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7 Habits Of Highly Effective Libertarians
Submitted by Jeffrey Tucker via The Foundation for Economic Education,
What does it mean to be an effective advocate of liberty? It means to love what you do and adopt sustainable patterns of thinking and living that contribute to making the world a freer place.
Sustainability is key. Most of today’s attacks on freedom lovers include a dismissal that libertarianism is an ideology for idealistic (or maybe deluded) kids, not one for adults. Sure, you can feel enraptured by the writings of Bastiat or Rand or Rothbard when you are in high school or college. But once you get into the real world, they say, you mature and give up the illusions of a freer world.
I don’t believe this. Within the domain of liberty, we find the path to prosperity, social peace, and human flourishing. Every limitation on the freedom of thought, action, and ownership robs the world of creativity, wealth, and progress.
And yet, freedom is not baked into a world where various forms of despotism are always threatening. It must be won anew in every generation. Indeed, it’s the ones who fancy themselves as grown-ups — able to make big decisions for the rest of humanity — who become the next generation of despots. It is the very foundation of intellectual and moral maturity to resist this level of hubris and to acknowledge the truth of our limitations.
Surely maturity shows us the limits of power. Surely the cause of liberty is worth our lifelong efforts.
But there is a superficial plausibility to the critics’ claims because there is a tendency for libertarians to give up hope. I’ve known many who lost their enthusiasm for liberty for a number of reasons, none of them strictly intellectual. People can begin to feel demoralized on discovering how little they can do to change the world. The gap between dreams and reality grows too large. Idealism fades when you sense you are hitting your head against a brick wall.
What can be done to sustain the passion for liberty throughout a lifetime? Here are my suggestions for seven habits to foster a lifelong attachment to liberty and to live a life that makes the best possible contribution to human well-being.
1. Oppose oppression but love liberty even more.
The dawning of the libertarian consciousness often takes place in two steps.
First, you realize that there is such a thing as a state that is distinct from society at large, a fact that massive swaths of the social sciences (not to mention mainstream media) try to cover up. Second, there is the new awareness that the state is distinct from every other institution in society because it uses aggressive force to achieve its aims. Further, the state actually does not achieve the aims it promises. Rather, it violates rights, undermines economic achievement, fosters dependency, and serves a ruling class rather than the public at large.
At this point in your intellectual journey, you realize that the mainstream alternatives of left and right leave a lot to be desired; neither is a wholly consistent application of a principled opposition to power.
A new consciousness dawns. It can give rise to righteous anger. You see for the first time the difference between how the world is (which can often look dark and gloomy) and what could be. It can be tempting to focus on the negative: wars, police abuse, corruption, looting of the productive, graft in politics, and so on.
This anger is why so many liberty-minded news feeds consist of terrible news. But how much bad news can one person possibly handle? We have no means to directly right wrongs, to change the world for the better in one fell swoop. To see evil that we cannot change can only lead to despair: a trap that too many libertarians fall into.
It is crucial not only to think about the problem but also to see the solutions being lived out all around us. We need to learn to observe the marvelous businesses starting and succeeding every day, the beauty of spontaneous human interaction, the order and prosperity that emerge from the exercise of human choice. We should thrill in the many ways that people go about their lives in casual defiance of the central plan. We can glory in the creations all around us that were never mapped out or approved by politicians, or by the experts in their pay.
In other words, focusing on the solutions rather than solely on the problems can brighten your day and give rise to creativity in the service of the good. Liberty is not just the absence of oppression; it is the presence of well-lived lives and institutions that emerge despite every attempt to stop them. In this sense, freedom is blossoming all over the world. If we can focus on making that positive change, rather than dwelling on what’s wrong with the world, our task becomes more delightful and a dedication to liberty becomes more sustainable.
2. Read broadly and be confident in your ideas.
Political debates can be fun, but they can also be shrill and unproductive, with two sides battling it out and making no intellectual progress. They bring more heat than light. If you are going to change that pattern, you must have the confidence to listen carefully to other ideas and not be threatened by them. With intellectual confidence, you can respond in a way that is sure-footed rather than belligerent. You can be thoughtful rather than reactive.
Think of the difference between the way a street thug behaves and how a martial arts expert carries himself in combat. One is angry, threatening, and reckless. The other is calm, clever, and effective. In a hand-to-hand match between the two, the latter is going to win. Why? Because the martial arts expert has actual skill, whereas the bully only has attitude and emotion. Libertarians should be like skilled experts and exhibit the confidence that comes with that discipline. But becoming a black belt in liberty takes time and learning; it doesn’t happen overnight.
We should also know our opponents’ arguments better than they do and be prepared to respond to them fairly and without caricature, crafting our own arguments in ways that are actually persuasive rather than just forceful or loud. This requires that we spend some time reading and studying other traditions of thought. Our libraries ought to be broad and sample all disciplines and viewpoints.
We should never shy away from ideas that are different from our own. Sometimes our intellectual opponents — even when they are completely wrong — are our most valued benefactors. They help us think through issues, sharpen our skills, and inspire us to research and read more. This is the way we improve. Then we can approach debates with no fear.
This approach will make us far more effective over the long term. Bombast and bromides can shut down opponents, but do they win hearts and minds? Not likely. As Ludwig von Mises emphasized in his great 1927 book Liberalism, it is reason, good arguments, and thoughtfulness — combined with a genuine desire for a better world — that will carry the day.
We don’t want to shut down our opponents, causing them to retreat to their comfortable and familiar way of thinking. We want our opponents to keep asking questions of us, to keep challenging our ideas as we continue to engage them. We want them to keep talking with us and others. The ongoing discussion is a sign of curiosity and openness that we should welcome.
3. Look beyond politics.
For most libertarians, politics is the initial draw. There is nothing wrong with this. It is typical of American culture that it takes campaigns to get people interested in big questions like the role of human freedom, the place of the state, whether war is necessary, and so on.
But it only takes one or two campaigns before people realize that politics is a not a very effective way for changing the world for the better. Our votes matter very little, if at all. We are mostly only voting for people, not policies. And people in politics tend to betray principles. If we put too much stock in politicians — even the best of whom confront a system much larger than they can control — we will feel frustrated and powerless. Plus, there is no nastier business on the planet. Calumnies and deceptions define the political world.
Working in campaigns as a consumption good is fine, if that’s the sort of thing you like. Some people enjoy it. But let’s be realistic. As a production good — a means of producing good outcomes — it is mostly an illusion. Politics tends to be a lagging rather than leading indicator of social change. The first steps toward change are cultural and not political. Politics is reactive, not proactive. If we can make a contribution to changing minds and fostering a culture of liberty, the rest will take care of itself.
