The Criticality of Exploring Libertarian Ideology

The illusion of freedom will become discarded the moment it is no longer profitable to maintain.

-Frank Zappa

Just based on the title alone, you might be thinking “LOL-bertarians are cringe”–and you would be right to some extent. You might even be embarrassed that you once were one. In essence, you could chalk up the entirety of Libertarian ideology to what would constitute a schoolyard argument; “Hey, that’s not fair! You have to follow the rules!” In other words, Libertarianism is the embodiment of the “is-ought” fallacy.

Despite this, the exploration of Libertarian Ideology is an essential transitory phase for most people along their exploration of political science or political ideology. As with all political ideologies, we have to understand 1) where they were politically 2) how they got to where they are now 3) where their investigation will take them next.

The Journey to Libertarianism

To answer the first question, most people either come from a place of being apolitical, simply not caring about politics at all, or being somewhat aware of the rudiments of political theory. Back when I was brought up through the public education system, we took a course on civics so we can learn how our government and judicial system works–or rather ought to work. We memorized the preamble, studied the Constitution’s main body, and learned about the Bill of Rights. We were taught it was our duty to vote, be involved, and use the available avenues to seek redress from government. However, I understand that this is far more than what the “education” system offers today.

Nowadays, this “education” has been replaced by a full-blown indoctrination program. There isn’t an ideal to hang in front of people’s faces because there is no longer the mere illusion of choice. “We the people” had died a very long time ago. There is no longer an illusion of accountability, either. As the historian Thucydides would have said, “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”. America has become a place where people only try to make enough money so the problems don’t apply to them anymore. Even then, as we have seen with Donald Trump, even having money doesn’t protect you from the government’s wrath.

As a result, the individual will react one or two ways. Either they’ll say “it is what it is” and continue on their way in ignorant bliss, or they’ll say “hey, that’s not fair!”. Those who see the lack of fairness may pay enough attention to the shiny tin foil being dangled in front of them by the monied elite, begin thinking that the disparity in “fairness” is due to racial inequality, and become Cultural Marxists; those who don’t fall for the “big con” go the opposite direction and become Libertarians.

Questioning the Foundation of Libertarianism

In essence, Libertarianism solves the problem of “hey, it’s not fair!” by implementing a code that everybody ought to follow. In the case of American Libertarians, we often refer to the U.S. Constitution as the basis that establishes and guarantees our rights, liberties, and freedoms.

The very first problem with the foundation is, essentially, determining where these freedoms and liberties come from. The short answer is that they come from the rights established in the Constitution. If that is the case, who is responsible for granting these rights? According to the framers of the Constitution, these rights were given to us by God (the “Christian God”, the Father, specifically). The rights in the Constitution are not only God-given, but inalienable according the Libertarian.

Here’s the problem I see with that: there are no rights given to us in the Bible or according to patristic tradition. There are Commandments that we are told to live by akin to how our nation and states have laws within their respective jurisdictions. A Libertarian could theoretically argue that obeying the law can prevent others of being deprived of their rights. However, God gave all humans free will, including free will to violate His Commandments, thus also allowing anyone to violate the law. The law (in the secular sense) only exists as a mechanism to establish consequences for depriving individuals of their “rights’, but does not guarantee these rights with absolute certainty. For example, there is nothing physically stopping me from stealing someone’s wallet; I only understand that I will be punished if I were to get caught stealing someone’s wallet.

In essence, these rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution are arbitrary. Not only are they made up, but they cannot be guaranteed. If you need any more proof that they’re not guaranteed, the government violates them on a routine basis whether you like it or not. The Twitter files just revealed that various groups within the U.S. Government (the Department of Defense, the Executive Branch, the FBI, etc.) are providing guidance to Twitter about what information they should censor, presumably at the peril of Twitter’s ability to operate within the United States.

So if the Constitution supposedly prevents the government from violating someone’s right to free speech, the government can simply get a private company to do it for them. There is absolutely no stopping the government, especially the U.S. Government, from jack-booting around and doing what it pleases. The fact that it chooses to hide behind the thin veneer of laws, elections, and traditions doesn’t make it any less menacing, much as the velvet glove on the iron fist.

Libertarianism is not a sustainable political philosophy because there is absolutely nothing stopping the government from doing what it wants against you at any time except for the fact that it simply is not paying attention to you personally. “Oh, but I got my guns!”, he might say. Okay tough guy, please tell me you are better trained and can outmaneuver an entire SWAT team with at least a combined 30 years of tactical training.

Don’t get me wrong–the system of having a Bill of Rights and Constitution to limit government is a very amicable ideal, but it is an ideal nonetheless that has no basis in reality. Just because something ought to be a certain way does not mean that anybody whatsoever is beholden to following it. Supposedly, the average American commits three felonies a day due to how convoluted our legal system is. If this is true rather than complete hyperbole, then we are all breaking the law. How come we are not all in prison? How come some people commit crimes and are outright ignored all together while many people get lifetime sentences for lesser offenses?

