Your Suffrage Isn’t in Danger. Your Other Rights Are.

I had hoped my essay on the limits of politics would provoke reactions, and I was not disappointed. But the most intense response has been aimed not at cyberspace, seasteading, or libertarian politics, but at a commonplace statistical observation about voting patterns that is often called the gender gap.

It would be absurd to suggest that women’s votes will be taken away or that this would solve the political problems that vex us. While I don’t think any class of people should be disenfranchised, I have little hope that voting will make things better.

Voting is not under siege in America, but many other rights are. In America, people are imprisoned for using even very mild drugs, tortured by our own government, and forced to bail out reckless financial companies.

I believe that politics is way too intense. That’s why I’m a libertarian. Politics gets people angry, destroys relationships, and polarizes peoples’ vision: the world is us versus them; good people versus the other. Politics is about interfering with other people’s lives without their consent. That’s probably why, in the past, libertarians have made little progress in the political sphere. Thus, I advocate focusing energy elsewhere, onto peaceful projects that some consider utopian.

4 Responses to “Your Suffrage Isn’t in Danger. Your Other Rights Are.”

1. Libertarian Misogyny in Theory and Practice « Brad Taylor’s Blog says:
   May 3rd, 2009 at 8:01 pm

   [...] would have been better to stipulate that he doesn’t advocate a return to male-only suffrage, which he certainly doesn’t. It would be nice, though, if people were able to simply write what they mean without taking [...]

2. Update: Peter Thiel and women voters « Libertarian News Network says:
   May 5th, 2009 at 8:21 am

   [...] a comment » Peter Thiel has posted an update, clarifying for remedial readers that he never advocated taking the vote away from women. [...]

3. Accelerating Future » Peter Thiel’s Follow-up to the Reaction to His Cato Essay says:
   August 3rd, 2009 at 5:29 pm

   [...] Shulman pointed me to a follow-up that Peter Thiel posted three months ago about the reaction to his Cato essay. Here it is, titled [...]

4. Accelerating Future » Politics is Truly the Mind-Killer says:
   August 7th, 2009 at 5:50 am

   [...] hell out of anyone that tries to move beyond politics. Here was my response: Jamais, see here for a rejoinder from Peter. A passage in it seems especially relevant in light of this post, which seems like the [...]

This entry was posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 8:34 am and is filed under The Conversation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.