Before this article begins, I want to make it clear that I’m no anarchist. I believe a system of hard and fast rules is integral to a healthy society. It’s my belief that these rules should be kept to as strict a minimum as possible and that the creation of laws should be slow and methodical.
Libertarianism is an interesting beast of an ideology, and if I’m being very honest it’s probably the most frightening of the government concepts, but perhaps, ultimately the least destructive.
The frightening part about it is the fact that it’s effectively taking the societal safety net and tossing it into the garbage. This “safety net” takes on many different forms, from welfare and entitlements to laws about where you can and can’t smoke cigarettes. Libertarianism looks at picayune laws with disgust and allows the individual to make a decision about his or her own health and safety.
Moreover, it looks at those demanding others obey a certain set of rules they find to their personal taste and shrugs at them. In a society filled with a bunch of moral virtue signalers and self-important Karens, libertarianism looks like a weed in a garden that needs to be pulled out and shredded.
Libertarianism is horrifying for authoritarians and will do everything in their power to squelch the idea that it’s a legitimate form of governance. They’ll note that under a libertarian, you can kiss government-backed safety measures goodbye and that, should you find yourself in some economic trouble, there will be nothing there from the government to help you out.
In a way, they’re all right, but they look at the concept as the government saying “you’re on your own.” More accurately, libertarianism is the government looking at the people and saying “you’re all grown-ups and should live as grown-ups.”
Looking at society today, it’s a sentiment we could use more of. Authoritarians are notorious for infantilizing people. They tell them they need the government’s help, that they can’t function normally without the continuous creation of new laws and social safety nets, and that only more government will stop the ever-oncoming catastrophe of climate change, white supremacy, bigotry, diseases, and famine.
But the opposite is too often true. For instance, government safety protocols often get in the way more often than they help. Would you say the lockdowns were beneficial or that mask-wearing truly helped slow the pandemic? Would you say poor communities are better off under the Democrat’s consistent efforts to introduce more entitlements and welfare? Would you say that we’re safer when speech is censored and only the government’s “facts” are allowed to be circulated?
Even down at the local level, a police force is more of a preventative measure, but when a crime occurs they’re reactionary. By the time many police arrive at the scene of a crime, the crime is done and has been for some time.
The libertarian looks at these situations and says the poor would do better with a freer and open market that prompts competition which provides jobs and opportunities for growth. He sees crime and says there would be less of it if the crime was stopped at the moment by a good person willing to and able to do what’s necessary to stop it. He looks at the facts about, say, a virus, and judges for himself the risks associated with keeping his business open and/or going out in public to take part in society.
The truth is that if Americans had a more libertarian mindset over the past few years, we’d be a wholly different country. The lockdowns would have never happened, the vaccine mandates would have never been suggested, and Joe Biden would have never been elected. The moment he began speaking about government action to solve this and that is the moment he would have been laughed off the stage.
But the nation will never embrace libertarianism as a whole. As I said earlier, it’s a frightening concept for people on both the left and right. Some aren’t necessarily scared of it, but think the entire thing silly.
But in the end, the nation thrives when minimal laws, taxes, and societal expectations from moral busybodies are weighing down the populace. The whole idea of a free society was that people, left to their own devices, advance society in ways many people couldn’t imagine, and to be sure, America is a testament to what could happen when government takes the furthest seat in the back.
Perhaps you couldn’t embrace libertarianism as a whole, but it’s definitely the direction any American should want the country to drift. It’s the cure to the many issues authoritarians cause.
