Well, at the risk of looking like a hypocrite, no sooner do I celebrate the prospect of a new hour of libertarian material from ABC News’s John Stossel — and go to dinner party of market-friendly folk — than I head out of town to visit Washington, DC, where it seems about a quarter of my acquaintances live (Big Hunt tonight, Vermilion early tomorrow afternoon, for those interested).
But I’m not going there to pay homage to government, the evil institution that is the chief source of human misery — I’m going there so DC friends of my girlfriend Helen can belatedly celebrate her birthday. There will even be an exercise in fusionism amidst all this, since some of them are social conservatives with no strong interest in economics per se, including ringleader James Poulos, formerly an editor at the late, lamented Culture11.com, where Helen also blogged (when not posting at her own, still-active site).
Of course, I don’t (usually) find it that difficult to get along with the religious conservatives, since at least they don’t worship government or the media elites who influence it. And atheist though I am, I admit I usually find them to be rather well-behaved — something worth contemplating at greater length over the next two and a half weeks, as we prepare for our big Debate at Lolita Bar on the question “Does Religion Make People Better?”
One more note on fusionism tomorrow, though, before attempting to drop that meme for a while — in favor of simply doing good and resisting evil, labels be damned.
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