In A Tragic Universe

Helen Rittelmeyer responds with a good post elaborating on her earlier argument, and I have to say that I agree entirely with the following:

My “Red Socrates” thesis depends on the claim that cultural libertarianism is ill-equipped to make sense of a tragic universe. Tragedy involves looking at human suffering and saying that it was not only unavoidable but, more importantly, in some sense just and proper. Loyalties come into conflict and people get hurt, but that’s what’s supposed to happen when loyalties conflict!

I would say more than this.  Cultural libertarianism is not only ill-equipped to make sense of tragic universe, but it assumes that a tragic universe–one affected by the consequences of the Fall–does not exist or if cultural libertarians accept that it exists they assume that virtually all troubles can be resolved or at least ameliorated.  I detect an adapted version of Delsol’s Icarus Fallen argument that cultural libertarianism, like liberalism, is intent on trying to eliminate structural realities and burdens in our earthly life that cannot–and more to the point should not–be eliminated.  Perhaps it is more accurate to say that cultural libertarianism simply seeks to avoid or ignore these realities.  We cannot escape these realities, and we can at best divert them into new and potentially more dangerous forms, which Delsol dubs black markets.