The naïveté of libertarians

Some interesting thoughts on Ron Paul over at First Things, but the part that struck me particularly was the pointing out that libertarians take a remarkably Panglossian view of the individual outside of government and a rather Hobbesian view of the individual in government.

Non-pseudo-Nietzschean libertarians  have always struck me as somewhat Pollyannaish in their assumptions regarding the power—more precisely, the lack of power—of human sinfulness.  They see sinfulness in government, but somehow assume that the rest of us will be “good enough” with only the most minimal restraints.  What’s more, they seem to assume that a “merely individualist” public philosophy won’t have untoward consequences for our common lives together.