Wishing good will to liberty lovers

(My Clovis News Journal column for December 25, 2015. Merry Christmas.)

In this season of “Peace on Earth, good will toward men,” ask yourself if you are supporting the opposite.

Liberty activist Larken Rose points out that so many who say they want “peace on Earth” still support war-mongering politicians, and while talking about “good will toward men” they advocate widespread authoritarian aggression.

He also brings up how people "repeat a story about a baby being born in an animal's food trough after the baby's parents were forced to travel great distances in order to be registered and taxed... while condoning that everything be registered and taxed."

If you are under the impression you can find peace and good will through government, you may fall for anything. You clearly don't understand the concepts involved.

If you seek peace on Earth, don't attack anyone, and don't support those who do. Peace is never aggressive; only defensive. To have peace means to be ready, willing, and able to defend yourself and others from those who don't want peace. However, you aren't defending yourself if you invade someone's home, order them around, and attack them because you believe they are a threat when they resist your meddling. If this is your idea of defense, you are confused and working against peace on Earth.

If you want good will toward men, stop treating people as they would rather not be treated. It means treating people as potential friends unless they give you a good reason to do otherwise, and then just staying out of their way as long as they let you.

It means helping out when you can, if your help is welcome- without harming anyone else in the process.

Those who think welfare is the same as generosity need to learn you can't be generous with something which isn't yours to give. It is generous to give of your own time or money; it is slavery to force someone to work for someone else, and theft to force them to hand over a percentage for the "common good". If your plan to help others relies on armed government employees and threats of fines or imprisonment, you obviously don't understand "helping".

Peace on Earth, good will to men. Live it by minding your own business, understanding what's your business and what isn't, and respecting where your rights begin and end. Then stop supporting those who do the opposite, whatever their flimsy justifications.

Merry Christmas to all peaceful, good people everywhere. The non-reformed Grinches are on their own.

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I am not a "left libertarian" for the exact same reason I am not a "right libertarian".

Regardless of claims to the contrary, "left" and "right" are incompatible with liberty.

Some months ago I ran across this: Why I Am a Left Libertarian. As I often do with things that attempt to revive the zombie of "right vs left" I shrugged and promptly forgot it.

But, recently someone brought it to my attention again and asked me to address it.

So, I will.

I know a lot of people who call themselves "left libertarians" hark back to the origins of the idea of political "right vs left" to show why libertarianism is always of the "left". But I point back to those origins to demonstrate exactly why I am neither.

And here, taken from that column, is the important point:

"...it was in the French Legislative Assembly in the fall of 1791 that the terms Right and Left were first used in this political sense. As the Durants tell it, when the assembly convened, the 'substantial minority dedicated to preserving the monarchy. . .occupied the right section of the hall, and thereby gave a name to conservatives everywhere.' The liberals, meanwhile, 'sat at the left.'"

Did you see that? Here it is again:

"Some fifty-odd years later, after another French Revolution (the one that took place in 1848) had unseated the last French king, Louis Philippe, the same seating arrangement was revived for the newly elected legislative assembly of the Second Republic. As has often been noted, two of the newly elected legislators who sat together on the left side of that assembly in 1848 and 1849 were the free market economist and publicist for free trade Frederic Bastiat and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, the first man ever to publicly declare himself an anarchist."

Do you see the problem?

"Right" and "left" are notions reserved for those who want to govern you, or at least play the governing game. Maybe they want to govern you toward liberty, but they are still working to use government- the enemy of Rightful Liberty- to free you. How is that working out?

If you fall for the idea of "right" and "left" you aren't nearly as liberated as you could be. There is authoritarianism, also known as bullying, and there is libertarianism- also known as self-ownership, or "everything voluntary". No government involved. Liberty is not of the "right" or "left". It is superior to the methods of those who would govern- the tactics of the bullies.

So, call yourself what you want, but I am not a part of the "Left" nor of the "Right".

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