I don’t really want to talk about this, but I need to get it off my chest.
Libertarians seeking to completely ignore the political process are missing the forest for the trees. That does NOT mean they are wrong.
From a principled position and understanding liberty, the political process almost guaranteed not to give the results that liberty advocates want. The nature of politics is to use fear and popularity to render the vast majority of the populace into acting like zealous automatons. Scare tactics get alleged constitutionalists to lay down while their own party sets up new government programs and fights endless wars against poor people who never harmed any of us. Those same tactics get alleged stalwarts of civil rights to turn into propagandists in favor of ever growing taxes and regulations restricting individual behaviors.
Both major voting blocs are, to put it mildly, foolish. Neither one of them gets what they want, but they are so fearful of what the other party represents that they vote in lockstep with parties that represent them very rarely, if at all.
Libertarians seeking to change the culture through those means are ignorant. The type of people who seek political office are rarely principled enough to actually advocate for liberty measures once in office. In fact, they earn labels like “Dr. No,” as Ron Paul did, or they are berated by the President from their own party for simply stating that every politician should actually have to do something as evil as arrive at their job, and register real votes on the largest spending bill ever in our nation’s history. That’s how then President Trump treated Congressman Massie.
So there are clearly better ways.
Starting individually has to be the key. Whether that is building your own wealth or increasing your influence, as Jason Stapleton advocates, agorism, essentially removing yourself from the system and living off the grid, or some combination of both, you can increase your individual experience of freedom. Neither is perfect, mind you. Wealth seems to often be just as corrupting as political power. So the idea that building wealth is preferred to politics is a bit simplistic. Wealthy people have a tendency to protect their wealth. They fund and advocate for policies that will protect their wealth rather than increase liberty.
Simlarly, agorism often means giving up many of the luxuries we take for granted. To fully adopt agorism, you would often have to give up conveniences like gas, electricity, and running water. To some, that is a sacrifice worth making, but for many, liberty that involves practically living hand-to-mouth is not worth it.
Also, figuring out how to make your income mobile and diverse is a key to liberty. Investing in crypto currencies can increase your mobility, but you might have to wait a few years to see any realized value. None of those are immediate solutions for any real problems. They are paths that can take years to traverse and gain the status and confidence you need to separate from the system.
Skillsets are also important. The problem is learning good skills is also very time intensive. The lower level skills that communities might need and are easy to learn, are also abundant.
So the point is that all of the individual aspects of securing a little liberty for yourself take time. If you haven’t started yet, or are just getting started, jerks telling you that anything you are trying to do is a waste of time come off as pompous jerks. Sure, they can look at their entertainment vehicles and massive audiences they have built and monetized, as if earning money should be easy, but it is much harder for the guy who is really good at sweeping floors. That guy needs an employer, and all of these John Galt wannabes aren’t looking for floor sweepers to pay a decent wage to for their tiny production studios.
Now, if any of these liberty seekers have families, that only makes it more difficult. The risk matrix shifts too far towards too much risk for an early move without the promise of near-guaranteed success.
I have some special skills and am developing a more mobile income. If there was a liberty enclave setting up and I could move their and set up a shop to serve other liberty-minded people, I think I could make a very good living for myself. The problem is the “I think.” I’m fairly confident, but you are asking me to give up what is known today for the unknown tomorrow. With a wife and children I am responsible for feeding and caring for, that risk is too much to take. I am moving towards that change and working towards making the risk worthwhile, but I’m not there yet.
Complicating it even further is the knowledge that politics is real. Any time a small group tries to secure themselves a small island of liberty or a new and innovative field opens up that is unregulated, the political actors are quick to swoop in and try to tie up any loopholes they might have exploited.
What this means is that no matter how much you work to avoid politics, unless you are a political majority, the system will come for you, find you, and take liberty from you. Most advocates for the Galt plan think they can just up and leave and be free. Perhaps a few of them will, and great for them. What they will effectively be doing is leaving the movement that helped them build their wealth behind. Once they arrive, especially if many of them arrive together, they will be identified by their new host nation as a potential source of additional funds. Loopholes will be closed and taxes raised to slowly strip away what liberties those individuals thought they were securing by tucking their tails and running.
Politics is a dangerous game for real liberty enthusiasts. The nature of politics is to use power that isn’t morally justified to try and bring about a certain ends. It is inherently anti-liberty, and so any real, principled liberty politics is inherently anti-political. That is a hard message to sell and win with. Almost impossible.
The point is that it is still a fight worth engaging in. While the remnant are mobilizing to build wealth and increase their influence, to disengage from the process entirely is ignorant. I don’t think it is wise to identify ourselves as being anti-state, insomuch as doing so provides the state an easy scapegoat to identify and eject from polite society as fringe extremists. It is important to identify why the state policies victimize people and seek to gain empathy from others who currently hold minority, but ordained views from the state religion.
That message may also resonate with hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, not just in the United States, but around the world, who have not heard the true message of liberty. Civil disobedience resonates worldwide. Minority voices can be promoted and even promulgated further and farther simply for being minority voices.
We ignore those realities to our own peril.
Politics cannot be the first, second, or even third option if we are seeking to increase liberty for ourselves or others. Ignoring the reality of the political mechanism, even if only for defensive purposes, though, is just dumb. Impugning or maligning those trying to protect themselves in their immediate circumstances using any means available to them is not just ignorant of their plight, but simply mean towards their situation. It is condescending and elitist.
It also is ignorant of human nature. Even if they set up a magical utopia named Galt’s Gulch somewhere, politics will inevitably enter. Everything we know about humanity screams this reality. If all the wealthy and influential run away to their magical dream world, they will leave the rest of liberty advocates without any protection or voice. Eventually they will have no audience as those smaller, weaker voices of dissent are methodically snuffed out.
Then they will have no one left to defend them when the political weaponry is inevitably turned on them after they are rooted out of their cowardly hiding places. They can talk about setting up a Praxian society all they want, but the guillotine falls on an elitists arrogant neck the same way, and they are foolish to simply ignore the reality of politics.
Enjoy this? Share it at least once…direct to a friend, or on your social media site of choice. Help spread the word! Subscribe below or join the Other Hands to make sure you don’t miss any new posts, and remember to like, share, and comment.
