Daniel Prada at Brown University describes his own transformation from progressive to libertarian on combating poverty and the role of the state:

…. During my time here at Brown, I learned thoroughly of colonial Latin American repression, U.S. military and economic imperialism, as well as how race, class, and sex perpetuate the hierarchies of oppression, which still shape society today. Augusto Pinochet, Fulgencio Batista, Rafael Trujillo, Castillo Armas, Plan Colombia, Leopoldo Galtieri, Francisco Franco, United Fruit Company, Maquiladoras, Operation Wetback, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Operation Condor, the International Monetary Fund, the School of the Americas — these were part of my everyday vocabulary. From my studies, I came to the conclusion that distributive justice to the generations of indigenous and black people is not only ethical but necessary to ensure the kind of equality necessary for a just society.

I viewed the state as the Robin Hood that could bring about that justice, and I felt confident in the ability of a democratic society to fulfill a vision whereby a person’s voice and rights would matter more than the amount of money in their wallets. Had you met me as a freshman, I would have proudly claimed myself a socialist and as a champion of those people unheard due to the power structures currently in place….

But here I am four years later, a committed libertarian. I don’t think it is intellectually honest that I “reached the age of reason” or I “finally made up my mind.”

This was part of a slow but ultimately radical shift in the way I viewed my world. I still share similar ends behind progressive political ideology, and my vehement defense of capitalism is not out of an indifference to the indigent. Rather, it is a conscious realization that a society that employs the voluntary interdependent forces of the market, as opposed to the involuntary coercive forces of the state, will succeed best at those concerns driving the left….


 
 0 
 
 0