There are many other ways to make a difference outside of politics. Think of the way the economy of mobile apps is challenging the status quo in nearly every area of commerce. Municipal taxi monopolies are reeling from the competition from ride-sharing applications. Peer-to-peer housing solutions are making a mess of zoning laws. Cryptocurrency is challenging nationalized money and old-fashioned payment systems. Homeschooling and online education are busting up the state’s education system. These efforts have already accomplished more than any top-down reform.
Indeed, every start-up enterprise is a kind of revolutionary act against the status quo that the state’s regulations and plunderings have conspired to prevent. Their existence is proof that you can’t stop human creativity with any amount of control. At the end of day, we’ll look back to see that start-ups have made a mightier contribution to liberty than all the political campaigns combined. Libertarians have long understood that bottom-up solutions to social problems work better than top-down approaches. It’s the same with building a free society.
4. See everyone as an ideological friend.
Do you know anyone who actually opposes human freedom? I don’t. It’s just that we all have different ways of understanding that idea and different levels of tolerance for its inconsistent application. We should see everyone as a potential ally in the great cause, regardless of sex, race, religion, or station in life.
Modern democratic politics divides people by interest-group affiliation. According to the prevailing ethos, women should prefer one set of politics and men another. Blacks want things one way, whites another — and Hispanics want yet another. Young and old are each opposed to the other, just as are the rich and the poor. In this way, as Frédéric Bastiat never tired of pointing out, politics divides people, creating a war of all against all.
But the classical liberals always emphasized that freedom means a harmony of interests between all groups. Only true liberals favor the common good of all, because they want to remove the major source of division in society. They favor allowing all groups and individuals to cooperate, associate, exchange, and produce to their mutual betterment. Society can manage itself better than any central planner can.
To see this today, in a time of cold war between groups, requires some high-minded thinking. Often, it requires acknowledging the justice of victim-group complaints and drawing attention to how the state has created the problem in the first place. This pertains to a huge range of problems in society, from unemployment to institutionalized racism to persistent poverty, exploitation, and war. It is not the case that we all have different goals; it’s that we disagree on the means to achieve those goals.
Start all discussions with the presumption that the other person is a potential lover of liberty. When someone says something right and true, seize on it and draw it out. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t gain a convert immediately. As with all exchanges of ideas, the goal should be to plant seeds, not harvest a crop. It is through such subtle but persistent efforts that we win over hearts and minds to the cause of liberty.
5. Don’t have all the answers.
It is typical of nonlibertarians that they demand full and complete answers to all human problems that are currently tackled by statist means. Who will care for the poor? How will education work? How will people get health insurance? What is to be done about the problems of racism, misogyny, and religious intolerance? Above all else, who will build the roads? (Never mind that roads are all built by private companies on contract with the state today.)
It is tempting to try to give complete answers. And history can provide some important hints and guides along the way to giving us a vision of what might be. There is a point to drawing attention to the way government intervention has displaced a whole range of private industries: schools, roads, mutual aid, title companies, courts, and more. At the same time, we must resist the temptation to construct a different central plan for freedom. If we take the bait, we set ourselves up for failure.
We do not have all the answers. In freedom, we discover answers through an ongoing process of trial and error. An open society exists to leave the maximum amount of room for innovation and discovery.
F.A. Hayek was correct in his amazing essay “The Case for Freedom”:
Freedom granted only when it is known beforehand that its effects will be beneficial is not freedom. If we knew how freedom would be used, the case for it would largely disappear.… Our faith in freedom does not rest on the foreseeable results in particular circumstances but on the belief that it will, on balance, release more forces for the good than for the bad.… It is because we do not know how individuals will use their freedom that it is so important.
As Leonard Read used to say, the single most notable feature of freedom is its humility. It defers to the results of human action and does not attempt to design them in advance. Freedom does not mean rule by smart libertarians who know better than anyone else. It means the removal of institutionalized sources of power that rule with the arrogant presumption that there is only one way to manage society, and that society can and should be managed.
There is nothing wrong with responding to critics of freedom, “I don’t know the answers, but neither do politicians and bureaucrats, which is why they aren’t in a position to impose their ideas on the rest of us. We need freedom to work out social problems for ourselves. If you see a challenge to be met, it’s guaranteed that others see the same problem. Let’s work together to find the answers. Freedom is a necessary condition for finding the best solutions.”
6. Hack your life.
Once you realize that we are living under a central plan for your life and property, you can start to get creative about finding alternatives. You can use technologies to find a new approach to education. You can find better paths toward personal success. You can better manage your finances without the personal debt encouraged by the policies of the Federal Reserve. You can hack your appliances in ways that make them operate better than the regulations allow.
One way that statist lobbying groups have increased the power of government has been to find ways to apply their principles in public life. The greens have become masters of this approach. They have constructed a whole liturgy for our lives whereby we recycle, bike, ration garbage, take short showers, and so on — never mind that these things do next to nothing for the environment. The point is to personalize the political (the opposite of the left’s principle of politicizing the personal).
We libertarians can personalize the political by finding ways around the central plan. These steps are hugely important because they make liberty real in our lives. It is not just an abstraction we hold in our minds, a vague hope of some world that may or may not dawn in the future. The opportunities to live out freedom are all around us. We only need eyes to see and the courage to act.
Before Ayn Rand wrote Atlas Shrugged, she knew that it was not enough to write a novel solely about a decaying social order under the iron hand of a corrupt government. She needed characters who felt empowered to do something about it. She ended up with an epic story about a whole generation of entrepreneurs who moved to Galt’s Gulch to build a better world. Their plan of action, as presented in this book, has influenced libertarians for half a century.
No, that doesn’t mean that we must all bail out and move to New Hampshire. It does mean that we must all look for ways to live and innovate without permission from the ruling class, embracing freedom whether our political masters like it or not.
7. Be joyful.
Factionalism is a major joy killer. There is a temptation to become overly embedded in a small circle of opinion, to look for differences (however minute), and to argue tempestuously. When debates are civil and fair, they can lead to intellectual growth. When they become personal and lead to claims that so-and-so is not a real libertarian, they can lead to broken friendships and general acrimony.
