See the video of this article here
So, what’s Libertarianism? In a political sense, Libertarianism is the application of Natural Law. Natural Law is basically the universal legal principles which we humans are capable of recognising naturally, through our reason alone, i.e. without any organisation or government having to teach us all about it.
Does Natural Law even exist? Certainly.
It is a biological fact proven by the parts of our brain which make up
what we would call our conscience. And
of course we see that this basic non-aggression principle has been universally
recognised across the globe since the most ancient times.
To understand this a little better, sail away with
me to a little example. Robinson Crusoe
awakes on a desert island and finds himself alone and, to make things interesting,
he’s lost all recollection of the past.
Nevertheless, he is able immediately to recognise that he is in control
of his own body. He has ‘self-ownership’
and free-will, if you will. Given that
he chooses to continue living, he sets about mixing his energy and creativity
with the natural resources around him and consequently he begins acquiring and
producing his ‘property’. Thus, we have
property rights for one’s own person and property.
Now let’s make things interesting and add another
person to the equation. Along comes
Friday. As Crusoe has a natural right to
himself and his property, it cannot reasonably also belong to Friday. If Friday were to attempt to claim it as his
own, Crusoe would thus have the right to defend himself and his property from
Friday. Likewise, Crusoe could not
attempt to claim Friday as his slave.
These acts would be a molestation of the natural rights of another and
would be contrary to all reason, conscience and, therefore, nature.
The only just interaction they can have with each other’s property is either to
trade or gift it to one another.
Agreed so far?
Well, let’s apply the principles of Natural Law to modern ideas of
government and see how they fair.
Let’s start with Socialism. Most Socialists are well-intentioned; their
heart is in the right place. They see
the poor and needy in unfortunate circumstances and they rightly desire to
alleviate any suffering. However, they
posit a big government to seize the property of one section of the population
by force or threat of force in order to distribute it to another. Clearly, this contradicts the Natural Law and
what’s more it removes any moral exchange which would occur between the
individuals. Through voluntary charity, the recipient feels a sense of gratitude for having been helped and the donor feels moral satisfaction for helping someone in need, perhaps believing that they in turn will help someone else in future, spreading kindness in the world. Under Socialism, however, when government swoops in and threatens the use of violence unless you cough up the cash, the citizen receiving the assistance develops a sense of privilege and makes demands over rights that do not naturally exist; likewise, the citizen whose property has been seized is left with a sense of resentment.
Instead, Socialists typically view Capitalism as the
problem. The real problem is that what
Socialists call ‘Capitalism’ in the West today isn’t Capitalism at all. Rather, we see widespread Corporatism;
otherwise known as Crony-Capitalism or ‘Crapitalism’. This is where wealthy private interest groups
either heavily lobby the government or simply buy the politicians outright,
funding their tremendously expensive campaigns to office in return for favours
afterwards. This is why we have businesses
which are unnecessarily subsidised by government and why some are ‘too big to
fail’ and so are bailed out with taxpayers’ money. Governments can thus be used by big
businesses to stifle any competition from smaller businesses and even go so far
as to use tax funded armies to protect and expand their business interests
abroad too. Sound familiar? At the very least, this shouldn’t sound like
a free market system to anyone. Such a system ultimately results in
monopolies being in cahoots with corrupt governments and, inevitably, Fascism. This is the opposite of freedom and the
opposite of Capitalism.
But isn’t Democracy the Saviour and solution to
every problem in the world? No! Democracy is the problem which results in
Socialism and Corporatism in the first place.
Democracy is essentially a mob rule where 51% of the population can use
government to violate the natural rights of the other 49%. Furthermore, these ‘Social Democracies’ are
the very foundation of Corporatism. This
is the reason for the fixed system of red vs. blue - almost identical
candidates whose policies only differ on how a tiny percentage of the vast
national debt they have incurred is to be spent. Private interest groups have the system rigged in their favour and the people are duped into thinking they are free, a bit like a gambler who doesn’t realise that whether he bets red or black, the house always wins. Democracy is
freedom? Sure, freeDUMB!
For the sake of Natural Law, let’s just take
government out of the picture altogether.
Only then do we see a system in which the natural rights to life,
liberty and property can remain unmolested by others. The question of how we should live together
in society is hugely important and only Libertarians advocate a system in which
Natural Law is upheld without exception for every individual. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this
Libertarianism could only work for Robinson Crusoe. As the great polymath, Murray Rothbard,
wrote:
‘The regime of pure liberty — the libertarian
society — may be described as a society where…no man's property in his person or in
tangibles is molested, violated, or interfered with by anyone else. But this
means that absolute freedom, in the social sense, can be enjoyed, not only by an isolated Crusoe but by every man in any society, no matter how complex or advanced… And, of course, being in a society of voluntary exchanges, each man can enjoy absolute liberty not in Crusoe-like isolation, but in a milieu of civilization, harmony, sociability, and enormously greater productivity through exchanges of property with his fellow men. Absolute freedom, then, need not be lost as the price we must pay for the
advent of civilization; men are born free, and need never be in
chains. Man may achieve liberty and abundance, freedom and
civilization.’
But, without
government, what will happen to the poor and needy? Who will stop fast food chains from killing
my children? Surely, there wouldn’t be a
justice system, so wouldn’t everyone just kill each other with guns and
swords? Who will stop climate change and
pollution? Who will defend us from
foreign armies? What about the
terrorists and paedophiles and superbugs?
Oh my! But, most important of
all, what will happen to the roads? All
of these questions have been answered and will be in our next video – Government, do we need it?
To study the philosophy of Liberty further,
recommended reading would be The Ethics
of Liberty by Murray Rothbard, which inspired this video, and visit
Mises.org - the excellent website for the von Mises Institute.
