Libertarianism--the only political philosophy that can unite Right and Left

Listen to Lew Rockwell interview and mentor feminist left liberal Naomi Wolf.  She had already started to study Constitutional limited government after the Patriot Act, sensing a fascist shift in the United States under Bush/Cheney.  

Her reaction to the Patriot Act was to do an academic review of large civilizations during their declining years.  She recognized a pattern of behavior by every government going through such a decline and recognized the signs in the United States.  She then wrote The End of America, and Letters of Warning to a Young Patriot.

Here are some of the signs of what she terms a "fascist shift" in a country as it moves away from democracy in its period of decline:

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy.
2. Create secret prisons where torture takes place.
3. Develop a thug caste or paramilitary force not answerable to citizens.
4. Set up an internal surveillance system.
5. Harass citizens' groups.
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release.
7. Target key individuals.
8. Control the press.
9. Treat all political dissidents as traitors.
10. Suspend the rule of law.^[27]

Sound familiar?  

I would term the same change in a totalitarian shift, as it works with Socialist/communist ideology as well as corporatist/fascist ideology.

This was originally a podcast of the Lew Rockwell Show from October 2008:

Fascinating to listen to a far but not extreme left liberal/progressive with an open mind make political transitions in her thinking in "real time", when mentored by a skilled teacher like Lew Rockwell. 

What is missing from her knowledge base, and is not touched upon much in the interview, is how a knowledge of economics, specifically Austrian school economics, is necessary in guiding one's politics, and that economic knowledge guides a person directly to a libertarian political perspective.

 I believe Naomi Wolf remains primarily left liberal, but tending towards libertarianism.  She is deeply disappointed in Obama, especially as to his continuance of the wars and Guantanamo;  I think this will inevitably push her farther toward a libertarian philosophy, distrustful of any statist political party.  Time will tell. 

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Our revolution needs to begin with the way most Americans think about how to take care of themselves, and what, if any role government should have in an individual providing for him or herself.  Should we have preemptive war or only defensive war?  Do we believe in Washington's farewell address and the theme of Jefferson's first inaugural?  Or Teddy Roosevelt's expansionism, and Woodrow Wilson's/FDR's/LBJ's/Clinton's/Bush 41's and Bush 43's preemptive wars, to spread our philosophy to every country, whether you like it or not...


What legacy does our generation leave to our kids?


This is what motivates me to blog; I am trying to reach the rational and open minded person and win them over to my/our way of thinking.

Please note that I believe that there are two groups that will never convert to a small/minimal government political philosophy.  One is the corporate/banking caste that benefits so much from a strong central state that they cannot be weaned from Leviathan state.  The other is the incompetent portion of society, unable or unwilling to be net producers or even work to subsist.  This caste is too dependent on the welfare component of the Leviathan state.

The trouble with "mainstream" media

I want to address the following generalizations in an article about libertarianism in the New York magazine, entitled "The Trouble with Liberty", by Christopher Beam:

"Libertarian minarchy is an elegant idea in the abstract. But the moment you get specific, the foundation starts to crumble. Say we started from scratch and created a society in which government covered only the bare essentials of an army, police, and a courts system. I’m a farmer, and I want to sell my crops. In Libertopia, I can sell them in exchange for money. Where does the money come from? Easy, a private bank. Who prints the money? Well, for that we’d need a central bank—otherwise you’d have a thousand banks with a thousand different types of currency. (Some libertarians advocate this.) Okay, fine, we’ll create a central bank. But there’s another problem: Some people don’t have jobs. So we create charities to feed and clothe them. What if there isn’t enough charity money to help them? Well, we don’t want them to start stealing, so we’d better create a welfare system to cover their basic necessities. We’d need education, of course, so a few entrepreneurs would start private schools. Some would be excellent. Others would be mediocre. The poorest students would receive vouchers that allowed them to attend school. Where would those vouchers come from? Charity. Again, what if that doesn’t suffice? Perhaps the government would have to set up a school or two after all.


And so on. There are reasons our current society evolved out of a libertarian document like the Constitution. The Federal Reserve was created after the panic of 1907 to help the government reduce economic uncertainty. The Civil Rights Act was necessary because “states’ rights” had become a cover for unconstitutional practices. The welfare system evolved because private charity didn’t suffice. Challenges to the libertopian vision yield two responses: One is that an economy free from regulation will grow so quickly that it will lift everyone out of poverty. The second is that if somehow a poor person is still poor, charity will take care of them. If there is not enough charity, their families will take care of them. If they have no families to take care of them—well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.


Of course, we’ll never get there. And that’s the point. Libertarians can espouse minarchy all they want, since they’ll never have to prove it works."

The article purports to describe the spectrum of libertarianism, but spends plenty of time taking potshots at Rand and Ron Paul, Paul Ryan, the free state project, and proponents of ocean-going communities. The article glosses over Von Mises and Lew Rockwell, barely mentioning them. He either thinks libertarians are ridiculous, or wants his readers to think so. Never does he engage the libertarians in a dialogue or try to understand the economic underpinnings of their arguments. He quotes libertarians to conveniently fit them into the author's derisive themes.


