The House of Libertarianism

July 2, 6:11 PMDallas Libertarian ExaminerGarry Reed

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Above: big "L" Libertarian Party Logo
(lp.org), Below: small "l" libertarian
Clint Eastwood who told USA Today in
2004, "I like the libertarian view, which
is to leave everyone alone." (AP Photo/
Reed Saxon)

How many times have you stood outside a house you've never entered and proceeded to describe its interior?

Yeah, you can predictably get the basics right about rooms and walls and floors and bathroom fixtures. But you can't possibly know the details. You can't really describe what you've never seen.

But for some unaccountable reason, that doesn't stop non-libertarians from telling libertarians what they think libertarians think.

This space on the web called the Dallas libertarian Examiner gets its share of reader comments from people standing outside the House of Libertarianism who think they know exactly what goes on inside.

For example: "If you can't see that Libertarianism is all about isolating oneself from all others, you're just blind."

As a point of information, the capital L refers to the Libertarian Party while individuals are small "l" libertarians.

As a point of response, it's the writer of that comment who's just blind. A person who would likely never countenance such egregious personal stereotyping has no problem stereotyping libertarians. What does that say about the writer's mindset? 

Fact is, libertarians have the same freedom of choice as anyone else. Some choose isolation, some revel in friends and family and socializing, some move from one condition to the other as it suits them. Just like most everyone else. It's called personal preference and isn't compelled by the injection of some mysterious narcotic called libertarianism. The idea that libertarians are self-isolating by definition is about as silly as claiming that all liberals live in egalitarian communes or that all conservatives live in religious cult compounds.

Another outsider's definition of libertarianism: "It's the denial of any ultimate responsibility to anyone else, complete self-centeredness."

The writer, either intentionally or innocently, confuses self-centeredness with self-reliance. Libertarians not only fully understand but frequently point out to others that freedom encompasses responsibility. Freedom is impossible without responsibility, just as the concept of up is impossible without down, good without bad, or left without right. Quoting from the big "L" Libertarian Party of Texas website, "We respect your right to live your life the way you see fit, and expect you to take responsibility for the consequences." It's the collectivists, not self-reliant libertarians, who seek to escape responsibility by hiding themselves in some form of anonymous groupism. Unfortunately, this rejection of responsibility guarantees their loss of freedom.

And how's this for an utterly ludicrous piece of pigeonholing: "There is no such thing as a 'Libertarian society;' because to have a society means you feel responsibility towards the group, and Libertarianism denies that responsibility."

Fundamentally, every "society" (i.e., association, club, guild, union, alliance, community, web-based social networking, family) consists, by definition, of two or more people. That definition cannot be avoided. Without individuals, no groups are possible.

Again fundamentally, there are only two ways for humans (as opposed to herd animals and social insects) to form groups: voluntarily or coercively. The term "Libertarian society" simply means "voluntary society" and is therefore not a contradiction. (All governments, as a counterpoint, are to one extent or another non-voluntary coercive societies.)

Libertarianism per se has nothing to do with an individual voluntarily joining a group and accepting responsibility toward that group. The relationship between individuals and groups, being voluntary, is the business of the individual and the group. Each has the right to associate or not as each sees fit. As already explained, freedom and responsibility are inescapably united.

One more example of the total bafflement some people have about libertarianism: "But it [libertarianism] sure is attractive to younger people. Fortunately, with experience and the hard lessons of life, the benefits of full participation in a larger society usually sink in; and the Libertarian impulse fades away."

Libertarians of all types and stripes are fully aware of the benefits of "full participation in a larger society" because they fully participate in a larger society. The libertarian impulse will cease to fade away once it sinks in to those younger people that a libertarian society with its freedoms and responsibilities is far superior to the various coercive societies envisioned by both the political left and right.

And just to anticipate one objection, the assertion that a libertarian society will "never work" isn't an argument; it's an opinion. American colonial royalists scoffed at the idea that people ruling themselves without the benefit of King George dictatorially running their lives for them would, in their opinion, "never work."

But to the extent that federal and state governments were small and existed solely for the purpose of protecting individual rights it worked remarkably well. It's today's behemoth collectivist government that coercively intrudes into everyone's lives, stealing both the individual's freedom and responsibility, that doesn't work. Coercion forces people to stop being humans while treating them like instinct-driven herd animals and social insects.

And that's not just an opinion; it's a manifestly observable fact. All a person need do is choose to observe it.

 You can't know what's inside the House of Libertarianism by standing outside in the bushes and peeking through the window. People who want to understand the basic principles of libertarianism can start the learning process at many points on the internet. One of those points is this YouTube video, "Introduction to Libertarianism" by Dick "not the American Bandstand guy" Clark. 

   (If the video above doesn't work, see it on YouTube.)

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