No one wins in such joyless struggles. They cause people to lose focus on the critical goal, which is the rise of liberty and the fall of everything that stands in its way. Social media is a wonderful thing, but sometimes technology can exacerbate squabbles rather than build real community. Remember that it takes two to fight, and you can always walk away. That takes discipline and humility, but it preserves relationships. For our own well-being, we need to focus on building a community of ideas, not on purges based on the false hope of purifying the movement.
There is something seriously wrong if the dawning of libertarian consciousness leads to a dour and dreary attitude toward the world and all its works. It should be easy to adopt a joyful view of the world, especially in our times.
We are seeing the failure of 20th-century statist measures in every area of life. All the statists’ fiscal, monetary, and regulatory plans have all failed. Their programs are unraveling. Governments and their leaders have never been more unpopular. Commerce is making an end-run around their schemes every day.
These should be causes of great joy. Libertarians are on the right side of history. We celebrate and seek to defend human rights against all who would take them away. This is a happy pursuit, one that gives our lives added meaning and significance.
Murray Rothbard used to say that fighting the state should be a joyful occupation. In the end, tyranny cannot work. There is just something wonderful about realizing that and seeing how it plays itself out in the real world. Having such joy was effortless for Rothbard because it was part of his personality. For the rest of us, it takes some practice. We should smile at the inevitable failures of the state, feel happy about the liberty all around us, and take comfort in the hope for a future of liberty that is realizable, partly through our own efforts.
Onward!
Let us remember that when we are talking about human liberty, we are talking about the whole of what makes life itself beautiful. That is a gigantic subject. There are many pathways into the ideas of liberty and many ways of living the ideas, too. That is a beautiful truth, one worthy of lifelong attention and commitment. To make it effective, we should never forget that liberty is about real life, not merely an intellectual abstraction.
Imagine a small group of people going out into the world armed with these seven habits. Soon, that infectious optimism helps grow the group, as more and more people are drawn to its light. Those who doubt, criticize, and clamber for power will come to be seen not as progressive and forward thinking, but rather as stuck in old ways that don’t work. And the group of networked changemakers will prove their value one experiment at a time. People will turn not to the politicians and the paid experts, but to the geeks, volunteers, and entrepreneurs — to those with a vision of a beautiful future. That’s what freedom looks like. And that’s how you change the world with it
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Dude you'll be headed to a FEMA camp with that attitude.
Not really... 7. Be joyful. actually protects you.
If you just keep smiling while shit around you is in a
state of chaos they'll think you're a harmless idiot/imbecile/'special' and leave you alone.
That and never change your underwear so they will never put you in their big white van...
The most common approach to freedom is that one needs almost absolute proof that it will work before acceptance, while the actions of government, with 10,000 years of continual failure, need only the slimmest hope of working to be embraced.
That is because the mind evolved to believe in government and not in its opposite, freedom.
If we were genetically programmed to have a similar authority response like cats as opposed to sheep or dogs none of this bad stuff would have ever happened.
"Fetch the stick kitty... go on... fetch the stick, The stick kitty. Aw fuck it."
"Here kittty kitty... let me take away your real mouse and give you a nice little paper mouse... Aaaaaahhh!... " ;)
AUthoritah. See that? AU-thoritah!
My fellow lib-brothers, AU-THOR...the golden hammer.....
See?
Be different, think different, that is true liberty....
https://youtu.be/kwEU8tpyyQA
#8 Know the enemies of freedom,
and act accordingly.
Know the enemies
No! What matters is where we're going, not the idiots along the way. If you focus on the idiots, you stay with the idiots.
On the East India Company........
''In many ways the EIC was a model of corporate efficiency: 100 years into its history, it had only 35 permanent employees in its head office. Nevertheless, that skeleton staff executed a corporate coup unparalleled in history: the military conquest, subjugation and plunder of vast tracts of southern Asia. It almost certainly remains the supreme act of corporate violence in world history. For all the power wielded today by the world’s largest corporations – whether ExxonMobil, Walmart or Google – they are tame beasts compared with the ravaging territorial appetites of the militarised East India Company. Yet if history shows anything, it is that in the intimate dance between the power of the state and that of the corporation, while the latter can be regulated, it will use all the resources in its power to resist.''
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/04/east-india-company-original...
And you wonder why some people hate cats. Personally, I love'em. THEY'RE GRRRREAT!
Perhaps, if you use lots of ketchup.
"If we were genetically programmed to have a similar authority response like cats"
They're called anarchists.
nonono, wait a minute:
my dog looked at me like im mad, when i first threw a stick, she went for a diggin a crunchy mouse instead.
and even sheep can be partisans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTbS4imsiKo
my advice, reduce 7 to one: question everything, and no, dont need to smile.
Sunshine, Lollipops And Rainbows. Lyrics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Fgp-KihIA (1:35)
Here's one for ya.......
Pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbowsHeres another one for you. A new band out of Boston. Sol Cielo:
https://solcielo.bandcamp.com/releases
Boston Weak
Only 10 hours?!?!? Pikers!
Infectious optimism isn't going to work pal. Read your history books......
See above...
Our votes matter very little, if at all.
The whole country is moving away from Commie, faggoty, urban, Central Planning, but Virginia recently reelected a Dim Senator, and a Clinton era aparachik piece of shit governor.
Why, because Libertians weren't paying attention, split the vote, and let the pararsites win. Politics have not mattered this much since the Civil War. Those who have eyes, let them see.
There is no urgency yet to vote ALL of them out of office, make ALL of them one term limited at the ballot box until they change and work for us. That is why RINOs keep getting re-elected
That was a great article. I'm going to encourage many people I know to read it. There is a lot of angst in the world right now, but living like tomorrow is going to be the end of the world is no way to live.
Me, I moved from the city to the country and became a farmer. Creating community and freedom one person at a time is far more effective than stewing about it in the burbs.
Find a way to be happy even in these tenuous times. My goal is to not only survive the collapse, but have a blast doing it, while helping my community manage through.
Love the optimism, bro. Don't hear much of that
(no, Im not being sarcastic. I feel like I should point that out)
Way to be the solution, man. Doin' the same thing myself. Just wish there were half as many people who were willing to do the hard work of actually building an alternative to this shit-show in the here and now as there were sitting in the corner of a lonely room somewhere polishing their 30-06 and banging out tyraides on ZH.
"Freedom granted only when it is known beforehand that its effects will be beneficial is not freedom. If we knew how freedom would be used, the case for it would largely disappear.… Our faith in freedom does not rest on the foreseeable results in particular circumstances but on the belief that it will, on balance, release more forces for the good than for the bad.… It is because we do not know how individuals will use their freedom that it is so important."
