Thoughts on libertarianism, climate denial and the social contract

Last spring I visited Washington DC, and made the rounds of the various anti-regulation organizations that I'd been reading about in the last few years.

And what struck me, while listening to the talk in a cafe outside one such building, was the lack of personal appeal of [many of the young] men there.

And it hit me(*) that these men were the adult instar of kids that nobody had liked, kids that hadn't *gotten* social affirmation from their communities. And when that's their experience, it's as if they were excluded from the tribe; so they didn't experience tribal ties, or come to feel an obligation back.

So they became libertarians.
So they look out for Number One.
So they don't much care, what happens to the world & the future, as long as they themselves have A/C and aren't on the ground floor.

And we their larger community suffer the consequences, of not having reached out to them when they were children.