Difference between revisions of "What Is Libertarianism?"
From Critiques Of Libertarianism
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== A Justification of Personal Righteousness == | == A Justification of Personal Righteousness == | ||
| − | + | Which emphasizes the notion of virtue in selfishness and has as its historical genesis the exceptional American experience. As such, it appeals mostly to white American males who are moderately above-average in intelligence, economically secure, independently-minded, and prefer simplistic theoretical constructs for making political and moral decisions. It validates their own affluence/privilege not by group affiliation, but by inherent individual merit; and it likewise superficially validates the poverty and lack of privilege of others not on the basis of group affiliation, but inherent fault. In this it mimics a meritocratic view, which allows the libertarian to congratulate himself on his lack of bigotry; but, in fact, it is a facade behind which his true bigotry hides. [http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2009/08/what-is-libertarianism/#comment-1644385 Keith M Ellis] | |
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== A Simplistic Ideology == | == A Simplistic Ideology == | ||
Kevin Carson calls this "vulgar libertarianism". Simple rules for identifying friends and enemies, righteous and unrighteous. Private or public? Statist or freedom loving? Individualist or collectivist? Market or coercive? Ignorant or enlightened? Libertarians portray themselves as elite because of their ideological righteousness: just read Atlas Shrugged for that mentality. | Kevin Carson calls this "vulgar libertarianism". Simple rules for identifying friends and enemies, righteous and unrighteous. Private or public? Statist or freedom loving? Individualist or collectivist? Market or coercive? Ignorant or enlightened? Libertarians portray themselves as elite because of their ideological righteousness: just read Atlas Shrugged for that mentality. | ||
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| + | == A Blinkered Ideology == | ||
| + | Libertarianism is often easy to recognize by the things it will not consider. For example: market failures, public goods, benefits from government, benefits from spending tax money, deadweight costs from private sources, threats to liberty from private sources, rights other than property rights, values other than economic values, social harms from private actions (such as drug usage), anything but methodological individualism, Keynesianism, etc. | ||
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| + | Shunning these ideas is essential for "consistency" in the beliefs of many libertarians. If you don't admit contrary data, your theory is unfalsifiable. | ||
== A Cargo Cult == | == A Cargo Cult == | ||
| − | + | Many libertarians expect gifts from the sky if they perform the right philosophical rituals: surrender of political rights, surrender of all government property claims, etc. | |
They wish us to hand over political sovereignty of the richest, most powerful nation in the world. They wish us to hand over the lands, roads, and other property held in common by the government. They wish us to hand over the biggest pot of money in the world: social security funds for the retirement of essentially the entire US population. | They wish us to hand over political sovereignty of the richest, most powerful nation in the world. They wish us to hand over the lands, roads, and other property held in common by the government. They wish us to hand over the biggest pot of money in the world: social security funds for the retirement of essentially the entire US population. | ||
What do they offer the rest of us for these enormous gifts? Nothing. They do not expect us to do it as an exchange, but as a magical summoning. They summon these gifts magically by re-interpreting liberal philosophy and Constitutions. | What do they offer the rest of us for these enormous gifts? Nothing. They do not expect us to do it as an exchange, but as a magical summoning. They summon these gifts magically by re-interpreting liberal philosophy and Constitutions. | ||
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| + | == A Millennialist Cult == | ||
| + | Many libertarians think they can promise pie-in-the-sky in libertarian heaven. In the libertarian future we would all be amply repaid for having had the faith to bring about the fabulously free and wealthy libertopia where the privately owned streets are paved with gold, a gun in every pot field, etc. They have the unrealistic assumption that if they succeed, they will have an advantage because they learned libertarian principles first. But in reality, a class of oligarchs would quickly form as they did in Russia, leaving the majority in much worse condition. The large middle classes we enjoy are a result of government programs promoting equality. They do not occur otherwise. | ||
== Snarky Definitions == | == Snarky Definitions == | ||
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== More Stuff == | == More Stuff == | ||
The big picture of what libertarianism really is: a tiny movement of people who primarily want (a) to freeload on society by not contributing their share (b) to avoid social prohibitions and (c) want to lock in their good fortune. It's really that simple: all the supposed philosophy is really just after-the-fact rationalization. Everything springs from the vulgar libertarian "I don't wanna" and "no, it's mine!" And worse, a huge amount of libertarianism is being used as cats paws by the first-class citizens, the plutocratic and corporate funders of innumerable think tanks and PR programs. | The big picture of what libertarianism really is: a tiny movement of people who primarily want (a) to freeload on society by not contributing their share (b) to avoid social prohibitions and (c) want to lock in their good fortune. It's really that simple: all the supposed philosophy is really just after-the-fact rationalization. Everything springs from the vulgar libertarian "I don't wanna" and "no, it's mine!" And worse, a huge amount of libertarianism is being used as cats paws by the first-class citizens, the plutocratic and corporate funders of innumerable think tanks and PR programs. | ||
| + | == Conclusion == | ||
| + | No one libertarian exemplifies all of these viewpoints, nor do any of these viewpoints match all libertarians. There might be a libertarian who doesn't match any of these viewpoints. | ||
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| + | But it is easy to find libertarians who are well-described by all these characterizations. A large, diverse ideology such as libertarianism requires large, diverse description the same way blind men describing an elephant used a lot of analogies. | ||
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| + | Some of these characterizations are repulsive: hurrah for the libertarian who avoids matching the repulsive ones. There aren't too many of them in print because the vast majority of libertarian authors are sponsored by corporate funding (especially the Koch brothers) or rely on philosophical fairytales. A great many libertarians are repulsed by each other for one or more of these problems. | ||