Use it with responsibility, guard it jealously, nourish it, water it, revel in its joy & beauty as the occasion arises or it will be stolen from you.
The only effective Libertarians I know are both named Paul,
but this is the best political piece ZH has posted in a loooong time.
Both of those "Pauls" you mention are about as libertarian as Karl Marx.
The perfect is the enemy of the good.
We need allies for whatever is coming. We should not piss on the few who are doing the heavy lifting.
1 Read Ayan Rand
2 Decide she is awessome
3 find other people who have red Ayan rand and discuss her with them
4 thinks if only the gov doesnt exist everthing will be the way it should be No EPA, no military, no education, nothing
5 starts up a business
6 business fails, blames the goverment
7 reads some more Ayan rand
8 creates some silly articles n ZH
Which Ayn Rand books did you read? "Dagne Likes it Rough" or "The Showerhead"?
Darn! I'm caught on the horns of a dilemma On one hand i see the awful problem of gov oerseeing every facet of our livesand on the other hand, i see the rapciousness of greedy people who gain power through business , violence or sheer numbers etc.
1. Government has to be constrined. 2. Business has to be constrined 3. Sometimes individuals or groups have to be constrained.
WHAT LIBERTARIANS HAVE NOT EXPLAINED IS HOW 1,2 AND THREE ARE TO BE DONE.
AS FOR #1 .... THE BEST I HAVE HEARD IS THAT THE CONSTITUTION WAS NOT DESIGNED TO GIVE POWER TO THE GOVERNING, BUT TO RESTRICT THE POWER OF THE GOVERNING. THIS MAKES GOOD SENSE TO ME
AS FOR #2. ....HOW DO WE STAND UP TO LARGE POWERFUL BUSINESS DOING EVIL?
AS FOR #3 ....HOW DO WE STAND UP TO INDIVIDUALS, OR GROUPS OF INDIVIDUALS DOING EVIL?
I believe libertarianism is a good start, but it needs a Ghandi to show us a peaceful means to solve # 2 and 3.
Ayan Rand didn't bother to talk about chemical plants , mine tailings, or the Ku Kluxers. Her story turns a blind eye to the fact that the John Galt 's of the world also supported people like Hitler.
SO, WHAT DO WE DO?
Read Rule of Market - The Next Leap Forward
<<It is typical of nonlibertarians that they demand full and complete answers to all human problems that are currently tackled by statist means. Who will care for the poor? How will education work? How will people get health insurance? What is to be done about the problems of racism, misogyny, and religious intolerance? Above all else, who will build the roads? (Never mind that roads are all built by private companies on contract with the state today.) It is tempting to try to give complete answers. And history can provide some important hints and guides along the way to giving us a vision of what might be. There is a point to drawing attention to the way government intervention has displaced a whole range of private industries: schools, roads, mutual aid, title companies, courts, and more. At the same time, we must resist the temptation to construct a different central plan for freedom. If we take the bait, we set ourselves up for failure. We do not have all the answers. In freedom, we discover answers through an ongoing process of trial and error. An open society exists to leave the maximum amount of room for innovation and discovery.>>
I thought this was the best point in the article.
We are used to "answers", one size fits all, it's the "right answer", and this one "right" way or the highway approach is what leads to Big Government. (Because the "right" way has to be debated among experts, then voted on, then settled by a majority, fleshed out by lawyers, then legislated, and then enforced as law.)
Government should govern as little as possible. Few and necessary laws (pref. with expiry dates); most questions left as questions and a population that finds its own ways and means as individuals; that associates and dissociates voluntarily without the government interfering or even knowing about these things. The best government is one that has the fewest answers.
Who will care for the poor? Those who DO care for the poor. How will education work? Depends on how those parents decide their kids should be educated and what they can afford. How will people get health insurance? By saving. What is to be done about the problems of racism, misogyny, intolerance? Lots, by those individuals who care about these things. There is no need for government involvement in any of these things, since all that does is force some group's values onto the rest of us who don't share that same morality. (And let's face it, most of these are moral issues.)
Those of us who believe these things need to stop being silenced by government nannies who believe in "right answers", which coincidentally always turns out to be theirs.
Well said; I think so too.
--<#8 Fuck the Consumerism.
--<#9 Save the Planet.
There is little hope. Look at a country like Canada which is proposing federal securities legislation that was essentially written by The Bank of International Settlements. It contemplates that a central bank can make laws directly if it furthers "the stability of the financial system". How fucked up is that? Do you think a Central Bank gives a fuck about the people? Their only goal is to save banks! How anyone leaves their savings in a financial institution when this shit is being telegraphed and enshrined in law is absolutely stunning. And how politicians of all stripes in all jurisdictions can allow this to happen is a crime.
Look at a country like Canada...
Nation states are barbarous relics of an ignorant and violent past. I look at them as little as possible.
How cute! This little Tyler thinks he Can make a "diffrence" :-) "If you think there's a solution, you're part of the problem." - George Carlin For anyone who really wants to make a difference, try taking in a foster kid. Volunteer to be a Big Brother/Sister. Sponsor a free little league team. Those are ways you can be a highly effective HUMAN BEING. and you just might enlighten a child to why this world is so fucked and he can make it better for someone else. As far as making a difference, the vast majority of this political shit is pointless. If you blue liberty and the individual, try helping a fucking INDIVIDUAL. If Ron Paul's donor's gave just a third of the money donated to his campaign to an after school program to teach the impoverished WHY they're impoverished they could have effected some real change. I'm all for what RP stands for, but people need to stop looking to institutions and politicians and look to each other.
Was thinking along the same lines...
Question: Are there any Indian reserves that are still their own soveriegn countries and can they adopt?
In exchange I am willing to educate them to the evil ways of the white men...
silly Tylers, libertarianism is for kids
I thought the article was highly thought provoking.
Me too
Im kinda becoming more and more into mentoring young people. Watching them take flight is pretty cool. Ya learn about things ya wouldnt any other way. That old line teach a man to fish? Are you teaching anyone how to fish. Or is it an excuse to let them kids dangle?
So yep I like this artical even if it dont help at all. Dont be a dick is good advice.
The native American's discovered the problems of small groups faced with overwhelming force from an organised state when the white man came.
The organised state had evolved in Europe through millenia of fighting over land, property and wealth.
Later on bankers found more peaceful and cunning ways to take others land, property and wealth.
As long as everyone else is a good guy you can dream of a Libertarian society, but it looks like a Utopian fantasy to me.
Libertarian ideas seem to demonstrate no knowledge of human nature or history.
