article from Tim

Tim posted this article on his Gchat, and I really liked how it started and progressed, but was not such a big fan of how it ends.

* spoiler warning *

The author gave a great discussion - with some truly convincing examples - of the idea of competing selves and how it influences our actions without contradicting an idea of "self." He then goes on to discuss paternalistic libertarianism and how it utilizes this notion of "good self" versus "bad selves." At this point, I had a vision of where the article was going to lead, and it had to do with caveats. And indeed, the author's next paragraph starts out with "It’s more controversial, of course, when someone else does the binding. " Sweetness, I thought! He's going to talk about the potential problems of paternalistic libertarianism.

Only... NOT. Read the article, and I think you'll understand what I'm talking about.

I mean, seriously? "We benefit, intellectually and personally, from the interplay between different selves, from the balance between long-term contemplation and short-term impulse." does not cut it. It's not news. It gives no guidance for policy. It's crap.

Is it not obvious that the main danger of paternalistic libertarianism is that it could be wrong about what is best for ourselves? As a pro-choice advocate, I immediately thought of the mandatory consent laws and 24 hour waiting periods that stand in the way of young women getting legitimate abortions. Those are paternalistic measures too, but I'm hard-pressed to see how they encourage our "best" selves. Moreover, while some people who push for these types of measures are just assholes, the majority of them truly believe they are doing good.

The question, then, comes down to who should make the laws in a paternalistic libertarian society or how. This is where the idea of a republic of selves within ourselves mirrors itself in the political process of America itself, and convolutes the metaphor too. After all, we can all believe that there are good and bad versions of ourselves, but in the make-up of American society, which of us are good and which of us are bad? And if we're the neurons making up the moral and intellectual network of America, who, then, is the total self??