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One of the most distressing types of letter that I ever receive are those from disillusioned libertarians who lament the continuing failure of libertarian politicians to attain political power. They feel there is overwhelming public apathy and indifference to libertarian ideals and proposals. It becomes doubling disturbing when the writers go on to blame the "stupidity" of the masses. They often refer to them as "sheep"...to democracy as "mobocracy". The "proof" of these observations is usually the continued "success" of the Demidupes and Pooblioobs in gathering our votes.
Since I have often identified this profoundly antidemocratic tendency among libertarians as one of the principal CAUSES of the very failures that are being bemoaned, I think it is time that I clearly spell out why I am so optimistic about the future of libertarianism. I also need to explain just why I believe that libertarianism has a bright future DESPITE these observations, with which I mostly agree. I must say why I blame neither the public nor democracy for the current situation. Additionally, perhaps I can cheer a few of you up.
First of all, note that historically freedom is not just or even mainly a result of political action, but the ABSENCE of it. That is, politicians have advanced various freedoms not by positively sanctioning them (although the Bill of Rights in our constitution is a notable exception to this rule), but rather by revoking restrictive laws once thought to be "necessary"...usually to provide order and stability...or by simply not enforcing these rules. Thus have draconian regulations governing sexual activity withered and died. Did you know that adultery and sodomy are still felonies in many states of the union? Yet how often have these laws been enforced in the past few decades? Why, a majority of the public even seems ready to forgive the president himself for transgressions of these very rules (and a few more as well)! And, how about the "official" policy towards gays in the military? "Don't ask, don't tell." couldn't be a better example of what I am talking about.
A second very important aspect of freedom is that it derives from and is promoted by technological change. Advances in agricultural technology were as much a factor in eliminating slavery as the crusades of abolitionists. The printing press advanced freedom among the people by making it tremendously simpler to spread the word...ANY word. Advances such as the introduction of central heating (and, later, air conditioning), the widespread distribution of power and water, continuing improvements in agricultural production and medical treatment have not only made our lives more comfortable today than that of a "king of the realm" a mere handful of centuries ago, but have also FREED us to pursue our lives in ways undreamt of by our near ancestors.
But politics are not technology. Technology advances by leaps and bounds as invention continually pushes against the restricting envelope of natural forces. Politics follows behind, ever so slowly, as the newly unleashed forces of freedom press on the politicians from below. I like to compare politics to a glacier. By examining a glacier over the period of a few years, you can't even tell if it's advancing or retreating. So it is with politics. You must take a VERY long view to see what's happening.
If you do take the long view, what's happening becomes very clear. The life of the average citizen of the planet Earth is becoming ever more liberated. Note that I say "average" not "all," since there are still massive inequalities among people. The most obvious way this is true is technologically. I mentioned a few things above, but the lists of ways that our lives have been enhanced by technology stretches into the thousands of items. Just try this exercise. Look around your house and count the number of devices and products that in some way enhance your life over that of say, a dweller in colonial America. You can probably find a hundred things in your kitchen or bathroom alone which materially add to your well being, and thus to your freedom of action, freedom of choice. Before you complain about having to work too many hours, ask yourself, "compared to whom?" When you plunk yourself down in front of the TV to watch the latest episode of E.R., you are partaking both of an amount of freedom and quality of freedom undreamt of in colonial days. In those times, you...everyone...labored from dawn until dusk and then, if you were fortunate enough to possess enough wherewithal to possess the means, you MIGHT be able to read a book by candlelight for a time before falling to sleep exhausted. But, not if you were MOST women or ANY slave! Or even a non-property-owning white male...
To say that these things have nothing to do with politics, or worse, that technology has actually made life more fretful and difficult because it has made it too complicated, is patent nonsense. You need only reread the last two sentences in the previous paragraph to demolish the first assertion. You need only go back over that list I had you make in the exercise above...if only in your mind...to deal with the second. How many items on that list are actually things that UN-complicate things by making them easier? Try ball point pens, razors, cake-mix or propane lighters for a start...
Sure, each technological change temporarily makes things more complicated. When change occurs ever more rapidly, as it is doing today, it may even seem overwhelming. But in less time than you can imagine, you and the rest of society will absorb each new change. Those who sell you things will be working unceasingly to make it easier, cheaper and less complicated to purchase and use them. How mysterious and complicated jet planes seemed but a few decades ago. Now we bitch when we are an hour late on a 3000 mile journey or it takes twenty extra minutes for our baggage to show up! Those of us who can not afford jet travel, complain that we are "only" allowed to go sixty five miles per hour on our roadways and that there are often too many others to share them with. Try riding your bike from New York to San Francisco instead. That one can even CONSIDER such an alternative is more evidence of what I am asserting.
But, back to the main point. Are libertarian ideas advancing or retreating? Are things getting better or worse? By now, I would hope that I have started you on a train of thought that leads inevitably to the right answer. In any case, the means for promoting and realizing these ideas has never been better. I have said it before, but I feel I can not repeat it too often. The very medium from which you are reading these very words has given us a tool almost beyond belief in its potential.
Oh sure, the Internet abounds with horror stories about this or that transgression of freedom. However, each time I read a new one I find myself wondering "Is this really something new...or is the Internet, for the first time, giving people a chance to read about it?" Whenever I write yet another assault on the criminally stupid War on Drugs, I can't help remembering, in the back of my mind, that there was NO WAY for me to get this message out a mere decade ago...at least without risking my life and limb. When I read about Bill Clinton getting his hand caught in the coochie jar, I recall that previous presidents (think Jefferson or J.F.K.) transgressed contemporary morality equally egregiously...but THEY didn't get caught! Politicians getting caught lying? What else is new? It is no surprise to me that it was Matt Drudge and the Web which first broke the lewinsky story.
As for the people being stupid, note that most people...including a whole lot of libertarians...believe not that there is too little freedom, but too much! Of course, it is usually the other guy's freedom they are talking about, not their own. One of the biggest challenges remaining to those of us professing to be libertarian thinkers is to find better ways to keep OUR freedom from infringing on OTHER'S. It is hardly stupid to lament that disorder seems to be overwhelming civilized society, that change is occurring too fast, and to long for a little more order, a little more stability. It is up to us to help people rationally decide what the costs and benefits are of each decision to use government coercion, not to simply decry ALL coercion, ALL attempts to regulate chaos.
Finally, is it wrong or un-libertarian to relish democracy? None of us, not Ayn Rand, not Karl Hess, not Barry Goldwater, has all the answers to making society run reasonably or well. We can offer guidelines and suggestions. We can vote for those who we feel most closely mirror our own feelings. But, that is a good description of what everybody else is doing already! So, I for one, have great faith in the collective will of the people as a whole. Rather than bitch about the often crazy outcomes of democratic will, let's look for ways to make it even MORE democratic, more responsive to the individual's will. After all, it took 85% of the population to get the government to stop the VietNam war. It is said that a majority of the population already believes that our ideas are basically correct. It seems to me, that we need MORE democracy, not less.
So buck up. Things are not perfect. Evil still abounds. Shit happens and political change is ever so slow. But, we ARE on the right track. We WILL continue to get closer and closer to our goal...and, when it finally happens...you can say "It's about time!"
Talk to you later...
Willy Chaplin is a man who calls himself a libertarian and thinks he has something to say to us all. Previously published on How Can You Laugh at a Time Like This?
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