View source for Leaving Libertarianism

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{{DES | des = A series of suggestions for how to start undoing libertarian programming. | show=}}

See also: [[Testimonials By Former Libertarians And Objectivists]].

Many libertarians eventually start noticing that libertarianism is unsatisfying.  They start recognizing that their arguments don't really work.  They find they can't get health insurance or experience other personal failings of markets.

This is a very painful realization: the recognition that your world view is junk.  No longer can you confidently argue based on years of self-indoctrination: that power has become hollow.  In some ways it is like leaving the religion you grew up in, except it tends to happen much later in life when it is harder to learn alternatives.  You start noticing your reflexive answers prevent you from actually thinking about things, and distrust your instinctive answers.  You lose your community: you are expelled, shunned, ridiculed, reviled, treated the same way you treated "the enemy" in the past.  You had not realized that you and your former friends had been trained to shut off infection by outside ideas like that.

The normal human reaction is grief.  Whether you prefer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stages_of_grief "five stages of grief"] or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_resilience psychological resiliance] ideas of grief, finding a new community is a good way to begin recovering.   Start some new activities that are not political or religious, concealing your past ideology.
* Any sort of social physical skill: exercise, dance, martial arts, cooking classes: begin or resume.
* Do some charitable volunteer work, especially with people outside the middle and upper class bubble.  Think about how you could make the biggest difference to other people.
* Write about the conflicting ideas in your head.  Even just listing them all helps stop the "thrashing": the endless cycling through the same ideas.
* Read alternatives to your old ideas, and write down what you do and don't like about them and why.  Some suggestions are:
** ''[[Contemporary Political Philosophy]]'' by Will Kymlicka: a very readable college textbook.
** ''[[Liberalism]]'' by L. T. Hobhouse: 100 years old, and still relevant.
** Tom Slee's [[No One Makes You Shop At Wall Mart]].
** [[Paul Krugman]]'s works.  Very readable.
** [[Ha-Joon Chang]]'s books, such as ''Bad Samaritans'', if you want to learn the dirty secrets of economics.
** [[George Lakoff]]'s books on political language and metaphor.  A theory of how you are manipulated politically.
** [[The Good Society: The Humane Agenda]] by [[John Kenneth Galbraith]].  Explanation of the different things we should want, rather than what libertarians want.
** [[Howard Zinn]]'s ''A People's History Of The United States''.
** [[Noam Chomsky]], a favorite target of hippie-punching libertarians and conservatives.

What to avoid:
* Avoid using [[Libertarian Propaganda Terms]].  Take a look at the list, and you will be startled to see how often they come up in your thinking.
* I've met many Christians who when they left became Randians.  Out of the frying pan into the fire.  The truth is NOT out there.  You are on the rebound: if you find a really attractive ideology, you are making a mistake.
* Don't pick labels for yourself for a long time.
* Don't be in a rush to decide what you think is right: accumulate several ideas and compare them.
* Don't put yourself in situations where you want to respond with your old arguments.

Daily life does NOT depend on you having true beliefs about ideology, politics or economics.  Take your time deciding about those.  You got along fine for years without correct beliefs, and you can continue just fine while you are looking for better.

Good luck deprogramming yourself!  If you have more suggestions for this page, let me know.

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