Tag: Libertarianism

The Objective Standard has released my latest article, “Even with Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party Undermines Liberty.” My main argument is that the libertarian movement is overrun with moral subjectivism and anarchism, and Johnson will not be able to escape that association. My fear is that, to the extent Johnson gets any traction, that will only serve to link free markets with libertarian kookiness in public debate.

As I have argued before, while the ideology of the LP is the main problem, strictly on grounds of electoral strategy supporting Johnson makes little sense. See my previous two articles about that:

Paul-Johnson 2012: The Libertarians’ Best-Case Scenario

The Delusional Gary Johnson

Now that I’ve dismissed the idea of Gary Johnson having much success as the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate, another possibility occurs to me. It seems to me that, if you’re an LP supporter, the best-case scenario is that Ron Paul runs as the LP’s presidential candidate with Johnson in the veep slot. That, I confess, would be a formidable ticket.

(I actually think Johnson-Paul would be a stronger ticket, but I don’t think that’s likely given Paul’s relative level of support. However, if Paul takes seriously his “personhood” pledge, that might preclude him from running with pro-choice Johnson.)

But how would that play out in the election? I predict it would play out roughly as the last governor’s race in Colorado played out. Due to a fluke, the frontrunner GOP candidate lost the nomination (after getting caught up in plagiarism charges). The man left for the job was Dan Maes, an inexperienced, incompetent bungler. Thus, Tom Tancredo entered the race with the bizarre Constitution Party. (I reluctantly pulled the lever for Tancredo, but in retrospect I think that was a mistake.) What happened? Maes and Tancredo beat the crap out of each other, leaving John Hickenlooper (a decent Democrat) to easily walk away with over half of the popular vote.

I think roughly the same thing would happen if the LP candidate actually got any traction. The Republican candidate would of necessity start spending resources trashing the LP candidate, who would respond in turn. In a battle between the Libertarian and Republican candidates to convince voters that the other guy is a total bastard, both sides would win. Given Paul’s newsletters, his foreign policy statements, the bizarre figures of the LP, Romneycare, etcetera, there’s more than enough mud to go around!

The most likely outcome is that Obama would walk away with an easy victory, stronger than ever.

And, to the extent that the LP gained any traction, that would serve to convince most Americans that, on the whole, Libertarians are totally crazy.

Moreover, the fight between the LP and the GOP might cost the latter important seats in Congress, leaving Obama with relatively stronger support there. (I’ve suggested elsewhere that the least-bad possible outcome in 2012 might well be an Obama victory with a strong GOP in Congress.)

Again, elsewhere I will argue that the LP is not worth supporting simply because of the ideas it promotes, and that is the most important issue. But, just on the level of partisan political strategy, I just don’t see how promoting a strong LP ticket (if such is possible) could accomplish anything but destruction.

I will write about the ideological problems with supporting Gary Johnson’s run with the Libertarian Party elsewhere. Here, I concern myself with an easy question: does supporting Johnson’s LP run make strategic sense even on the basic level of partisan politics?

If you think Johnson has a serious chance of becoming president on the LP ticket, you are simply delusional. Any rational person can convince himself that is the case merely by answering the following questions.

1. How many current members of Congress won on the LP ticket?

2. How many members of Congress has the LP elected, ever?

3. How many governors has the LP elected, ever?

4. How many Libertarians currently serve in any state legislature?

5. How many LP presidential candidates have won more than one percent of the popular vote?

6. How many electoral votes has an LP presidential candidate received, ever?

Here are the answers:

1. Zero.
2. Zero.
3. Zero.
4. Zero.
5. One. In 1980, Ed Clark won 1.1 percent of the popular vote.
6. One. In 1972 John Hospers got a single electoral vote.

Ah, but some readers are thinking, Gary Johnson actually was a real politician; he served for eight years as governor of New Mexico. I agree that raises the possibility of him earning more votes as an LP candidate than previous candidates have earned. But he could earn many times the previous totals and still lose very badly.

I was active in the Colorado LP for several years. I served on the state LP board. I attended national LP conventions. I even ran as a candidate once. My experience suggests there are two types of LP candidates for mid- to high-level positions. Realistic ones whose reasons for running do not include winning, and delusional ones who think that this time, by golly, they’re going to take it all the way. A couple candidates I knew spent ridiculous amounts of their own money running. And guess what. They still got blown out of the water come election day. You have a far better chance earning your first million through Amway than you do winning a major election as a Libertarian candidate.

Ah, but others are thinking, even if Johnson doesn’t win, voting for him will lodge a protest. As I will argue elsewhere, lodging a protest vote that promotes the LP is incredibly counterproductive from the standpoint of advancing a rights-protecting government. But let’s table that matter for the moment and just talk electoral tactics.

