is exchanging value for value -- in this case if you want them to value your issues maybe you should take a minute to values theirs.Moorfield Storey Institutehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11847389834688255658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461028406488684699.post-23025365317259474912012-01-12T15:57:13.809-08:002012-01-12T15:57:13.809-08:00This parable fails to communicate anything other t...This parable fails to communicate anything other than the fact that depending on who you're talking to, libertarians sound awful. If the subjects of sympathy (kids in little league and gays who want to marry, respectively) were replaced with the inhabitants of some Temporary Autonomous Zone or home schoolers Joe wouldn't come off looking so bad. And there's even fewer of them so they're REALLY minorities.<br /><br />Of course routinely couching things in terms of how much it will cost to one's self is a guaranteed way of not gaining many fans. That much is true.Mupetblasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05679108807930898123noreply@blogger.com