Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Do Libertarians Really Want This Stuff?


Where are Libertarians and Right-wing Republicans going with their sustained attacks on the Federal government? Do they really want the consequences of these attacks? Everything the Obama Administration proposes is supposedly an attack on freedom. They want pure freedom! Isn't that actually anarchy? 

Libertarians seem to want a State of Nature where everyone can do whatever they wish. Wonderful as that may sound, political philosophers from Hobbes and Locke onward agree that the State of Nature always leads to a State of War --- and in Hobbes's words to a life that is nasty, brutish, and short. There is no "society" in such a world --- that is, no structure or system of behavior that you can rely on. Perhaps there are family bonds that moderate behavior, but outside of family you are on your own. In such a world you spend so much time guarding your property and yourself that you have little time to enjoy your "freedom" if you want to call it that. 

The foundation of civil society is an agreement to live under rules of behavior and only in that situation are we truly free --- free to enjoy driving safely on a highway, knowing that most people will stop and yield for a red light or a stop sign. I don't have to stay at home with a loaded shotgun to keep people from stealing my computer --- being free to leave the house unguarded. The cost of my freedom is, of course, the rules and how we come by them. Government is that cost. So when Libertarians refuse to pay that cost, we actually lose our freedom rather than gaining it.

What Right-wing Republicans seem to want is no Federal government but, in its place, wildly powerful state governments. The states should decide every matter. But didn't we try that once a couple hundred years ago? And when it comes to enjoying pure freedom is state regulation any more satisfying than Federal regulation? Apparently not, because when it comes to states and women's rights, it would seem that freedom is the last thing on their minds. Frankly, the states are more susceptible to corruption than the Federal government.

I love California and I have lived here for 55 years, but I still consider myself an American --- that is to say, a national citizen. There are definite standards of behavior that I want to expect no matter where I am in this country. I do not want to plan my travel route according to which states I feel comfortable passing through. In fact, if the "red states" have their way, I will probably have to travel through Canada in order to see my friends on the East Coast.

Come on, is all this just ridiculous hatred of having a multi-racial president who is a Democrat, or do you guys really want to go down this hole?