Socialist RMIT professor attacks freedom

In the assigned readings for a 2nd year media subject as part of the Professional Communications degree, all students are given assigned readings which describes other political ideologies.

Not suprisingly, any political orientation which differs from the faculty member's deeply cherished socialist ideals is mischaracterised and distorted.

Instead of teaching economics from a historical and qualitative perspective, where free trade is proven to be the optimal system, it is taught as "globalisation" with an emphasis on highlighting an array of new cultural and social issues, that have sprung up over the past 50 years, so that free trade can be cast in a dark light with. In one of the readings, a small paragraph is devoted to describing libertarianism as (I paraphrase here)

"an ideology which puts trust in people's abilities to make correct decisions and behave rationally"

So according to this line of reasoning, libertarians are foolish, naive idealists who rely on all people behaving rationally and wisely to justify their belief in having very little government.

And by contrast, it must be the socialists who believe in having lots and lots of government, must be the only ideology which takes into account the fact that people make bad decisions, don't always act in their interest, commit crime and violence, harm others and harm themselves. So socialists take this undisputed fact, the imperfect and irrational behaviour of some people, to justify big oppressive government over all people.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Libertarians do not.. at all.. in any texts or literature... in any shape or form.. claim to believe that people make correct decisions and behave rationally. Libertarians, perhaps more than any other ideology, realise that people are imperfect and every individual has a different set of values. And perhaps every time a libertarian discusses an issue, they acknowledge and promote the fact that humans make mistakes.

It is actually socialism that demands big government to control large aspects of our lives. Censorship, relationships, finances and wealth, industry, environment, media. But the problem is that government is made up humans ! People like you or me. No matter how much our leaders, our bureacrats and our media elites claim to know, our how much expertise they possess, they are still human and still capable of making mistakes. So why does socialism put so much trust in our beloved leaders to get things right and make the right decisions for all of us ?

How can you have a uniform set of standards for public education and expect it be exactly what even 30% of the population would have wanted ? The same goes for hospitals, roads, censorship, media regulation, airlines, imports, taxes, welfare etc. Socialists claim that they know whats best for everyone so they deserve the power to regulate our lives.

Libertarians proudly admit that they have no idea whats best for others, and their mantra is that each individual is the best at making decisions for themselves and spending their own money.