If you want to register a protest vote, an undervote is nearly as effective as a third-party vote. I simply did not vote in the last presidential election, and I may do the same in 2012, depending on the GOP nominee. (I absolutely will not vote for Paul, Gingrich, Santorum, Perry, or Bachmann.) If a vote for the LP candidate were merely a protest vote (which, I emphasize, is not the case), then the strategic advantage of voting LP versus voting for nobody (or a write-in) would be negligible.

And actually spending any time or money promoting Johnson’s campaign, given all the alternate ways one could spend time and money, would be at best practically worthless.

But of course one’s broader political strategies must account for ideology. It’s not like anybody who might support Johnson might instead support an overt Communist as a “protest vote.” Clearly promoting the right ideas is the paramount strategic concern. I grant that, if you think that supporting Johnson as an LP candidate would advance the right ideas, then supporting him might offer some minuscule strategic advantage. At this point, I encourage readers merely to contemplate the possibility that supporting Johnson as a Libertarian would instead promote very bad ideas, a case I intend to make elsewhere.

Update: See the next post in the series, “Paul-Johnson 2012: The Libertarians’ Best-Case Scenario.”

Recently I mocked Ann Coulter for her silly thesis that mobs are demonic. Bad, yes. Demonic, crazy talk.

But I actually agree with her basic criticisms of libertarianism (via Matt Welch).

For example, Coulter argues, Ron Paul is wrong to think that government can simply get out of marriage. What about adoption, child custody, health decisions, and inheritance, she sensibly wonders. Back in 2007 I argued that marriage is a sort of contract, and the government properly recognizes it for all couples.

However (and inevitably), Coulter errs in writing:

Most libertarians are cowering frauds too afraid to upset anyone to take a stand on some of the most important cultural issues of our time. So they dodge the tough questions when it suits their purposes by pretending to be Randian purists, but are perfectly comfortable issuing politically expedient answers when it comes to the taxpayers’ obligations under Medicare and Social Security.

Coulter is correct about libertarians; often (but not in every case) they hedge on abortion, misconstrue the significance of the marriage contract, and decline to take a moral stand on things like prostitution and heavy recreational drug use.

But Rand rejected libertarianism, and certainly Rand took tough positions on social issues, as Coulter must know.

Likewise, I cannot be accused of failing to take such tough positions. I have declared I’m not a libertarian. I’ve advocated gay marriage and legal abortion. I’ve declared prostitution to be immoral while advocating its legality (among consenting adults). Offhand I cannot think of any cultural issue on which I’ve not taken a stand.

Yet apparently Coulter finds it more convenient to lump all her opponents together and attribute guilt by association. What explains her sloppy reasoning? Personally, I blame Satan.

Given my past activism with the Libertarian Party of Colorado, it is no surprise that lots of people still think of me as a libertarian. At the same time, libertarians think it odd that I disclaim the title. So I thought I’d make another attempt to address the issue; I delivered the following talk May 7 at Liberty Toastmasters.

For more, readers can check out my 2007 article largely on the same topic, which contains links to older writings.

After I delivered my talk, I read Shea Levy’s post, “Objectivists are Libertarians.” Because that post and my speech appear at roughly the same time, I thought I’d expand my point by briefly responding to Levy’s arguments.

Levy argues that, just as it is proper to categorize “Joseph Stalin, Christopher Hitchens, and Ayn Rand” as atheists, despite their vast differences, so it is proper to categorize “John Stossel, Radley Balko, and Ayn Rand” as libertarians.

Levy’s argument quickly falls apart when we look at Levy’s own “definition” of libertarianism: “the vast majority of activities between consenting adults should be legal and that the current US government acts far out of the bounds of the proper scope of a government.”

First, what constitutes “consent?” That very much depends on one’s philosophical commitments. Many libertarians argue that “consent” includes things like pirating music, and some hold it includes having sex with children. Throwing together advocates of a Constitutionally limited government that protects individual rights with advocates of copyright violations and child rape is rather less than helpful. Also included in this motley crew, by the way, are neo-Confederates and racist “militia” groups.

Second, defining one’s political beliefs as wanting a less-aggressive government makes absolutely no sense. That includes advocates of Constitutionally limited government as well as right-anarchists and left-anarchists. If we can trust the Wikipedia entry on libertarianism, in its origins (as a political term) it derives from anarcho-socialism.

Consider, for instance, this telling quote from Colin Ward: “For a century, anarchists have used the word ‘libertarian’ as a synonym for ‘anarchist’, both as a noun and an adjective. The celebrated anarchist journal Le Libertaire was founded in 1896. However, much more recently the word has been appropriated by various American free-market philosophers…”

As I mention in the talk embedded here, and as I have argued previously, libertarianism is fundamentally a reactionary movement, in that it is motivated by an anti-government sentiment.

