LIBERTARIANplace

A Libertarian Overview...

Over several months leading up to the Libertarian National Convention in Denver, there was a spirited debate about what should be in the Libertarian Party platform between those who wanted to cover every conceivable problem or position from a Libertarian perspective and those who advocated for hitting the main themes and letting everything else fall between the lines. I can certainly see both sides, for different reasons. But at some point, if we are to succeed, whether it is in our platform, our marketing materials or both, we have to be able to boil down who we are and what we advocate in a very few words.

When you think about, it isn't that difficult. You could call it the two Libertarian Commandments. Leave it to Libertarians to take what started as ten and boil them down to two. You could eliminate every law, every regulation except these two.

Thou shalt not commit force against your neighbor, your spouse, your child, your citizens, your enemies. In fact what makes enemies? Isn't it usually at some point or at the root, one party's desire to commit force against another, to coerce, to compel, to require, to forbid, to regulate, to tax.

It isn't that revolutionary to oppose force on an interpersonal level but what about on a macro level. Have you ever considered the fact that the greatest perpetrator of force, by far, in America is it's government, against its people. Think about all the ways the government uses force on its subjects. We are forced to drive a certain speed. We are forced to turn over significant portions of our wealth to pay for things we might or might not approve of.  We are forced to limit our vices to an approved list. We are forced to squander an obscene amount of our resources to apply force to oppose vices not on the approved list, which gives rise to violence as resistance to force, and to property crimes as a means of taking wealth by force to pay for the inflated price of vices against which force is exerted, even though it is all so arbitrary. Why is marijuana less virtuous than alcohol? Why is addiction to hard liquor more virtuous than addiction to hard drugs?

And what about regulations? What are regulations but force? Regulations control choice. Involuntary control of one person or group by another person or group is force, plain and simple. They control and limit ways people can earn a living, acquire services, obtain health care. Force is the opposite of that other F-word, freedom. It is the enemy of freedom. It is the polar opposite of faith.

If force were eliminated, regardless of who is exerting force or whom is its victim, would there be any reason for enmity remaining? Would there be anything left to fight over? Would there be any need for police forces, armies, courts? If even the government could not use force to compel that which could not be voluntarily elicited, what would be left to resist? And if there is no force and no resistance of force, what else would remain except peace and prosperity? With one exception. The other F-word.

Thou shalt not commit fraud against your neighbor, your spouse, your child, your citizens, your enemies. Fraud could be defined as aggression by deception. In a sense it could also be classified as force. It is manipulation. It is a means of controlling someone else, causing them to transfer wealth or power or privilege or something-- anything of value, to someone else, not by physical violence or force but by deceit. (This is the true issue in the current financial crisis. It is not the lack of regulation. It is the perpetration of fraud by people and companies with fiduciary responsibilities.) But when you think of it, any attempt to control or manipulate, to compel, is force whether by brute strength or false pretenses. In that sense we have boiled our two commandments down to one. Thou shalt not commit force.

Liberty is the absence of force. It is complete autonomy and sovereignty of each individual, entity, society, to seek voluntarily and in common cause with others, the personal best and the greater good. Any economy is prosperous directly proportionate to the quantity and quality of its liberty. When people and peoples are free to maximize imagination, invention, and cooperative enterprise to solve problems and create wealth, there is peace, there is prosperity, and there is moral victory. When left to themselves markets create fair prices, efficient systems, enhanced quality of life. If you think about it, what motivation would there be to interfere with and limit commerce and creativity except to protect the advantage enjoyed by some at the expense of others? The government may say it regulates to protect its citizens but that is the greatest fraud. Protect us from what? Our own good sense? Who knows better than individual citizens what is best for them? Any attempt to thwart individual choice is force, by regulation and legislation, or fraud by distortion of options, risks and rewards. Force, fraud. Fraud, force. Apples. Apples.

In a real sense fraud is the worst kind of force because it is sinister, covert. The greatest fraud ever perpetrated is "I'm the government and I'm here to help."   

-go to part two, above right-