The author is ignorant of, or purposefully hides historical and economic facts. The Federal Reserve was created with mandates it has long ignored. It was founded to protect the bank and corporatist elements represented at it's founding at Jekyll Island. They wanted stability after their losses of 1907.


The civil rights act, which I'm sure was written by public school educated individuals who were economically ignorant, who thought they trying to right a wrong, was not aimed at fighting unconstitutional practices protected by states rights, it was an act to win voter loyalty among segments of the population that benefit from the legislation, or at least perceive that they benefit. 


 The Civil Rights act certainly is a blow aimed at states rights and local control. One of the latest blows against the original intent of States' Rights in the Constitution as understood by the ratifying conventions since the end of the War for Southern Independence:  We can't have uppity locales going their own way against the supreme government in Washington! Don't you know the "civil" war was fought over that and you lost?  Guess we better remind you!  Oh, you made local laws protecting your own hold on power and property based on your racial attitudes? Shame on you! Don't you know the supreme government in Washington now has a monopoly on passing laws to consolidate and grow their power!?  Don't you know you were supposed to roll over and play dead when you came home after Appomattox, found yourself politically disenfranchised, and your former slaves given political power over you? Don't you know you're supposed to be as stupid and ignorant as the charicatures of you drawn in the northern cartoons? Shame on you for not realizing that, too!


The welfare system evolved because private charity didn't suffice. I love this one. People don't have jobs for innumerable reasons. They are ill-suited for a position, they are incompetent, they are laid off because of economic circumstance. Feel free to think of a million more reasons. Private charity didn't cover the need. Neither does the system under welfare. Under welfare, someone else is stripped of their earned wages through taxation (ultimately by force, if they wont pay their taxes), because the government knows better than you how to spend your money. Remember that, and you'll be half way to loving big brother. At least under a system of private charity without welfare, I could keep more money, and decide how much I want to give, and which charities match my priorities, and which utilise my money most appropriately and efficiently.


In describing what he calls libertopia, the author jumps around between creating a mythical ideal Libertarian minarchical world, and then throws out the idea of private money, then dismissing private money, goes back to central banking, and slowly recreates the state we live in now, as if history has a inevitable evolution from primitive to advanced.  This is essentially a Marxist theory grounded in an early interpretation of Darwinism.  This paragraph is ridiculous under scrutiny, not to mention even on face value.

So, big surprise from an elitist urban dinosaur rag like the new yorker, the piece ain't complimentary towards libertarians. It is a smear piece written to show just enough information to seem authoritative with regard to the subject matter, while not writing at all about the effect and influence of the giants of modern Libertarian theory: Ludwig Von Mises, Hayek, Murray Rothbard, Lew Rockwell, et al. 

The Austrian School theories of economics arise out of the study of individual human action, called praxeology.  If you want to get an idea of the complexity of Murray Rothbard's take on praxeology, I dare you to read this. This was not a simplistic approach to studying human action.  Mises and Rothbard were true geniuses, and the strength of their theories continues to be shown in the articles on mises.org.   The theories of government arise out of the economic theories.

The predictive power of the Austrian school has been bourne out: Von Mises predicted the Great Depression, and his ideological offspring predicted the effects of Keynesian and socialist economics: the dot-com bubble, the housing bubble, the crash of 2008, and are likely to be dead on in the prediction of what TARP, QE2, etc., will do: kill chances of recovery by draining capital from the productive segment of the country, will destroy the dollar, and lead to hyperinflation in the United States.

Five reasons I don't vote

Here are five reasons why I don’t vote:
1. I don’t live in Ron Paul’s district.
2. I have a greater chance of slipping in the bathtub and cracking my skull than my vote counting.
3. The Republicans are not the lesser of two evils.
4. The lesser of two evils is still evil.
5. “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil” (Exodus 23:2).


From Laurence Vance at LewRockwell.com/blog today.

I won't sanction the system that consumes more than half of my wealth each pay period by legitimizing the system with my vote. Voting for Predator R instead of Predator D implies you actually agree with the statist agenda, even when you don't in reality. Wait for a real third alternative.

The Road out of the Matrix; Declaration of Principles

Its been about two years since the beginning of the financial crisis, and about two and a half years since I made the decision that I wouldnt and couldnt vote for John McCain or Barack Obama.  My gestalt, long before I began to really understand why I had such an idea, was that voting for McCain would be the same as voting for Obama.  Both would support expansion of government, and expansion of the military industrial complex, raise taxes, continue to run deficits.  My life wouldnt change.  Personal freedom would continue to erode, the Constitution would be ignored by those who took an oath to preserve and protect it.