“Smaller government” simply cannot be a defining characteristic of any valid concept, as it includes radically different political commitments, ranging from anarcho-socialism to anarcho-capitalism to Ronald Reagan. Whereas atheism coherently describes people who disbelieve in a god, the comparable concept for people who disbelieve in government is anarchism. Rand certainly was no anarchist, and neither am I (thought I took the theory quite seriously for several years).

To clarify the point, I am not fundamentally for “smaller government.” I am for a government that protects people’s rights (in a sense broadly compatible with Lockean property rights). I can imagine a scenario in which I’d positively advocate government consuming the vast majority of national output: say, if a reconstituted Soviet Union joined forces with a newly aggressive China and the Islamist world to wage war on the U.S. The fundamental issue is the government’s purpose, not its size.

I think the basic conceptual problem with (American) libertarianism is that it tries to mesh two fundamentally incompatible concepts: anarchism and (Lockean) individual rights. I think that nicely explains why even self-proclaimed libertarians who claim to support government so often get caught up in bizarre movements ranging from neo-Confederacy to music piracy to Islamist apologetics.

Furthermore, I suggest that the better libertarians, such as the scholars at the Cato Institute and the writers at Reason, are only better because they don’t really take libertarianism all that seriously. That is, they just fling around this term “libertarian” without pinning down its meaning, or they use the term to mean roughly “what I happen to believe.”

I suppose people can just arbitrarily define “libertarian” to mean whatever they want, in the same way I could redefine “theist” to mean “one who rejects the supernatural realm.” But I really don’t see the point of torturing the language like that or causing such needless confusion.

Let me take a recent, local example. Colorado Representative Amy Stephens has spent much of this legislative session pushing through a politically-controlled health “exchange,” to comply with ObamaCare. Stephens is either dishonest or less than fully bright, as she has characterized this government-run monstrosity as “free market.” She also dishonestly castigates opponents of the bill as anarchists. Nevertheless, because so many libertarians are in fact avowed anarchists, and because libertarianism implies or at least openly accepts anarchism, Stephens’s slurs find some traction. In short, if you lie with dogs, you’ll probably get fleas.

So, again, I am not a libertarian.

***

Bryan commented May 9, 2011 at 11:00 AM
Reasonable people recognize that the use of certain words is therefore simply a starting point in the process of understanding what the other person means by them and what their beliefs truly might be. As a practical matter however the level of detail needed regarding someones beliefs varies drastically depending on the context, the time available and the reason for needing to know more.

You acknowledge the possibility of “redefining” the word libertarian to mean whatever you want but don’t see the reason to do so. I”d suggest its not “redefining” as much as simply acknowledging that many words are inherently going to be ambiguous, vague and ill defined with a broad range of possible meanings. “Conservative” and “liberal” (modern, classical, or whatever variety) suffer from the same trouble as does the word “rights”. You needed to write “rights (in a sense broadly compatible with Lockean property rights)” due to its ambiguity and even that of course is only the start of narrowing down exactly what your particular view of the concept of “rights” is.

Whatever definition you come up with for rights, libertarian, liberal, conservative, or other words is usually only going to be a starting point and so simply dismissing one potential guide point as being too broad and including views you disagree with doesn’t seem useful since almost everyone using any of those words or labels has that difficulty when using them.

As a practical issue when explaining our views to someone its often necessary to start with a general high level abstract but imperfect overview which we then proceed to refine and correct to varying degrees depending on the purpose of the interaction. Even if the initial sign post we are given like “liberal” or “libertarian” differs in our understanding of the term from the views of the person it applies to it at least provides a starting point for further dialogue using that merely as an initial guiding point to steer from.

Given that few people will know whatever word you might use to describe your set of political views, say Aritarianism, its useful to rely on a shorthand as a starting point and it confuses other people needlessly not to be willing to give them guideposts as starting points even if those guideposts aren’t exactly on the mark. Your approach I think will sow more confusion and waste more time than merely accepting the closest shorthand as an approximation and then proceeding from there. e.g. many people from suburbs of Denver when talking to people elsewhere in the country will accept the inaccurate initial shorthand that they are from Denver and only correct if necessary.

Shea Levy commented May 9, 2011 at 11:02 AM
Hi Ari,

Thanks for the post. I hope to get a chance to chew this more and maybe respond, but, just to clear things up: “the vast majority of activities between consenting adults should be legal and that the current US government acts far out of the bounds of the proper scope of a government.” wasn’t meant to be a definition of libertarianism. I was just pointing out two commonalities that occurred to me as I wrote the post. In the comments of the post, I take a shot at identifying some more fundamental common characteristics, and go a bit more in detail into what I see as the cognitive utility of the word.