A lot of world-changing ideas were considered utopian at one point so I don't hold that against libertarianism. The libertarian program may have fatal flaws in other ways. However, it should be recognized that many of the people who are fighting in the front trenches against the global banking system and other social monsters are libertarians. This is worthy of respect.
Actually, most of the utopian political ideas from the past are widely disparaged or discredited. Marxism, socialism/communism, theocracies, anarchy, and direct democracy (everyone voting on everything) have all plenty of negative examples. Not to say they did not have good ideas. But it does justify putting "libertarians" in the same category as "socialists".
You have to admit that the Libertarian Centuries (480 - 780) were pretty exciting times to live in Europe.
Absolutely. Those were the years when water and wind power were harnessed to human progress with advanced machinery. The Roman slave system neglected these as unnecessary.
Europe also saw incredible advances in horse technology with rapid advances in construction and food-production this made possible.
You have to admit that the Libertarian Centuries (480 - 780) were pretty exciting times to live in Europe.
They WERE. You believed your schoolbooks?
And, FWIW, the Libertarian Century was the 19th, roughly 1815-1915. Some cool developments arose in that time, you may even have heard of a few.
"And, FWIW, the Libertarian Century was the 19th, roughly 1815-1915. Some cool developments arose in that time, you may even have heard of a few."
lol yeah, but nowadays which continents are left to murderously sweep across after a 'Louisianna Purchase' in order to steal/genocide what some seem to label as 'liberty' and 'prosperity'?
Where to 'manifest destiny' next, hey? Perhaps the remaining known universe can be 'Monroe Doctrine'd?
Where to 'manifest destiny' next, hey? Perhaps the remaining known universe can be 'Monroe Doctrine'd?
So... since government thugs (a small number then) did bad things, everyone else sucked too?
Nice try.
TINY NUMBER! Fifty people involved, TOPS! The 'bad stuff' Lasted no more than a WEEK! Why practically everyone condemned it, all the time, just so long as they could draw another of their free, libertarian breaths, or a firearm!
So anyway my point was: cui Bono?
CUI BONO?
Because I doubt the, um, targets of your indifference saw that same era as 'grandly libertarian', hmmm?
Libertarianism is now a new religion and it has all the makings of a despotic belief system where maximising "self realization"; aka one's OWN liberty is fatally and inexorably based on denying similar liberties to others.
Each action on the human scale begets an equal and opposite reaction if we are tied to each other in society; either as hunter gatherers or as urban dwellers. Life in social terms is a zero sum game just like the market for the derivatives today. From the depths of time people have recognized that.
Homer sang the Iliad to explain the consequences of this "collective" tribal zero sum game in terms of "war of civilization", in a world where humans believed in the same Olympian gods. The beginnings of the western civilization thread.
The day our belief systems emerged to create different deities it made that zero sum game even more bloody. Religion became the bone of contention between tribes of different metaphysical values. It added a pernicious twist to the game by making man even more perverse in his hubristic logic than the simple game of survival as "hunter gatherer" figthing for his own. We created our own monsters who are supposed to protect us; supreme irony. In that respect the individual had to re-emerge to fight the collective delusion of "obscurantism" that was in fact a tinsel screen behind which clever men played the game of "power and conquest" for the riches of human endeavour; all in the name of civilzation whose iron law was "baptism or death" or "Shahada" or off with your head!
Libertarianism replaces that by the illusion that we can best achieve self achievement by becoming a one man kingdom. Going back to Noah's arc and starting all over again. Fatal illusion.
How do humans achieve progress, entailing exchange and knowledge sharing; aka building common institutions to store knowledge and then transmitting it to future generations--'cos we have not learned to become eternal like our deities and knowledge dies with man UNLESS it is stored in form of writings based on factual experience and trial and error accounts of empirical methodologies.
If Man only believes like Narcissus in his own glory, his personal impulses towering like a colossus over the desire of others becomes his fatal personal trap.
History teaches us this line of reasoning is a blind alley. We have to accept, given our mortal nature of man and given our ability to forget lessons of past, that we need institutions and laws of "common good" to store and transmit the wisdom hard earned through past sacrifices, the blood of innocents who died to "learn" from life.
So there has to be a tradeoff between the individual and the collectivity he belongs to : tribe, clan, nation; whatever, his own fellow men of similar heritage and mindset. That is the hard lesson of history and nothing can change that. We call that today : nation-state and its a centralised construct to ensure survival of the "essential", the collective wisdom handed down and cast in stone in the form of precedent, laws or written constitutions.
Trying to create a pyramid that stands on its head and reverses the natural order of mortal man is simply trying to play like Icarus. You burn your wings by thinking you are a law unto yourself.
Entropy of past errors then makes us victims of Pandora's box, condemning us to becoming the opposite of our dreams in a land where each man is a law unto himself, we become Sisyphus and survival of the fittest sends us down to the bottom of the hill time and time again.
We have lost our collective wisdom. We forget that our past casts a long shadow and every act that deepens that shadow makes us our own worst enemy. The road to our own self-created Boot Hill is covered with good intentions.
Noah's arc? Playing at God has its own damnation. Hubris is the first error of man's reasoning.
The Greeks taught us that.
The mantra of "creative destruction" to further humanity has to conform to the ethics of man's time line. It cannot void his ethical imprint built painfully over time. Or we end up with the dystopia of short term reasoning which has converted hyperconsumerism into our own global ecological booby trap! Peak resources for an exploding population.
Taking the opposite side (just cuz...lol) in your "prosthelytizing" for structure, for law, for order and the institutions of governmental enforcement and regulation that go with it as it stands, is the not-so-hidden dictum that the Libertarian mind must set aside the "collective wisdom of the ages", perhaps burn some libraries, even as its fully acknowledged that those very same institutions are used by the rich & powerful to enslave the individual?
Perhaps you should work on repairing/reforming that which you hold so dear, lest the edifice falls off into the street because of the rot within and hurts someone else.
the devil and the deep blue...Charybdis and Scylla.
Who said human constructs were perfect!
;-)
A very refreshing, well thought out write up.
Taking the middle ground here... Nmewn and Falak P.
Definitely need some form of organizational model by which to structure society.
Definitely want some form of organizational model by which the structured society does not legislate in favor one group of peoples over another, in effect, "granting" favored status. Protecting classes or favoring groups quickly spirals out of control, where soon every class or group feels and portrays itself the victim requiring additional whatever over others in society.
