List of African-American Libertarians: Difference between revisions

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Doing justice to any list of "historical libertarians" such as this requires adding the caveat that libertarianism is always a matter of degrees. Even today, when abundant information detailing ideas refined over centuries are mere clicks away, have any of us ever met a person who lived, thought, voted, and acted, entirely in accordance with any particular worldview?
Doing justice to any list of "historical libertarians" such as this requires adding the caveat that libertarianism is always a matter of degrees. Even today, when abundant information detailing ideas refined over centuries are mere clicks away, have any of us ever met a person who lived, thought, voted, and acted, entirely in accordance with any particular worldview?


Prior to libertarianism evolving into a coherent and discoverable philosophy in the modern era (when libertarian views no longer necessarily signified a painstaking effort of personal intellectual and/or social development, but could be discovered pre-formed in the thoughts and writings of others), the presence of individuals who were ''consistent'' libertarians even in their political positions, let alone in their personal behavior, must have been extremely rare, just as the occurrence of a consistent ideological Marxist, say, or Keynesian, or democrat (small-d, i.e. a believer in democracy), would almost certainly have been equally rare prior to the writings of Marx and Keynes, or the historical development of democracy as a mode of governance.  
Prior to libertarianism evolving into a coherent and discoverable philosophy in the modern era (when libertarian views no longer necessarily signified a painstaking effort of personal intellectual and/or social development, but could be discovered pre-formed in the thoughts and writings of others), the presence of individuals who were ''consistent libertarians'' even in their political positions, let alone in their personal behavior, must have been extremely rare, just as the occurrence of a consistent ideological Marxist, say, or Keynesian, or democrat (small-d, i.e. a believer in democracy), would almost certainly have been equally rare prior to the writings of Marx and Keynes, or the historical development of democracy as a mode of governance.  


This being acknowledged, it is worthwhile to recognize historical persons whose lives and actions were on the whole supportive of individual liberty, and who appear from the available evidence to have had more libertarian leanings than most of their contemporaries, and to honor their contributions to humanity's ongoing journey toward an understanding of and commitment to freedom.
This being acknowledged, it is worthwhile to recognize historical persons whose lives and actions were on the whole supportive of individual liberty, and who appear from the available evidence to have had more libertarian leanings than most of their contemporaries, and to honor their contributions to humanity's ongoing journey toward an understanding of and commitment to freedom.
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