~Shea

Ari commented May 9, 2011 at 11:03 AM
Bryan, If I were to call myself a “libertarian,” I’d immediately need to distance myself from anarchism etc. If I call myself a “free-market advocate,” I convey all the positive meaning I want with none of the serious baggage. -Ari

Ari commented May 9, 2011 at 11:08 AM
Shea, My point was that the very meaning and motivation of “libertarianism” is tied up with an anti-government agenda, and your comments feed that view, even if not intended as a definition. I’m not anti-government. Moreover, for reasons indicated, something like “less government” simply encompasses too many fundamentally contradictory viewpoints to serve as a useful political framework. It’s just not an essential characteristic of anyone’s political views. -Ari

Bryan commented May 9, 2011 at 11:23 AM
I’d agree that the “better libertarians” do what you say regarding making using the term as roughly “what I happen to believe”. So I guess my point is to suggest that is both natural and less confusing than trying to avoid potentially being misunderstood by trying to disavow use of the term for the views of those who are closer to “libertarian” than “conservative” or (modern) “liberal”.

If you try to disassociate yourself from the “libertarian” label then I’d suggest that as you’ve found others will likely not remove from their conception of you as one despite your protests unless you professed believes too far from that general vague description (such as e.g. suffering a head injury and coming out in favor of Obamacare :-) ), i.e. accept reality and work with it.

If not “libertarian”, if you object too strongly to the description others will simply try to find a different initial word to use when referring to you such as conservative or objectivist or some other term which may have its own inaccuracies. Most language is inherently approximate and imperfect regardless of any intention for it not to be so. I’d suggest its better to simply be ready with shorthand ways to refer to what sort of “libertarian” you are in either a phrase or by hoping your own descriptive label like “Lockean” or “Aritarian” might become widely enough known as a school of thought to eventually take over from the libertarian label you wish to disown

You seem to be concerned about being tarred and feathered by negative preconceptions people may have regarding those who describe themselves using the same term, “libertarian”. I’d suggest reasonable people will begin to understand that is simply a starting point when describing a set of views (just as “conservative” is) and not
to be too caught up in worrying about that. Those who tar and feather
for superficial reasons will simply find other ways of doing so and its not too useful to let them guide our use of shorthand language.

I’d suggest that your view of “so many libertarians” being anarchists is likely skewed by those you hang around with and that among American libertarians as a whole most are “minarchists” of some fashion or other and that is the more common view of the general public when they hear the term.

I’d suggest perhaps your view of it as being “lying down with dogs” (your own negative conception of anarcho-capitalists) to accept that as an initial approximation is giving in too easily to those who rely on superficial mud slinging rather than rational argument and allowing them to dictate your use of language.

Anonymous commented May 9, 2011 at 12:44 PM
Ari,

What is your view of the terms “Classical Liberal” or “Market Liberal” or “Laissez-faire Liberal”? I use these terms frequently. I never use the term libertarian unless I say “Minarchist libertarian” and then I explain what minarchist means.

Rand referred to herself as a radical for capitalism. I often wonder if we need a poli-sci term that refers to laissez-faire in the context of limited government. We really don’t have a term for that.

M. Stern

Ari commented May 9, 2011 at 12:49 PM
I think I’m most partial to “market liberal.” I’m not keen on the term “minarchist” because, first, it sounds odd and hardly anybody knows what it means, and, second, it deals in non-fundamentals. I’m not fundamentally for a government of minimal size; I’m for a government that protects individual rights, at whatever size that requires. But I agree there’s not an awesome term to describe my political views. I’m okay with “market liberal,” “individual rights advocate,” or, in more of an economic context, “capitalist.” -Ari

James commented May 9, 2011 at 1:17 PM
You say, “they are against something – the state, and not for individual rights and the system required to protect them” to which the obvious counter is, “No, we aren’t for building up a system to protect individual rights. We believe that emergent order will lead to individual rights.”

I don’t think anyone believes that the hard right will be convinced not to legislate against abortion, just that in a voluntary society people could enter into communities where abortion was not allowed. I’ve literally never heard the argument, “In a voluntary society..you could PERSUADE people to not get abortions…” that’s totally made up. Never heard it, not once. You can of course persuade people to not get abortions in a statist society as well. The argument is that the only way to stop people from having abortions is to persuade them against it, not that this will actually bring the hard right over to the libertarian POV. I’ve also never heard anyone say that children shouldn’t be protected from adult sexual predators, though I can imagine people making the argument that government shouldn’t be the one to police those rules.

The IP commentary, “government does it, so it must be bad…” is such a simplification. The point is that those protected by patents and copyrights are protecting their IP with stolen money. If society wanted to all pitch in to protect IP(and it very well might, in a voluntary society – we have a lot of examples of people respecting artists and giving them patronage for original works) it would be totally different. Right now, we have other members of society being forced to protect other people’s intellectual property, which they may very well not want to do.

And of COURSE libertarianism is reactionary!!! How could it not be? You could never be a libertarian if there were no government – it’d be like being anti-Klingon or anti-telekinesis. It’s perfectly logical to be against a bad thing. Being against something doesn’t necessarily make the movement wrong.

