Roberto Leibman wrote:

> The axis? Which issues you feel strongly about

So the two opposing ends of the axis would be concern of personal issues,
and concern over economic issues? That would be a highly misleading
characterization of people's beliefs. For example, I ultimately care more
about personal freedoms than economic freedoms -- I just happen to think
that our personal freedoms in America are more secure than our economic
ones, and in the long run are only getting more so.

If you look at the last 40 years instead of just the last 4, the trend is
obvious and undeniable. It's just not tenable to say that we've reached an
inflection point and now the default course is a complete reversal of the
last half-century's progress regarding racism, civil rights, divorce rights,
sexual freedom, reproductive freedom, gay rights, criminal procedure, free
expression, gambling, and even society's attitude towards substance use.
It's just historically illiterate to say the sky is falling and we are in --
or even headed toward -- a police state. Making such claims cripples our
credibility as serious advocates for liberty.

By contrast, the last seventy years have seen an enormous erosion of our
economic freedoms. Admittedly, there also been a counter-current in America
(and across the Western World) since the late 1970s consisting of
deregulation, privatization, sounder currency, free trade, and lower
marginal taxes. Still, the long-term trend toward loss of economic freedom
has only been slowed, and not reversed. Even worse, the traditional but
sputtering tractor of economic deliberalization -- fear and envy stoked by
would-be class warriors -- now has what will be a more powerful partner:
neophobia. Neophobia manifests itself in so many powerful ways:
anti-globalization, growth limits, protectionism, eco-pessimism, opposition
to biotechnology, opposition to private (i.e. corporate) data processing of
voluntarily-given information, restrictions on media-related technology,
opposition to population growth, ham-handed market-dumb regulations on
pollution-emitting products, etc.

Mark my words. The major threat to liberty in twenty-first century America
will not be from right-wingers legislating morality or invoking foreign
enemies. It won't even be from left-wingers invoking economic inequality. It
will be from neophobes invoking fear of the changes that progress inevitably
requires.

Right-wingers will inevitably fail because Americans are fundamentally
decent. Left-wingers will ultimately fail because the verdict of history,
and the prosperity all around us, demonstrates that they are obviously
wrong. But neophobes will be an indefinite threat, because they can always
claim that the End Is Near, and no track record of failed doomsaying can
shake their conviction that this time they're right.

P.S. Here are my candidates for extra dimensions in Nolan Space:

A third important dimension is inclusiveness vs. exclusiveness (i.e.
enfranchisement) according to attributes such as property ownership,
religion, race, gender, citizenship, age, intelligence, sentience, and
sexual orientation. In theory this third dimension is independent of the
first two, but in practice it correlates (imperfectly) with the personal
liberty vs. security axis.

The correlation is weakest for fetal status and citizenship. Leftists are
generally inclusivist, but see fetal enfranchisement as an threat to women's
enfranchisement. Enfranchisement of non-citizens implies support not only
for liberal immigration, foreign aid, and human rights abroad, but also for
free trade and humanitarian interventionism (as opposed to isolationism or
imperialism). However, leftists oppose free trade out of economic ignorance,
and oppose interventionism due to fear of imperialism. Anarchists pay lip
service to the enfranchisement of the poor at home and foreigners abroad,
but ultimately care more about the non-coercive cleanliness of their own
hands than about the liberty of their fellow humans.

An increasingly important fourth dimension is neophilia vs. neophobia.
Historically, rightists feared the future, while leftists and progressives
believed history was on their side. Lately, leftists fear technological
development even more than rightists, leaving the future to be defended
mainly by libertarians.

Brian Holtz
2004 Libertarian candidate for Congress, CA14 (Silicon Valley)
http://marketliberal.org