| | My answer to this question would be: it depends on what one means by 'applying the principles'.
If one means making moral decisions and deciding how best to live *my* life, dead easy.
If one means explaining to *other people* my philosophical beliefs, forget it! Almost everyone I know is either implicitly socialistic in their outlook or has simply never thought about the moral basis for our system of government and therefore accepts the status quo as a given. I have given up trying to explain where I am coming from, as invariably people simply do not 'get it'.
If asked point-blank my political views I will say I am a libertarian, but I do not go around 'preaching'. I for one do not see it as being in my rational self-interest to be looked upon as some kind of cross between Adolf Hitler and a child-molester, morally speaking. If I find someone who may actually see where I am coming from I may make an effort. Otherwise I do not see it as worth my while to try and 'convert' people who are entrenched in their views, and who furthermore are simply not *interested* in philosophical or moral questions.
I think there is an interesting parallel here with Christianity. Most 'born-again' Christians do *not* in fact go around telling others about it. Is this because they don't see Christianity as valuable? No, they are simply realists and see that the other party is unlikely to be convinced by their arguments. They, like me, therefore save their breath and time and just get on with *their* lives (leaving aside the obvious difference that Christians think that 'their' life is in fact God's!)
|
|