You say, libertarianism is not for individual rights AND the system to protect them – you are right, but he has lumped two things together unnecessarily. You imply that individual rights DEMAND a government system in place to protect them, and I would say the burden of proof is on you from that perspective. Of course, if you ever tried to assume that burden of proof you would fail, so it’s much easier to just state as fact that individual rights “require a system to protect them.”

It’s funny, too, because I don’t call myself a libertarian because I DO believe there is unnecessary baggage around the term. I just go by voluntaryist – which sums up everything nicely without the connotation. But your arguments certainly seemed aimed at an audience prone to status quo bias, and it’s altogether quite sad because he lends authority to these sweeping generalizations with the old “I used to be one of them, so you can trust me here!!!” trick.

James commented May 9, 2011 at 1:25 PM
Apologies for pronoun issues – I originally typed that email to a friend who linked me here and when I changed the format for this post I left a few “he”s that should now be “you”s. Sorry for any confusion!

Diana Hsieh commented May 9, 2011 at 2:35 PM
Thanks much for this post, Ari. A while back, Greg Perkins made some similar arguments about the fundamentality of individual rights to politics — and why wanting “less government” (including zero government) is not a proper basis for political classifications:

http://blog.dianahsieh.com/2009/11/libertarian-vs-objectivist-thinking.shtml

Also, many years ago, I explored the epistemic basis of the concept “libertarianism” in this blog post:

http://blog.dianahsieh.com/2004/04/socialist-dreamin.html

At the time, I was uncertain of my views (as you can tell from the blog post), and I did find this first comment from Don clarifying:

http://www.dianahsieh.com/cgi-bin/blog/view.pl?entry=107941896945396488

Here’s my current thoughts:

Today, many people use the term “libertarian” to mean that they’re on the right economically, but not religious right or socially conservative. In other words, the term doesn’t mean adhering to the non-initiation of force principle as an axiom, nor regarding all defenders of “liberty” (including anarchists and pedophiles) as a political allies.

In essence, the term “libertarian” has become as vague and broad as “liberal” or “conservative.” For many people, that’s a reasonably apt description of their views, in part because they’re in the process of working through difficult philosophic issues. Often, such people are sincerely interested in and friendly to Ayn Rand’s ideas. Often, they understand that liberty means respect for and protection of individual rights by government. Often, they clearly reject anarchism and pacifism, support abortion rights and intellectual property, and so on. But because the term is so broad, you have no idea what they think until you ask!

Hence, I’m not going to waste my time quibbling with someone’s use of the term “libertarian”: I’d rather argue with them on some substantive points, to help bring them closer to my own Objectivist views. However, I persist in thinking that Objectivists should not use the term “libertarian” to describe their politics. Objectivists can — and ought — to describe their politics as “Objectivist” — or, more generally “free market” or “laissez faire” or “pro-capitalist” or “classical liberal.”

Happily, more and more people know the basic meaning of advocating Objectivism in politics — as distinct from libertarianism. That’s because more of us are using that term — while interacting with the confused mess of quasi-free market people that make up the tea parties and other local groups.

That’s real progress, I think.

Ari commented May 9, 2011 at 3:31 PM
I think that’s basically right, Diana, but I hasten to note that even “mainstream” libertarians tend to characterize their views as wanting “less government.” Thus, the general tendency toward opposing government persists, and they really cannot in principle distinguish their views from those of anarchists, who want the least amount of government. -Ari

Anonymous commented May 9, 2011 at 6:08 PM
@Diana, the problem with the terms you suggest (aside from, obviously, “Objectivist”) is that they all emphasize economic matters and are silent on issues of legislating morality. I wish there were a better term, because I think there are a lot of people (including me, and some “libertarians”) who largely agree with an Objectivist politics even though they are not Objectivists.

DaveJ

Anonymous commented May 9, 2011 at 7:30 PM
Age of consent laws are perfectly compatible with Libertarianism and recommended.

A more mature child can petition a judge for emancipation if he or she thinks they are ready to make their own decision prior to 18 or other agreed upon consent age.

Anonymous commented May 9, 2011 at 7:34 PM
Hi,

Libertarianism is a simple.

Live and let live.

Every person who is not a collectivist is a Libertarian by default.

A government whose major purpose is to protect and honor the non-aggression axiom will be more than adequate.

Jeff

Anonymous commented May 9, 2011 at 7:38 PM
Hi Ari,

Objectively explain why collectivism is preferred to liberty? Also please explain how using force to accomplish ones desires is moral?

Jeff

Anonymous commented May 9, 2011 at 7:57 PM
Diana,

What are “objectivist” politics? Sounds rather subjective, no?
As soon as your objective politics are contrary to my objective politics, you will be faced with 2 simple choices. Ask me to cooperate voluntary or garner my cooperation via the guns of government.

Seems to me, the only objective choice would be the voluntary path. Nobody dies.