It should not be the role of government to "grant" anything, as has seemingly been the sweeping tide in our Nation's history. IMO, it should be the role of government to ensure its own impartiality in society's affairs (I know, I know, human nature and all of that...)
If I kill some random person on the street, it is murder. If I kill a person from among one of the "protected" classes, a homosexual or minority (hate crime), or a high profile community leader, politician, or LEO, then it also carries greater punishment. How can this be? Murder is murder... Why should it be treated any differently in any of the mentioned circumstances?
That is just one example I have long pondered... There are many such "ponder-ables" (apologies for lack of eloquence).
Is there a need for law? Definitely! Do the laws need to be truly fair and impartial? Absolutely!
...which governs least, governs best.
The wise old Seek of ZH made a profound point lately in another thread. The very actions of the Statist governments are leading to self-destruction. In effect, local communities will necessarily begin taking control of their own futures just as a matter of surviving turbulent times.
Thanks again, all. I am the better person for learning from the likes of you.
Speaking for myself of course, I have become something close to an anarchist. Its not that I don't understand the "ideal" of good governance, I most certainly do. Its just that good governance is an impossibility with the unethical, immoral & fallible humans who continually occupy it and they (and it) will not or cannot control themselves.
This observation is a direct opposite mirror image of the statist mind who would proclaim no man is an island (attacking the Libertarian concept) and yet cannot explain governments lack of control or "personal responsibility", who can only see the need for ever more bureaucracy and law to set to right the thousands of years of "collective misery", the failure & corruption brought about by kings and governments of every description throughout history.
When you boil it all down, government is just the biggest gang among many gangs in the allegorical city, the example:
They will use violence to impose their will at the drop of a hat, whether to extract money (they call it taxes) or to attack and take over a rival gangs territory (they call it war) all under the guise of law & order, as if, placing a badge on someone or pronouncing their rightness of cause magically makes them a better person and not just soldiers of a gang (which they are), by bringing the captive before someone in a black robe (a judge is a gang member as well, he works for the state, that gang) so he cannot dispense a quality of justice anyone could call equal treatment if the chief of the gang (for expample) were before him and signing the gang-judges paycheck.
It strains my credulity that he could be fair, we have ample evidence he's not ;-)
Definitely need some form of organizational model by which to structure society.
LOL... the same old conditioning. "If we don't have an overlord, we'll all die!!!"
I call bullshit on the whole concept. Fuck Order.
The words of someone who has never seen a collapsed nation.
- Do you like having the guy down the street take your house from you at gunpoint, just because he wanted it?
- Do you appreciate armed gangs setting up checkpoints on the highway, and robbing you when you try to get home to your family?
- Would you like America to abandon the concepts of roads, sewers, and sewage treatment?
What, are you the echochambermaiden's easy target 'conciliatory foil' plant for this thread, or did you simply not read the article?
No, just responding to someone who gave an unfettered dismissal of all laws and societal structure (by calling "bull****" on the concept of even some structure in society.)
Yes, the original author advocates "not having all the answers". But I disagree - you should have some answers. And the poor grasp of the details (or wrose, dismissal of those details) is a warning sign that you have not thought the solution through.
The words of someone who has never seen a collapsed nation.
LOL... you don't know me. I've seen collapsed nations up close and personal... and I know that overlords didn't save them - very much the contrary.
Hear! Hear! I now call this meeting of International Anarchists to order!!!
On a more serious note,
my only real exposure to Libertarian thought is listening through hours of Rothbard read aloud while I worked with my hands. That being said, I am most contemplative when physically laboring. A strong back and a bit of mechanical aptitude, coupled with a zest for living life productively, enabled me to, just this morning, move a couple tons of hardwood tree trunks into their final resting place. From there, they will be well used by another local who will further turn them into a value added product, a marketable item. It was/is a process from beginning to end, albeit a loosely organized one.
I calculate the costs to me of the old work truck that acts as a power plant for hauling the 3-4 foot diameter logs, the cost to me of the trailer onto which I put the logs, and the costs to me of the equipment that enable me to lift the logs onto the trailer. There is my time, my labor, the tree cutting equipment, the fuel, maintenance, etc. that are all at a cost to me.
I didn't build, assemble, or otherwise engage in the manufacture of any of the labor saving devices that enabled a SINGLE old man with now worn out body to move a couple of tons of logs in a matter of a couple of hours. Less than one hundred years ago, without these mechanical advantages, such work was labor intensive, requiring the efforts of many, many, individuals to accomplish the same amount of work over the course of several days.
Whether by chance (a thousand monkeys hammering on typewriters that produce an epic saga) or due to market forces within our organized society, I have now at my disposal the means to increase my own productivity.
Do I want some sort of model after which society may be organized? You are damn foolish if you think I wouldn't! Instead of a bad back now, I would have been a worn out sack years earlier in my life! However, due to the fact that our society is well organized, I have the means by which to earn the capital necessary to purchase useful things, know from which sources I can make said purchases locally, increasing my own productivity, thereby increasing my earnings potential, which further enables me to hire someone in my place, freeing me up to engage in yet even more productive activity! Rinse and repeat... Right?
I am under no false delusions of grandeur with regards to how brutish, short, and nasty, the life of the noble savage really can be. What Westerners bring to the table, and what is worthy of emulating, is organizational ability. The issue as I see it, is, due to our seeming inherent organizational ability, Westerners have staked their future well-being on a path of unsustainable growth themselves having organized greed, corruption, and lack of ethics, and efforts, until there is no more blood to be squeezed from the producer, and now wish to own the producer outright. In my opinion, that has been the West's downfall.
I don't care how others organize themselves, but even the most primitive societies have some form of societal construct that allows for at least survival in even the harshest environments. Whether the Bedouin, the early cowboy in America's unpopulated West, American Indian, or African tribesman, all have had some sort of model or construct by which they lived their lives. Just like there is no sense in "exporting Democracy" because democratic societies don't work for everyone, I don't care which model people organize themselves by. If I don't like the model or construct, then I will simply find a community in which I do.
No, I definitely don't need an overlord due to any prevailing fear of untimely death, but I certainly expect to have a voice in the community in which I reside. I damn sure don't need anyone devaluing, stealing, or forcing my labor. And, neither do I offer any sympathy to those who don't engage in productive activity, I say fuck 'em! Don't expect me to foot the bill for anyone else's failures, whether at the individual level, or the TBTF level, or any level in between.
Yes, I do believe an organized community is most productive, especially in my own pursuit of Life, Liberty, and Happiness! I simply see the local level as the one in which I can have the most say.
