Re: More conservative Rock-and-Roll stars

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

On Thursday, March 11, 2004 at 14:19:01 (-0500) Gil Skillman writes:
>>OK, all American Rock-and-Roll stars are libertarians.
>
>Bruce Springsteen?
>Jackson Browne?
>Rage Against the Machine (as in, members of the former)?
>Bonnie Raitt?

Bill writes;
Chomsky says he's more or less "libertarian socialist".  I think
Dave has in mind only "libertarian corporatists".

I think that Dave has a point though. What's commonly called "libertarianism" (the belief that the only major role that the government should play is the protection of the property rights) is very popular, at least on the rhetorical level, among rich people and adolescents. (The former is for obvious obvious reasons; adolescents are often rebelling against all authority and are impressed by such "thinkers" as Ayn Rand.) A lot of rock starts are rich people whose adolescence has been extended.

Of course, almost all self-styled libertarians call for government aid (corporate subsidies, etc.) beyond the protection of property rights when the chips are down.

Jim D.