If you are willing to support the guns of government view point, the burden of proof is upon you to objectively rationalize murder or imprisonment albeit under the guise of State and citizenship, i.e. the imaginary social contract.

Jeff

Ari commented May 9, 2011 at 8:38 PM
Wow, Jeff; You’re simply assigning beliefs to Diana and me that we do not in fact hold. If you want to make some arguments to advance your case, great; but that’s the last of the smears I’ll let through from you. -Ari

Jim May commented May 9, 2011 at 10:00 PM
I often wonder if we need a poli-sci term that refers to laissez-faire in the context of limited government. We really don’t have a term for that.

I call that “liberty”.

As far as the need for a “poli-sci” term is concerned, I think that we need an actual political science before we deal with the issue of particular terms within it. The entire realm of political “science” as it is known today exists solely for the purpose of preventing rational thought about politics.

Diana Hsieh commented May 9, 2011 at 10:06 PM
Sheesh, Jeff. The “Objectivist politics” is the politics of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. You can read Ayn Rand’s core political essays here:

Man’s Rights: http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=arc_ayn_rand_man_rights

The Nature of Government: http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=arc_ayn_rand_the_nature_of_government

“Collectivized” Rights: http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=arc_ayn_rand_collectivized_rights

Resuna commented May 10, 2011 at 11:18 AM
I’m a “civil libertarian”. Or that should be written “civil-libert”-arian, perhaps? I don’t trust authority, whether that authority is corporate, governmental, or originating in any other institutional structure. On the other hand I believe it’s necessary. I don’t believe the idealistic “non coercive” libertarian state can exist, because people will accumulate different amounts of power and people will need, at the very least, organizations to enforce “voluntary contracts”… and these organizations will end up being governments and (short of Iain Banks’ transcendently powerful benign AIs making work unnecessary) almost everyone will end up subject yo contracts that are only nominally voluntary.

Anonymous commented May 19, 2011 at 6:53 AM
Here is a video that may cause some to rethink IP.

Here is an audio that may give you second thought.

Ari commented May 19, 2011 at 10:40 AM
And here you can find Greg Perkins’s refutation of the video linked above: http://blog.dianahsieh.com/2009/12/objectivist-recants-on-ip.shtml

Also check out Adam Mossoff’s work on IP: http://www.law.gmu.edu/faculty/directory/fulltime/mossoff_adam

Craig commented May 23, 2011 at 4:03 PM
I’m not sure I agree with abandoning the term “libertarian” over it, but I do feel the pain of people prejudicing themselves against anything else I might say (regardless of content or merit) after I identify myself as such. Diana’s comment is one of the two general examples that really irk me:

“Today, many people use the term ‘libertarian’ to mean that they’re on the right economically, but not religious right or socially conservative.”

I’m a very conservative Christian and like the two libertarians currently running for president (Paul, Johnson) was raised Lutheran (and like Paul I considered going to seminary but decided on another profession). With or without these anecdotes, the quoted is an incorrect application of the term. Libertarianism is a political philosophy – theology and personal practices (aggression towards another is not personal) are outside its scope. I happen to have arrived at libertarianism via application of Christian principles…go figure. None of this changes, however, the use of the term in this way…and the resulting negative connotation.

The other example is that some now believe libertarian = tea party = republican. So, I have friends who identify with team blue whose ears close when they hear the little-l word.

So, maybe the term is thoroughly trashed…but if two of the 10 people who have commented on this post don’t know what Objectivism is (hasn’t even made it into Chrome’s spell-checker, BTW)…I doubt I’m going to get far calling myself a “classical liberal.”

OK, thread winner goes to Ari for this (it describes the issue with shallow general understanding and misapplication of these labels well):

“The entire realm of political ‘science’ as it is known today exists solely for the purpose of preventing rational thought about politics.”

russj commented September 26, 2011 at 3:31 PM
Nice post Ari!

Your reasoning is very reminiscent of Heyek’s famous “Why I am not a conservative” article, from which I assume you got the title.

I also recall the famous line from “South Pacific: “I know what you’re against! What are you for?”

You would rather stand for a set of principles, than oppose those which you despise.

Let’s continue to support human rights, and their foundation, natural law.

Russ Josephson

Should liberty activists participate in the Republican or Libertarian parties? That’s what Kelly Maher of WhoSaidYouSaid.com and David Williams of the Gadsden Society debated March 2 at Liberty On the Rocks.

Maher’s basic point was that liberty activists should work within a party that can actually win elections. Williams argued that Republicans have too often undermined liberty.

As indicated by the question I ask in the video, I do not support the Libertarian Party, for reasons I discussed in 2005.

Some readers may have noticed that my blog posts feed into the People’s Press Collective. How this process works is a mystery to me, and I’m not even sure whether my posts automatically feed into it or whether they must pass through a human gatekeeper. At any rate, I think it’s a useful site, and I like all the contributers I know. That said, I disagree with the occasional post there.

