Corruption of Libertarianism
betterm...@gmail.com
attack the government.
My question for the libertarians: Does the fact that an entity is
unofficial rather than official make it any less likely to abuse its
power, to commit force and fraud, and to destroy people's lives,
liberties and happiness?
It is a great and noble American tradition - which then became the
tradition of better countries around the world - to keep tabs on the
government entities to make sure that they do not violate people's
rights. But what we are seeing in the real world is something that has
been missed by mainstream libertarianism as a result of an inherent
flaw in their ideology. Unofficial entities - Church, Mosque, small
towns, families, gangs, old-boy networks, Texas Oil, corrupt networks
in law and medicine, and unscrupulous business, professional and
communal entities - have been exerting tremendous oppressive control
over the lives of the people in them and without; and, lacking the
checks and balances upon them that are applied to the government, have
been abusing their power in most hideous of ways.
Yes, people in official entities can and do get away with great
abuses, when not held to their constitutional prerogatives. So do the
people in entities that are unofficial. And while the American
libertarian movement was most loud and most coercive under Clinton
administration, which was among the most benign and the most
unobtrusive in American history, it has been conspicuously absent
under the Bush administration, which has been the most corrupt, most
deceitful, most abusive, most ruinous, most anti-constitutional and
most overtly illegal regime that America has ever had.
Why be so loud under a benign and non-invasive order, but so quiet
under circumstance of real fascism? Perhaps we are dealing with people
whose character is that of frogs, who jump all over King Stump who is
kind to them but quiet down under King Stork who eats them for lunch.
Perhaps we are dealing with people who are tools, and as such get used
by entities that have the worst of intentions. Did aggressive anti-
government movement during 1990s affectuate any improvement in
people's lives, liberties, values? Absolutely not. The reason is that
it was not life or liberty that it was used to protect, but rather the
abusive, controlling, totalitarian unofficial entities, such as the
Southern old-boy networks, Christian Right, Texas Oil, Jehovah's
Witnesses, small towns and incestuous families, who were fighting for
their rights to commit brutality, abuse and injustice against those
unfortunate enough to be under their control. And when those entities
got in power, through fraud and corruption, the libertarians were no
longer of use to them and were discarded like old tools.
Libertarianism in 1990s was made out to be the cool, the smart, the
ethical, stance. It was in fact neither of the preceding. The Clinton
government not only made possible the greatest peace and prosperity in
American history, it also made effort to fight abusive practices such
as incest. The people who were against Clinton government, were the
people who wanted to perpetuate abusive, destructive, murderous
entities and cultural habits. And now they are in power, thanks
largely to libertarianism, which was used against a noble, benign
government dedicated to protection of human and civil rights, by
entities who did not want meddling with their corrupt, murderous,
forceful, fraudulent, and deceitful ways by which they ran and
destroyed people's lives.
An associated movement - known as communitarianism - has been likewise
an accessory to imposition of real fascism. Communitarianism wants the
community to have power over people's lives. Why would a community be
any less prone to abuses of power than the government? Why would an
unofficial, unchecked, unbalanced, and unaccountable, entity, be less
destructive of people's liberties and lives than entities that are
official and made to be accountable? Experience proves, it isn't. Some
of the most hideous abuses have come from communities, which lacking
official founding documents also lack checks and balances upon them
and are, justified by communitarianism (and overseen and protected
byout-of-touch libertarianism), given absolute power to commit the
most horrific of crimes against people both within the communities and
without.
If libertarianism is to be done in a principled and effective manner,
it must see and check the capacity for abuses of power by unofficial
entities to the same extent as it does the official ones. And if
libertarians are the real, smart, tough men that they say they are,
that is exactly what they will do. A true cause for freedom will see
the capacity for oppression by all entities, whether they be
governments or they be small towns, mosques, churches, old-boy
networks, gangs, corporations, corrupt networks in law and medicine,
and societies themselves. And it will focus its energies upon
protecting people's rights, lives and liberties from unofficial organs
of oppression that, being unofficial and unchecked and unbalanced, are
easily turned tyrannical, to the same extent as it will from organs of
power that are official, elected, and held to the discipline of media
scrutiny, electoral accountability, and government check and balance.