If that is the same old conditioning, then we probably are already truly screwed! Again, as I mentioned earlier, "Government that governs least, governs best!"
Well, Libertarians & Anarchists aren't hermits or reclusive, they do join together (organize) to achieve goals that intersect and both groups would certainly endorse your final sentence...lol.
They just reserve the right (as the sovereign individuals they are) to walk away from that voluntary organization at any time, from being controlled, herded and mandated to by others, sometimes less really is more ;-)
Your assumption that there must be progress has no factual basis. Why MUST there be progress? Why MUST we all participate in this progress? Just WTF do you propose to do to us if we do not participate, kill us? How is that progress?
<snip>
...libertarianism is in the end a metaphysics. That is, it simply posits a minimal set of rights (to ownership of one’s own body, ownership of private property, and the freedom to engage in contracts) and unflinchingly follows this proposition to its logical conclusion. The only purpose of government is to prohibit the “physical invasion” of another’s person or property. It is a utopian philosophy based on what ought to be rather than on a sober understanding of the way humans actually behave. Not surprisingly, as Simon Lote and Farnham O’Reilly point out, there have never been any pure libertarian societies. There are powerful reasons for that.
<snip>
Similarly, the libertarian idea that we should alter government as if the governed are an atomistic universe of individuals is oblivious to the fact that a great many people will continue to behave on the basis of their group identity, whether based on ethnicity or on a voluntary association like a corporation. They will continue to engage in networking (often with co-ethnics) and they will pursue policies aimed at advancing their self-interest as conditioned by group membership. If they have access to the media, they will craft media messages aimed at converting others to agree with their point of view—messages that need not accurately portray the likely outcomes of policy choices. Media-powerful groups may also craft messages that take advantage of people’s natural proclivities for their own profit without regard to the weaknesses of others—a form of the unleashing of Darwinian competition discussed in the following.
<snip>
A libertarian utopia would also unleash exploitation of the weak and disorganized by the strong and well-organized. Both Pert and Krejsa point out that a libertarian society would result in violations of normative moral intuitions. For example, parents could sell their children into slavery. Such behavior would indeed be evolutionarily maladaptive, because as slaves their reproductive opportunities would be at the whim of their master. But such an option might appeal to some parents who value other things more than their children as the result of genetically or environmentally induced psychiatric impairment, manipulative media influence, or drug-induced stupor in a society lacking social controls on drugs.
Moreover, in the libertarian Eden, regulations on marriage and sexual behavior would disappear so that wealthy men would be able to have dozens of wives and concubines while many men would not have access to marriage. Sexual competition among males would therefore skyrocket.
<snip>
Kevin MacDonald
https://www.toqonline.com/blog/libertarianism-and-white-racial-nationalism/
forget 7 habits, libertarians follow 2
1. support sex, drugs, rock and roll as well as a bunch of other "left" leaning ideas
2. cry, beeetch, moan and complain when they have to pay for it.
The article portrayed libertarianism in an almost religious light. This is wrong. Libertarianism is a political program, not a religious calling.
However, the optimism of the article is preferable to your pessimism. Sometimes the best optimists are the best complainers. :-)
Libertarianism is a political program.
Only if you're a closet tyrant... which, in fairness, a lot of "famous libertarians" are.
Okay I will do a fucking roll call for all the above commentators in regard liberatrianism and set it straight for y'all okay?
Falak, 29.5, lost money, Pinche, petkovplamen (dude, if you are the photog plamen petkov, I know you!), kaiserhof, AND YES JEFF TUCKER who WROTE the piece:
You all know absolutely nothing about libertarianism. And while Tucker doesn't show it in theis little missive, he falls way short when you read all of his work. Nice enough guy, but he, like pretty much EVERYONE else seems to think the one can massage the primeary principle of libertarianism the Non Aggression Principle. Just refer to it a NAP.
If you would like a true definition written rather well go here:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/05/laurence-m-vance/i-am-a-libertarian/
For a reasonable definition of the NAP this ain't too bad. Still full of typical wiki bullshit like "some libertarian" and such but whatever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-aggression_principle
Now apply those principles to EVERY aspect of life. Sorry folks there is no nuance in this. Either apply the NAP across the board or you aren't a libertarian.
So take some time, think it through, and then carry on writing all the non-sense you want. But there may just come a time when all the nice happy go lucky libertarians finally get sick of EVERYONE'S shit and extrapolate the idea of self defense to be more like this guy's:
http://christophercantwell.com/2014/04/08/top-10-reasons-libertarians-ar...
So... we can only be libertarian if we do it your way? That doesn't sound very libertarian.
How does the NAP prinicle handle human waste (urine, feces) and sewage?
And I would hate to live in a society with human-waste laws, but no governement or government-ish waste handling services. By definition, the "sh_t police" would have to be very aggressive, almost totalitarian, to do their job.
He has a point. Stay out of politics. Unless you're one of the 30,000-odd very wealty people whose opinions are valued, nobody cares what you think---and you'll be liquidated if you insist too strongly on being heard.
I mean really. Do I know people who oppose human freedom? Open any newspaper. We are ruled by people who oppose human life, never mind freedom, except as a means to their own ends. They want power, not freedom for anybody who could conceivably pose a threat to their rule. As soon as they find ways to replace us with robots who do everything we can do 24/7 without complaint, they'll exterminate us, and that will be that.
Anybody who thinks the meek will inherit the earth while it's still capable of supporting human life is too good for this world. In the real world the class war is very real---of the rulers against the ruled. And the rulers are winning.
Jeffrey Tucker is the man. He's cool and knows what he's talking about.
It is a simple thing: just get up and do the best you can with what you have NOW. Quit bitching and just do it.
That is the essence of Liberty. It is a self-correcting because actions have consequences.
just get up and do the best you can with what you have NOW. Quit bitching and just do it. That is the essence of Liberty. It is a self-correcting because actions have consequences.
Brilliant, TwoHoot, fucking brilliant!
But it would be idiotic to consider 'action' an imperative that is somehow exclusive to 'libertarians'
"That experience soured me with absolutists...I've no patience with people who want to sit back and talk about a blueprint for society and do nothing about it." T Douglas
"But it would be idiotic to consider 'action' an imperative that is somehow exclusive to 'libertarians'"
Well yes, it would be idiotic. Liberty is one of those inalienable things. Everybody has it. Ownership can't be transferred.
Progs exercise their Liberty to destroy Individual Freedom while Libs exercise their Liberty to complain a lot.
