Inductivist

Bruce Charlton has a great post up about why libertarianism is not the future. Here's a quote:

The libertarian ethic is that the highest value is each individual being maximally free to take the choices which best enable self-gratification. While the libertarian may sincerely *hope* that other people will exercise these choices in a way which promotes the greatest happiness of the greatest number (however that might be measured) it is a more direct route to personal gratification simply to seek gratification for oneself rather than for society. Even in the ‘perfect’ libertarian society it is always possible for an individual to further increase their own gratification at the expense of others – while some choices (e.g. to be the highest status, most desired, most creative) intrinsically entail the deprivation of others.

And if gratification is the goal of human life, because human life is unpredictable then *immediate* gratification – right here, right now - is vastly surer and more dependable than undergoing the risks and uncertainties involved in pursuing long term gratification. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Let's see if GSS data support the view that libertarians tend to be amoral, short-term hedonists. Two questions come immediately to mind: 1) do you ever drink too much, and 2) have you ever strayed. Here are the percent of whites answering yes by political orientation as I defined it in the last post:

Percent who drink too much (sample size = 5,431)

Libertarian 41.8
Conservative 28.6
Traditional Moderate 31.8
Permissive Moderate 51.6*
Traditional Liberal 34.1
Permissive Liberal 51.9*


Percent who've strayed (sample size = 3,806)

Libertarian 29.9*
Conservative 11.4
Traditional Moderate 12.1
Permissive Moderate 29.3*
Traditional Liberal 14.6
Permissive Liberal 26.2*

*significantly more than conservatives

Libertarians and especially people with a permissive orientation are more likely to drink too much and to have cheated on their spouses. A "do whatever you want" worldview might encourage a person to behave badly.

Religious people are less hedonistic: When I became an atheist in my early 20s, I saw a change in my general outlook. Before, I had always thought in terms of doing the right thing. Even though my family was conservative, I was convinced by liberalism because it seemed the most moral.

After losing my faith, I began to see life not as a place to be good, but as a place offering nothing valuable but pleasure. If I had an ambitious personality or a strong need for money, I might have seen achievement or economic success as the goal to live for. But for me, a life of simple comfort was the best you could do. Instead of respecting some principle, it made sense to me for the atheist to follow his personality, even if his personality sucked.

Of course, it's not rational to be a short-term pleasure seeker, because if you were in every way, your life would quickly be ruined. But I could never convince myself to be a perfect long-term hedonist. The psychology of "take it easy" was too powerful. It would be easy to argue that much of my train of thought described above was not rational; much of it, indeed, was driven by the interaction between thinking and personality.

But was this experience limited to just me? I have been called an oddball more than once, I assure you.

The Longitudinal Study of Violence Against Women asked male college students how much they agreed with, "I often do whatever brings me pleasure here and now, even at the cost of some distant goal." Answers ranged from 1 for "strongly disagree" to 4 for "strongly agree." Students were also asked how much influence religion has on them.


Mean instant gratification score by influence of religion

None 2.17
Some 2.09
Fair amount 1.93
Great deal 1.56

The difference between the "nones" and the "great deals" is two-thirds of a standard deviation. Looks like I'm not alone.

To the extent that outlook and values matter, I can think of few things more valuable than a culture of self-discipline. But the plot thickens: the other one that immediately popped into my head was devotion to the pursuit of truth, a commitment I think atheists can make a strong claim to.