A recent post by “AnCap” — a.k.a. Justin Longo of Complete Colorado (and I’m not spilling any beans here) — is quite interesting even though fundamentally wrong.

Longo’s main point is that radio host Mike Rosen often compromises free-market principles in the name of “reality.” I can attest this is true. Rosen often has expressed a belief that what’s good in theory may not work in practice. Therefore, he often jettisons principles for the sake of pragmatism. For example, Longo notes, Rosen supported the TARP “stimulus” corporate welfare. As Longo paraphrases, Rosen is “still reluctantly for TARP because doing nothing would have been far worse.”

Longo is correct that Rosen’s position violates free-market principles. Moreover, Rosen is simply wrong: “doing nothing” would have been far better than forcibly transferring wealth from the productive economy to political boondoggles. Robert Higgs makes this case.

The more fundamental point that Rosen misses is that restoring a truly free market would be a lot better than “doing nothing.” Advocates of free markets are not for the status quo: we are for replacing today’s mixed economy with liberty. As my dad and I reviewed, politicians caused the mortgage meltdown. Since then they have been worsening the recession and delaying recovery through massive wealth transfers, new and capricious economic controls, and continuous threats of more of the same.

As Longo reviews, Rosen believes that free market reforms today are “not on the table.” What Rosen neglects to notice is that what’s on the table is what we put on the table. Free market reforms are not on the table today because practically all Republicans have busily renounced free markets in favor of more political controls. But that’s not quite true; despite the Republican war on free markets, some free market reforms are on the table thanks to the efforts of a small but dedicated few devoted to liberty, such as the idea to expand Health Savings Accounts. (This reform appears to be hidden under a napkin, but at least it’s on the table.)

True, cultural changes can be long and arduous. But we can’t achieve positive change unless we fight for it. Just look at what the abolitionists achieved in a span of years. Rosen creates a self-fulfilling prophesy by presuming that free market reforms are off the table. Pragmatists content themselves to gnaw on the scraps tossed to them by those with the ambition to take a seat at the table.

Yet Longo’s deeper critique of Rosen illustrates precisely what’s wrong with the libertarian movement. Rosen plays the “pragmatic libertarian” to Longo’s “dogmatic libertarian.” This is precisely the problem I observed in the Libertarian Party a few years ago — and the reason I left the party and no longer count myself a libertarian.

Longo’s argument is worth examining:

If stopping an employee from negotiating a mutually agreeable wage with an employer is wrong because third parties do not have the right to infringe on voluntary transactions, then one conclusion we can draw is that the minimum wage is immoral. Now take that principle and apply it universally, to all parties, at all times, and to all contracts, decisions, and transactions. Think about it. Do you not like the outcomes you get in some scenarios? Too bad. Those are the consequences you must deal with when principles are applied universally.

Is it wrong to kidnap another human being against their will? Yes? Okay, now apply that principle to all parties, at all times, ever in history? Oh no! You mean we cannot conscript soldiers during war? You mean we can’t force people to sit on juries they don’t want to? Too bad. Those are the consequences you must deal with in order to claim you are principled.

I realize that applying basic principles universally is scary, as some of the outcomes we reach are sometimes outcomes we are uncomfortable with. However, applying principles universally is an important thought experiment that allows us to see whether we really believe in something or we don’t.

Let me close by suggesting just two principles I live by and apply universally. You are more than welcome to run millions of thought experiments in order to reach as many conclusions as possible with these two — warning: some outcomes will scare you.

First principle: You own yourself. No one else has a higher claim on you than you do.

Second principle: It is ALWAYS wrong to initiate force on someone else. (notice the use of the word initiate. Self-defense is absolutely moral).

As you can see, the second principle is really just a logical extension of the first principle. In my view, all we need is the first principle, as everything else is logically deduced from principle one.

Please apply my two principles universally — to all people at all times, ever in history. You will then see why I believe what I believe and how I reached my own conclusions over the years.

To Longo, it is simply “too bad” if libertarian theory, say, causes a death or the destruction of the planet. But obviously he doesn’t really believe that “principles” should be completely detached from consequences; he suggests in his final line that, on net, looking at “all people at all times, ever in history,” the principles he favors achieve the best results. Is that not why he believes what he believes?

The problem is that Longo’s principles aren’t principles at all; they are statements of dogma. A principle is a guide to action integrating vast knowledge about the real world. If a principle doesn’t work in the real world, that means it’s false. Contra Rosen, a principle is such precisely because it is tied to the real world. There is no split between theory and practice — provided that one’s theory is grounded in reality and one’s practice follows sound principles.

Longo claims that “everything else is logically deduced from principle one,” which is, “You own yourself. No one else has a higher claim on you than you do.”

Not only can very little be “deduced” from this claim, but the claim itself is, without principled grounding, completely arbitrary and implausible.

