Mike Acree has a wonderful analysis of libertarianism's appeal, or lack thereof, and the psychology of various political viewpoints, in next month's _Liberty_, available online. From Rational Review News Digest:
45) Who's your daddy?
Liberty Unbound
by Michael Acree
"What liberals and conservatives have in common, I suggest, is having
publicly subscribed to an ascetic code in which they are not
wholeheartedly committed. They have simply focused on different
aspects of Christian asceticism (an asceticism shared by most other
religions) -- money or sex. Morality, in the cynical view, was
probably invented as a system of social control: the intellectually
powerful use guilt to control the physically powerful. Happy people
are hard to control noncoercively. There is a limit to what we can
offer them as inducements to behave differently. Guilty people, on the
other hand, offer a conspicuous lever. Do as the moralists say, and
your sins will be forgiven and you will experience eternal bliss.
(Some gullibility is required, but not an extraordinary amount.) The
ideal moral code, from this point of view, is one that is set against
human nature, that people can hardly help violating." (for publication
04/05)