These actions have consequences.
Anybody want to make a guess how it works out?
What about the consequences that other people bear, instead of you?
If a thousand people are pooping in the river upstream from where you get your drinking water, who faces the consequences?
Externality of consequences is where most Libertarian philosophies break down. In fact, economically speaking, people are rewarded for pushing the consequences of their actions off on others.
"...economically speaking, people are rewarded for pushing the consequences of their actions off on others."
That is true. And it does lead to conflict, even war.
Governments are instituted to resolve those conflicts and are judged "good" or "bad" depending on their degree of success. Conflict resolution introduces the concept of Justice. That is another can of worms.
If someone is pooping in your river (or taxing your paycheck to zero), the best answer is to do the best you can with what you have right now.
Possible actions might be to ask them to quit, build them outhouses, put in a water purification system, sue them in court, move somewhere else, kill them all, drink dirty water, complain endlessly, lobby for legislation outlawing pooping in the river or any number of other things.
The point is only you know what you can and can't do. It is your responsibility to do something about your problem and accept responsibility for the consequences of whatever action you take.
"It’s tough to be a pure libertarian, because reality has a way of messing with that beautiful theory." Ezra Levant
Sorry,,, as soon as I read the word 'sustainable', code for bullshit and propaganda in political discussion, I stop reading... been propagandized way too much already.
Libertarians are the first globalists in the sense they don't believe there should be borders and nations. People are tribal, always have been, always will. Borders kept them separate and peaceful with each other while practicing their own particular customs. These borders can be separate nations or areas within nations but autonomous none the less. It's when you purposely try to mix in the name of diversity, whether political, economical or both, that problems crop up. This can readily be seen in Europe and North America primarily. When you mix tribes there will always be a war for dominance.
Also when one nation dominates another and uses them for cheap labor, destroys many of their customs, makes a mess of their environment a hatred is built up. Each tribe wants to be treated as equals. Different,,, but equal which explains the intense hatred for the usa.
Libertarians like pretty much all political groups assume these natural tribal customs can be educated or bred out and a new order of customs educated or bred in which is why the big push for interracial marriage, schools and neighborhoods and what have you. Again this will create disturbances and resistance within the tribes affected. And always a war for dominance will ensue. This dominance war can be economic, racial, sexual or both. Humans are tribal (racial) by nature and nothing will change that. There will always be borders whether lines on a map or not.There will always be the quest for dominance. This is natures way of selection at a sub level.
Each race has their own qualities and when combined in an orderly way enhances the entire specie. Libertarians and other political groups tend to make a mess of things when trying to push their agenda on someone else. And each group claims to have the species best interest at heart when in reality it's just another power play.
"...in reality it's just another power play."
If you ask yourself "Who benefits? " under the epithet 'libertarian' the answer is always the status quo; wealth is power, and power loves a vacuum.
The Constitution. It's pretty simple.
The article doesn't mention anything about taking up arms to protect te Constitution so .... a lot of people wil laugh at you.
"We are seeing the failure of 20th-century statist measures in every area of life. All the statists’ fiscal, monetary, and regulatory plans have all failed. Their programs are unraveling"
I must disagree with this statement. Statism has no plan other than ensuring its own security and growth. That goal requires keeping its citizens dumb and entertained. By doing so, statism ensures an abundant crop of young, mostly male warriors ready and willing to do the statist's bidding, employing firearms and bombs and more exotic weaponry to keep everyone in line. Statism is an ideology that is deeply embedded in the minds of almost everyone. It shows no signs of dissipation, uber and bitcoin notwithstanding.
"That is the essence of Liberty. It is a self-correcting because actions have consequences."
Agreed.
Otherwise, it seems I understand less than I thought I did! Where are my tapes of Rothbard being read aloud?
Oh, well, now we are back to bit coin! Thanks, Herbivore, for throwing that into the mix!
GoinFawr, if not a Republican form of government, or Libertarian ideals, or any of the other constructs? Which do you recommend? Surely, total anarchy is not the answer? If so, please expound on the merits of...
What if it's not that simple? My reluctant belief is that there is NO way to build large, complex systems that is compatible with freedom and equality for the masses... not at our current state of development. Go ahead and assume the next attempt will be better; I have a sick feeling that we've barely scratched the surface of ways to create badly designed big systems. The agricultural revolution came 50,000 years or more before our brains would become capable of dealing with its consequences, and I see no answer except millennia of more pain until humans get smarter. Somehow I doubt Mother Nature is going to give us that much time.
Hey PC thanks for asking.
I see existing constitutionally mitigated democracies functioning; I like it. I like mixed economies, with fiscally and socially responsible gov'ts- of which there are very very few to choose since Basel1 1974, for whatever reason. If I see profitable SOE's being successfully employed to pay all of a nation's bills (decent healthcare/infrastructure/admin./the three r's) and then some; I don't hate them.
The rest of the 'mix: private business affairs operated within the laws supported by constitution, and derived from legislation composed by elected representatives.
Ta da!
When dealing with entities like governments or corporations asymmetry is required. In that sense it is critical to become as a porcupine vs a bear. The state is the bear. It can kill and eat you but the cost is severe pain, torture and likely the death of the bear. Be the porcupine at all cost. The decision to act is the bear's as is the consequence.
Hold your hand up if there is anyone out there that is for Liberty and Freedom? Well, that’s us Libertarians! Ha. Ha. Ha.
What bullshit, the author of such drivel is incapable of understanding the different forms of government? He has no solutions other than stick his uneducated lower lip out and sneer “Wes hate and don’t want any goberment ”. The author doesn’t have the guts to say that he wants anarchy and rule by the strongest and the most powerful: namely unregulated monopoly multinational corporations.
Koch Libertarians and Teabaggers hate Democracy (government of, for and by the People) even though their Freedom, Liberty originates from, and is guaranteed by, our constitutional democratic Representative Republic.
Libertarians and Teabagger have no solution for their Liberty and Freedom; they are the corporate Fascist second string that is set to roll out against Democracy when the planned economic collapse occurs.
Do not let the propagandist brainwash you into thinking that a Democracy is a bad thing. Government of, for and by the People is the only way that the People will regain their Freedom, Liberty and Democracy; all we need to do is bring the TRAITORS to Justice and restore our capitalist economy FREE from multinational corporate monopoly and their central banks.
And always keep it peaceful. FEE rocks. http://fee.org/
Do you really like Ayn Rand? Everything else you know is wrong also.
Only a looney Libertarian would name his brat “Rand”.