Come on now. Are we? While I myself wouldn't look for bible-thumping republicans, I think we should at least have a few moderates or radicals like libertarians ETC...
Or is it the disproportionate european population here?
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Anonymous2005-11-30 20:51
Maybe I am a pessimist, but we live in an inherently dirty world. Objectivism is intellectually quite clean; it's probably internally coherent. However, there is a mismatch between theoretical cleanliness and reality; this is the same problem that ravaged Marxism, or true laissez-faire economics. Just because it looks nice doesn't mean it'll work.
The governments we have today evolved this way. I like to think of states as living organisms, responding to external and internal pressures. Those that don't eventually fail. Those that succeed are often copied by other states. The result may not be clean, with numerous warts and hairs, but it works.
If you'd like to attempt to evolve a current system towards Objectivist ideals, by all means, do so. However, the resistance you're meeting indicates that it probably isn't an ideal solution for the problem space. You can blame it on poor bums, or corrupt official, but in reality the factors leading to the resistance are far more numerous, interrelated, and complex.
I won't pretend to know how the current system works, even though I have a better idea than most people (uni education and all that). What I can say from personal experience is that based on the trends I've seen, I doubt a society following the ideals of Objectivism will be successful.