Laurence: In trying to find a bright line that would distinguish “libertarian” and “libertarian-leaning” people, I have found “individualist” and “collectivist” concepts most useful. This distinction was Ayn Rand’s principal contribution to the promotion of liberty. Though Rand would have rejected the source, Immanuel Kant’s observation states the matter clearly: “Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, always as an end and never as a means only.”
I have often wondered: If war-defenders regard the killing of innocents as “acceptable,” what possible objections could be raised to one’s “enemies” doing the killing that justified the military retaliation?
