jack: (Default)
[personal profile] jack
Good

It's really hard to portray two conflicting points of view well. But a time when Weber does it surprisingly well is when a couple of ships/fleets are manoeuvring against each other, and A has a plan which eventually works. It's too easy to make the mistake of having B constantly justify to themselves why they believe [thing A wants them to believe], which does happen, but often comes across as ostentatious and forced in fiction. Instead, Weber often does well at portraying B forming plans of their own, which make sense given what they know, and [thing A wants them to believe] is just a detail they've naturally glossed over.

Bad

I only just noticed this, but stereotypical Internet Libertarianism (TM) (as personified by non-dolists in the republic of haven) seems to believe:

(a) People should work hard and make good under their own effort
(b) I, personally, WANT to work hard and resent any sort of government interference, helpful or hindering
(c) Everyone else is lazy scum who the government have to FORCE to work hard

Isn't it a bit paternalistic to assume that it's just you who has a work ethic and everyone else has to be shown how to do it? In fact, couldn't withdrawing government aid of any form to force people to work harder be viewed as just as interfering as granting government aid of any form?

Date: 2012-10-12 04:26 pm (UTC)
onyxlynx: Bird with Bump in Beak (Beaky Bird)
From: [personal profile] onyxlynx
It's a lot paternalistic. Also a bit solipsistic. One has also noted that they are not above accepting government aid when it is to their advantage.

Why, no, I'm not fond of libertarians.

Date: 2012-10-12 06:24 pm (UTC)
chess: (Default)
From: [personal profile] chess
Actually the most coherent libertarians I have met generally are also of the opinion that they do not want to work hard and in the absence of anything making them work hard they would not work hard - but they consider that 'being able to keep all the fruits of their hard work' is a thing which makes them (and by extension, other people) work hard, and hence slacking off is primarily caused by the governmental interference that 'robs' people of the fruits of their hard work...