 I started to surf the net, reading through the websites of the various third parties.  I was coming off of a staunch Neoconservative phase.  My tendency in politics had always been to favor personal freedom.  The primary mandate of any government is to protect individual freedoms and property rights.  I am liberal in my dealings with individuals, giving most people the benefit of the doubt that they are more likely than not  to be a thoughtful and reasonable person.  Why?  The golden rule.  Treat others the way you want to be treated.  That is how I wish others would treat me when I first meet someone.  Do I expect it?  No, just wish and hope for it.


So two years ago, checking out third parties, I came across the Libertarian Party, started reading about libertarianism in general, and one web link leading to another, came to mises.org and lewrockwell.com.  I read about Austrian Economic theory and learned how to differentiate Austrian theory from the predominant Keynesian theory.  I read about how Law and Government is perverted by socialism and special interests in Frederic Bastiat's The Law.  That was the beginning of my road out of the Matrix.


Well!  If you are the kind of person that has faith in the system of government, believe in good intentions of the local police, have faith in the strength of the US economy and the US dollar, well think again!  Dont read those websites, and stay in blissful ignorance.  Keep watching CNN, MSNBC, read the New York Times, obsess about Dancing With the Stars, and spend hours playing Farmville on Facebook.  Dont worry about approaching doom!

Unfortunately for me, I'd rather know the truth about my world than feel good.  Morpheus gave me the red pill.  I dont regret taking it.


I went from an upstate NY raised public school educated kid from the suburbs, supporter of the Neocon wing of the Republican Party, to a radical arch conservative -- what I want to conserve in my government is the original intent of the founders of the republic, even if it means secession from the United States.   I now mentally recoil from the word "indivisible" in the Pledge of Allegiance.  I used to just say the words.  Now I think about what they mean.


This year I started geneological research.  As I made discoveries about my family in particular, I read related historical documents, books, and essays, and what I learned has forever changed my understanding of the history of this country.


 I found out that my North Carolina native father, and thus myself, are directly descended from founders of Jamestown, New Amsterdam, and the Newtown settlement  of Long Island.  Our family emigrated a couple of generations later, in the 1740's into North Carolina, and there we stayed.  My six great grandfather with the same last name as myself fought at Guilford Courthouse in 1781.  My three great grandfather in the same line fought in the 16th North Carolina Infantry as a private. He was a landowner, was not a slaveowner, and fought for North Carolina's right to secede from the Union.  He enlisted in May of 1861, and was parolled at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9th.


I am directly descended from 6 veterans of the army of the Confederate States of America.


I was always intrigued by the War Between the States growing up.  Now I see the war through an entirely different perspective.  Why would so many men of limited means fight tooth and nail for all those years?  To protect slavery?  Many had no slaves.  They may have benefitted from slavery indirectly, yes.   These were the men who stayed true to the original intent of the Constitution and Articles of Confederation.  The country was founded on the idea of secession from Great Britain.  It was founded as a Confederation of Independent States.  They appointed a Federal organization to represent the interests of the individual States.  Eventually this Federal entity morphed into a National entity, backed by military and monied mercantile, industrial, and financial interests, clothed in patriotic garb.  These were and still are the Yankees against which my ancestors fought.


Since 1865, this entity has grown without pause, and it eventually unfettered itself from the restraint of gold and silver based money system  -- and became the light version of European fascism.  Our now giant and powerful government teeters on the brink of what Naomi Wolf calls a "fascist shift".  Tyrannical and totalitarian elements are everywhere, if one chooses to look.


The oldest and still true concept of a Yankee is that of a busybody, but the kind of busybody that gets in your face and really interferes with your function and your interests.  This is the personality type that has dominated the US government since 1860.  We as a people havent lived in a voluntary Union of independent States since 1860-61.  My family was brought back into the United States at the point of the bayonet.  Eventually we forgot about the bayonet.  Some of us even moved up North.


But now I know about America as a voluntary Union.  I know about Nullification, Interposition and the Principles of 1798.  I know about and understand the desire for individual sovereignty and state sovereignty through Secession.  I will never again be passive.  The goal of my political and educational efforts, such as they are, will be to diminish the role of the Federal, State and Local government in the lives of individual Americans.  Since voting is like peeing into a hurricane, especially if you are a guy like me living in the heart of Yankeedom, the best choice is to blog.


Freedom in America is not the Freedom From Want of the Progressives and Liberals.  Freedom in America is the natural right of the Individual to be free to choose their own path, to succeed or fail on their own, without the help or interference of the government.  Scary, but that is what I want.  I hope you want it too.  I know many will never be able to accept the idea, so I think people need to vote with their feet, and the country should break into pieces.  That way we can each live our principles.  That way I can move to the South and smirk when the socialist Northeastern nation goes bust.


I will pray for the return of real servant government, State sovereignty, and independence of the States from the National US government of Empire.  Let the states rearrange themselves into distinct cultural and political entities so that more of us have a chance at Happiness, Freedom, and Property.