Why the “Libertarian Phase” is Important

I usually hear a lot of people give Libertarians a hard time because they’re cringe, misguided, or whatever. The truth is likely that, if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you were a Libertarian at some point and that is nothing to be ashamed of.

It’s an inevitable part of life that we find out that “life” or “the world” simply isn’t fair. Some people try to do the right thing and uphold the standards in the Constitution and treat everyone with about as much fairness as life has to offer. Despite your best efforts to be the better person, you’ll ultimately encounter frustration when you learn that the government is unrestricted in it’s capacity to do whatever it pleases. You will think that there are avenues for seeking redress available to you, but there’s nothing left in the end but disappointment in the fact that those avenues exist only to make people believe that their votes and their activism actually matters. Even worse yet, you still have to pay taxes to an illegitimate government, by that I mean a government that can’t even be honest about the fact that it is no longer a constitutional republic. Instead of spending it to help raise your family and improve their quality of life, it’s going towards Ukraine, Israel, or to drag queen story hour.

Nobody is throwing shade at you–it was a tough pill to swallow. January 6th, 2021 was the death of the Libertarian movement in the United States not because it’s adherents were scattered to the four winds, but because it became obvious as day to everyone that there were no freedoms, there were no liberties, there were no rights, there was no Constitution, and there was no constitutional republic. There was only the monied elite, their interests, and their paid actor politician puppets.

However, the Libertarian “phase” is important because it forces people to confront this aspect of the broken ideal. Compared to the apolitical ignoramus that passively obeys the monied elite (even by beliving they’re not playing “the game”), the Liberal/Marxist/Socialist who actively obeys the monied elite, and the “Conservative” who outright refuses to believe that there is nothing being conserved by mainstream Conservativism, most Libertarians are at least is willing to progress through their journey of exploring political philosophy rather than simply relegating oneself to intellectual stagnation like all the others. At least, as a Libertarian, there is a path forward to explore other worldviews–whether an individual wants to do that or not is an entirely different story. it is possible for a Libertarian to have their presuppositions challenged without taking it as a personal attack. Compared to the other ideologies previously mentioned, there is, at least, a graceful way “out” of Libertarianism. It may be cringe to say “I was once a Libertarian”, but it’s much better than saying “I was a leftist” at an age when you’re old enough to know better.

Ultimately, the true goal of journeying through Libertarian ideology is figuring out that the goal isn’t to argue for what is “right” and stick to your guns, but making your way through that journey by dealing with the challenges that come along your way. If your beliefs hold up to scrutiny–so be it. If not, you’ll stand ready to adapt to what comports to reality. In fact, some of my favorite intellectuals have gone through a number of formative changes throughout their life, times, and works.

Answering the Third Question

Now that mainline Libertarianism and the MAGA movement is dead in the U.S., where do the Libertarians go?

There are some that chose the comfort of intellectual stagnation and still cling desperately to Libertarian ideals while outright ignoring the reality that the government does not and will not play fair or play by the rules. Stubbornly holding on to a vision of utopia in hopes it plays out in real life (on this earth, at least) is nothing more than pure delusion.

There are some that delude themselves into thinking that a superhero (like Trump) will come along to save the day…or somehow there’ll be a bunch of rough men ready to stand up, take their place upon the stage of history, and “make things right”.

The remainder, or rather the true thinkers out there…dare I use this phrase…become “blackpilled”. I hate this term because of how astroturfed it feels when it’s used against people for simply observing reality. Personal feeling aside, I have seen firsthand what happened when the Trump support base had crumbled that fateful day. The music cut out, the party ended, and it was time for all of them to walk out the door and face reality. Our country is in decline. A “president” is currently occupying the Oval Office that was not duly elected according to our electoral system. The uniparty grifters and their corporate overlords continue to impose their will upon a willing populace through mass media and manufactured consent, and, most poignantly, there isn’t a thing we can do about it.

However, do you know what I did enjoy about the blackpill experience? The positivity of those who took a step back, took inventory of themselves, their own lives, and the people around them, and put more of their focus on improving themselves and insulating their friends, family, and loved ones from the evil deeds of others.

Others reoriented their focus towards faith. From my own personal experience, I set out to answer the question “how can such evil be allowed to exist in our world?” and found them in the Orthodox Christian Church. Ultimately, being a Christian means shedding oneself of the soul-crushing “”ego” and vaingloriousness, and thus, the presupposition that one has an impact upon the state of world affairs through their very own volition. In another sense, it also means not taking too much emotional stock in such worldly affairs and focusing on the things that really do matter.

However, this is not to say that this is the only path. There have been a rather wide assortment of reactions to the current state of affairs that we have seen, some of which involve many people simply throwing up their arms in futility and giving up. The rest of us will go on to fight in one form or another. (More on that in my next article)

Libertarian or not, we all have collectively that there is nothing that can do to reverse the decline and we all simply have front row tickets to the end of the American civilization. You can either stomp your feet like a petulant child and whine about it some more or you can just sit down and accept the truth for what it really is.