Unlike "liberals" or "conservatives", libertarians don't have real leaders.
Oh, sure, there are those who "everybody knows", and are followed with interest, but they aren't like a Glenn Beck or a Rachel Maddow, or even like Obama or Ron Paul.
I always see others posting the latest talking point from their leaders. But not so much with libertarians.
The "prominent" libertarians tell you what they are thinking, and expect you to go through it with a fine-toothed comb and reject it if it's crap (even if they don't like your conclusions). They may still try to convince you they are right, but it isn't easy for their opinions to become widely accepted among liberty lovers without being picked apart and found to be correct.
The "mainstream" folks don't do that when their leaders tell them what they should think. They suck it right up and repeat it everywhere.
Even of those libertarian thinkers I admire, if they say something full of crap I'll say so. And they do the same for me.
It's because libertarians don't just yap to be saying something. We think first. And we never stop thinking about what we are saying and what we'll say next. We can back up what we say with reality and evidence, even if statists reject the reality for the comfort of their delusions. Makes it very hard for statists to actually disprove what we say, so they resort to other tactics. At that point, the best thing to do is to ignore them- it's not going to end nicely.
If I were offered position of "king of the libertarians" I would turn it down. Nor would I ever blindly follow a "king of libertarians", even if I liked the person. There's no way that could help bring on more liberty. Having a leader would set libertarians back and make us as vulnerable to basic foundational errors as the others are.
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Libertarians' strength is their weakness.The strength and merit of this idea makes it very difficult for Libertarians to influence elections and the political process.
ReplyDeleteBut liberty will never be found in elections or politics.
ReplyDeleteYou mean like that scene from the Monty Python movie, The Life of Brian, where Brian tells the crowd: "You can do it yourself." And the crowd responds with: "We can do it ourselves... tell us what to do. Yeah, true Libertarians and Free Thinkers are rare.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, Kent, I think I will have to disagree. :-)
ReplyDeleteSay we have another revolution, and libertarians are in the fight. Are they all atomistic rebels, or do they choose someone to lead their team? Probably the latter, as it makes sense and is voluntary (assuming you have not defined the word "leader" to imply involuntary). As long as you can bail at any time it makes sense to you to do so, there is nothing wrong with having a leader. Not everybody can be a Patton...
If a revolution happens, then I think leaders will be more necessary. I don't even think in terms of a libertarian revolution anymore. I think the State will destroy itself- and then who knows what will happen. I doubt I'll ever have to worry about it, though.
ReplyDelete"...Say we have another revolution..."
ReplyDelete"We" are not going to have "another revolution". YOU and your cohorts might have a revolution (of which I might be forced to dodge some flak).
An asset of libertarian life is the desire to avoid other peoples' "revolutions".
Sam