“Libertarianism” was actually a metaphysical philosophy prior to being a political one—and it was at its start a very sensible philosophy, as it contradicted “necessitarianism”, which stated that human free-will doesn’t exist and that everything is predetermined (also known as “determinism”). All of this grew out of English freethinking movements starting with John Locke, who insisted we are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is determined only by experience derived from sense perception. Locke himself wrote extensively against absolute monarchy and in favor of religious tolerance, thereby influencing the founding fathers of our own nation. He also wrote that the ownership of property was the result of labor—something Marx obviously disagreed with, as Marx argued the working class does all the labor yet owns nothing, whereas the capitalist class has all the property but does no labor. Then comes along Ayn Rand, and she insists Marx couldn’t have foreseen America’s 20th century middle-class where everyone has 2 cars, TVs, vacations, and as much food as they can eat—and that all Marx was seeing were the rough beginnings of capitalism. She leaves out the fact those cars, TVs, vacations, and food came by way of unionized collective bargaining far more often than by way any kindnesses on behalf of the capitalistic class itself. That, and she herself failed to see how America’s own middle class would begin dramatically shrinking with the “Reagan Revolution”, and since early 2015 our middle class is now matched by those in the upper and lower tiers above/below it. From the Pew Research Center: “Over the same period (1970 - 2014), however, the nation’s aggregate household income has substantially shifted from middle-income to upper-income households, driven by the growing size of the upper-income tier and more rapid gains in income at the top. Fully 49% of U.S. aggregate income went to upper-income households in 2014, up from 29% in 1970. The share accruing to middle-income households was 43% in 2014, down substantially from 62% in 1970.” So, with that in mind, Ayn Rand (died 1982) now seems as outdated as Karl Marx. “Anarcho-capitalism” is something a good bit profounder than laissez-faire capitalism; rather, it is the notion that government as even a concept is so altogether evil that the only rational way of going through life is as something of a stateless desperado. It seems to be spearheaded by 49-year-old Canadian internet blogger Stefan Molyneux, a radio show host who apparently uses his psychologist wife as a means of getting people to not just agree with his “stateless anarcho-capitalist philosophy”, but to actually shun their disagreeing family members and leave home in accord. In 2012, the College of Psychologists of Ontario found his wife, Christina, guilty of professional misconduct for this very reason, requiring her to cease all activities with Molyneux podcast in order to maintain her license, something she has since done. At any rate, a community—and even a “nation-state”—tends to be something most people desire as a means of organizing their own stewardship towards the needs of others, as well as having their own needs stewarded to. And to say stewardship itself is “evil” mocks the very principle by which we raise our children—we administer to their needs for a while, hoping that once we are old and infirm, they will be around to do as much for ourselves. It then becomes a matter of grooming the nation-state so that it is not just benign in principle, but also in most of its actions (as much as can be hoped for in this dimension of human imperfection). Contrast that to 1793 France. 1793 France had no rule of law, and history remembers that year as “The Reign of Terror”. Similar things happened throughout Somalia’s 22 years of anarchy. Simply put, this notion “Man is so innately altruistic that if it weren’t for ‘government’ there would be no wars” is totally without any historical verification whatsoever. Man can rise above his animalistic nature through an act of conscious will—but there is nothing to suggest this is done without effort (and sometimes a great deal of effort). As a result, if our central government collapsed you would simply have “warlords” rising up over a thousand different locales across America, each forming gangs out of former military units and police departments—then pillaging the people around them for resources. There’d be none of this “gentlemanly trading” which the anarcho-capitalists keep painting-up as a Pollyannaish utopia, one with utterly no basis in history.

• published: 31 Mar 2016
• views: 17