Libertarianism, is the beginning of the anarchy of the ungoverned. Too many liberationist, will eventually cause the whole of society to come apart. The study of history is to insure you don't make the same mistakes twice or as it is in the case of the USA, we return to the stupidly and mistakes about every 25 years. We have to preserve the historical, good and bad, because it has to be preserved. This is the reason we should save the mustangs and the parks. We can't let our self centered motivations take us away from our good natures. JPAdams Texas -----Original Message----- From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask] Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 3:07 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Ft Monroe & public funds Sam-- The answer to your first question is "yes." To my eye, the question you pose is a false dichotomy. We have good reason to worry about both. It does take citizens of good character and right disposition to sustain a democracy. And the propensity of power to corrupt is real, and must be guarded against. A large question posed by this conversation is, "does there exist any good reason to engage in public historic preservation of *any* kind?" And an even larger one is "does there exist any good reason to study history, other than personal entertainment?" I would submit that there does exist a strong rationale to answer both questions, but that it is not a libertarian one. From the perspective of Free Market Libertarianism, I think the answer to both questions is "no." All best, Kevin ---- Original message ---- >Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:56:57 -0500 >From: Sam Treynor <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Re: Ft Monroe & public funds >To: [log in to unmask] > >Kevin - > >Who should we worry about, those ordinary people who, given liberty, might >not do what is best, or those hungry for power, who given coercive >authority, might use it to oppress? Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D. Department of History James Madison University ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html