If we look at the course of human history, practically everyone has flat-our rejected the notion that “no one else has a higher claim on you than you do.” Most people have accepted the authority of a king, a priest or deity, a democracy, or some proclaimed moral leader.

So where does Longo’s “first principle” come from? It is certainly not intuitively obvious, it is not written in our genes, it is not written in the heavens.

For libertarians, this “first principle” — this fundamental dogma — is pulled out of nowhere. And that is the most basic problem with libertarianism.

Now, I certainly agree with the principle that a person properly directs the course of his own life. But this is a moral proposition that can only be grounded in the facts of human life and the nature of social interaction. One must prove it and determine its context, not just invoke it as some magical formula. (Proving it takes a lot of hard work that I am not prepared to undertake here, though I will note that in my view Ayn Rand made the most progress in developing the principle.)

But the statement “you own yourself” is not some sort of axiom. Indeed, it cannot possibly be an axiom. Ownership arises, conceptually, in the context of property, which arises only in a social setting. One could not even reach the idea of owning one’s self without the idea of owning some bit of property (a tool, a bowl of food, whatever). Why should I think that I own the stone ax that I made? What if the tribal leader thanks me for creating the ax for the tribe and graciously hands it over to the canoe carver? A lot has to go on conceptually to get to the point where I can think about owning some piece of property. And, as I’ve noted in brief, Leonard “Peikoff argues that ownership properly applies to external objects, and that ownership of one’s self doesn’t make sense.”

But let’s assume that we’ve developed some idea of self-ownership. What deductively follows from that? Practically nothing.

Consider. If I “own myself,” and “no one else has a higher claim” on me, doesn’t that mean I get to control my own actions? Fine. I want that nice-looking TV in the window, so I smash the window and take the TV. The libertarian will reply that the owner of the TV also owns himself, so I have violated his rights. But why should I give a rip about that, if self-ownership is the highest axiom? Go ahead and go own yourself; all I’m doing is taking is TV. To get anywhere with this, we need a complex theory of property rights, and this is not a matter of spinning out deductions from some alleged axiom. We have to say something about why property rights are necessary for human flourishing and why we should adopt one particular theory of property rights instead of some alternative one (such as one in which a king decides who controls what property).

“Second principle: It is ALWAYS wrong to initiate force on someone else.”

Or, as one libertarian put the matter:

Children who willingly participate in sexual acts have the right to make that decision as well, even if it’s distasteful to us personally. Some children will make poor choices just as some adults do in smoking and drinking to excess. When we outlaw child pornography, the prices paid for child performers rise, increasing the incentives for parents to use children against their will.

In fact, some libertarians have argued that children have a “self-ownership” right to have sex with adults, which is absolutely abhorrent. The quote above seems to sanction child pornography, which is disgusting and despicable. With “principles” like this, who can blame those who “pragmatically” stray from the “principles?”

The general problem is that what counts as force, and what counts as the initiation of force, depends entirely upon our theory of property rights, which again depends on complex moral and legal theories.

Saner libertarians argue that parents may, after all, use force in some contexts when it comes to their children. For instance, if Johnny is playing in the street and refuses to move, a parent may properly pick Johnny up and put him in a safer place. Unquestionably this is the use of force. Whether it is the “initiation of force” depends on which ad hoc rationalization the libertarian confuses for a deduction.

To hint at the real solution, the concept of rights (including property rights) arises in a particular context: the context of rational (as opposed to insane) adults capable of peaceful interaction with others. But again this is the end result of a complex chain of theoretical knowledge, not some first “principle” pulled out of the sky.

Let us extend another of Longo’s examples. He argues that employers and employees should be able to voluntarily agree to a wage, and I quite agree in the normal context. But what if somebody decides to sell himself into lifelong slavery for a supply of drugs or a sum of money? Must we refrain from intervening in that transaction?

The sane libertarian will reply that contract law depends on certain conditions, and that selling one’s self into lifelong slavery could not possibly meet those conditions. Regardless, the conclusion does not simply spin itself out deductively. Principles must integrate a wide range of facts about the human condition, and they can only be applied by examining the particular facts of the case at hand in light of the broader facts identified by the principle.

Ultimately Rosen and Longo make the same error of detaching principles from practice. Rosen abandons principles to achieve what allegedly works. Longo says we must stick to “principles” even when they are scary in practice. However you flip the libertarian coin, you get ungrounded theory on one side and unguided practice on the other. The dogmatists and the pragmatists clash as codependents.

Where I think Longo is headed is that consistently applying principles can create short-term and narrowly defined problems. But the far more important insight is that properly derived principles are absolutely essential for a person’s success in life. Exercise might be momentarily unpleasant, but it contributes to general health. That union of theory and practice cannot come from libertarian dogma disguised as “first principles.” Obviously it cannot come from the pragmatic rejection of principles. It can come only from a proper understanding of what principles are, why sound principles necessarily work, and why successful action must be guided by principles.