Many good points - let me pick one and say ... (#52686)
by Jason Pappas on February 7, 2005 at 1:18 PM

Yes, I noticed and appreciated Long’s remarks on Rand’s defiant usage the terms like Capitalism and Selfishness. You’re right about her battle to reclaim words but she cared much less about words than about concepts (I think you'll agree). She’d take the most commonly used word and proceed to purify it of bogus notions while imbuing it with a more consistent denotation. She was writing for a popular audience and preferred common everyday terms especially if they were jarring and eye-catching. Let’s face it: Rand was an in-your-face self-promoting one-woman dynamo. She got the attention she wanted and in the process got many of us thinking. I don’t feel the need to use her words. But I wouldn’t use Mises’ terminology in everyday conversation either. Who would?

I actually use the words “capitalism,” “liberalism,” “free market,” “laissez-faire,” “conservatism,” and “libertarian” to refer to the same thing depending on the audience. But that’s because I’m neither a writer nor scholar. I only have to get my point across to a few people at any one time. If pressed I say I’m not purely in any of these camps rather than try to contort these terms to fit my position. I suggest that is the easiest way to resolve the issue. Thus, I say I’m not completely a libertarian because, unlike Rothbard, I believe legacy programs can’t immediately be eliminated. I sometimes say that libertarianism is an aspiration. Others say I’m a hypocrite. C’est la vie!