Beyond Left and Right

There is rarely a day that goes by where I am not labelled as a liberal or a conservative because of whatever opinion I am expressing at the moment. The reality is that I am neither, but people can't seem to think beyond their left/right categories.

I am a libertarian. The essentials of being a libertarian is that you believe in human rights which are only three--life, liberty, and property. This means we believe in social freedom as well as economic freedom. The Left does not believe in economic freedom while the Right does not believe in social freedom.

You really can't have social freedom without economic freedom and vice versa. For instance, conservatives will declare they believe in free trade but do everything they can to put restrictions on the trade of drugs, alcohol, pornography, prostitution, or whatever offends them. Liberals will argue that they believe in social freedom, but then they do everything they can to regulate what you eat, how you run your business, or what have you. The result is that the Left will defend your right to have anal sex or smoke reefer but will not let you buy a Big Mac or a pack of Marlboros because these benefit "corporate interests."

But ultimately the Left and the Right are joined at the hip because they want to force their values and choices upon you. They may differ on those values, but they have the same aim which is to control how you live, what you own, and what you buy. They don't believe in freedom at all except as a "necessary" evil in service to their ends. This is how you get the mixed economy thinking of both sides. Capitalism is to be tolerated but only to the extent that it produces something meaningful to each side. For the Right, this means the virtues of hard work and thrift. For the Left, this means a tax base which they can exploit and redistribute to the "more deserving."

I believe freedom is an end in itself and not as a means to some other end. Anything else is tyranny. This is why some self-proclaimed libertarians like Neal Boortz are really conservatives because they buy into the means to an end argument. I don't.

I believe a free society is the only just society there is or ever can be. I base this upon both principles outlined by the Enlightenment and by the abundant examples of history and economics. And my arguments are simple. Freedom will not lead to social chaos or social control by greedy capitalists. These are merely the specious arguments meant to intimidate the populace into turning over their freedom and money to tyrants who then proceed to enlarge their control and influence in what Nietzsche called the will to power. Power, religion, and morality all serve to feed the egoes of fiends. Their main tools of influence are fear and guilt. Now, you people might understand why I love being a debunking scoundrel.

The Left and the Right can't help but be self-contradicting. I merely point out the contradictions. Ultimately, these people represent the twin pillars of tyranny in our time--communism and fascism. They will deny this association because it would be bad PR to be associated with Hitler and Stalin. But philosophically they are no different. Like Stalin, the Left wants to control your economic freedom and eliminate the capitalist scum. Like Hitler, the Right wants to punish the undesirables that weaken our society--homos, wetbacks, blacks, and liberals.

Amongst this backdrop, we find the centrist. Now, centrists believe rather stupidly that truth lies somewhere in the middle of extremes like some kind of political equivalent of the golden mean. They think that "moderation" is the answer to the "complex" problems we face. If everybody could get just get together, cross the aisle, and join hands in a rousing chorus of kum-bay-yah, then all of our problems would be solved. Ironically, I have people who paint me as a centrist as well. Folks, I am not a centrist. In fact, I see centrists as being a greater threat to liberty than either Left or Right. Those centrist horse traders are actually the ones who get things done, and when government advances, liberty dies.

Left, Right, and Center are all joined together in a fundamental belief that freedom is the cause of all problems. Seriously. Every crisis from 9/11 to Enron ends in a call for less freedom and more government control. Yet, government's track record at accomplishing any level of what they claim to aim for is dismal. The result is that law abiding people are punished and made to live in prison while the real thieves and crooks get more and more freedom. Those thieves and crooks are the politicians and their friends and contributors and recipients of government largesse. Their victims are people like you and me who want to work, earn a living, and enjoy the good things that life has to offer and which we've earned.

There is only one just order and that is the way of freedom. We know this both in principle and practice. Read the front page of any newspaper in light of what I just told you, and it all becomes plain as day. Politicians are merely playing off of you--the suckers. We despise them because they have no principles, yet when do we ever vote for principled people? That is because the American people collude in their own imprisonment. They want freedom for themselves but not for anyone else. But I have found and history shows that the best way to protect your own freedom is to also protect and advance the freedom of others.

I recognize that people want to put me in the camp of their enemy because this makes an easier argument for them. But, seriously, move beyond this. I am not a leftist, a right winger, or a centrist. I am a classical liberal or what we know in America today as a libertarian. Take the time to learn and appreciate what my position is even if you disagree with it. This makes a lot more sense than trying to put me in a camp for which you have decades of arguments to draw upon. But that requires an examination of your fundamental thesis that freedom is a bad thing. For some reason, no one really wants to address this fundamental issue. and I think I know why. It is because it is an accurate summation of your thinking, and you don't want people to know this.

Now, I recognize that people will say I engage in much of the same thing by calling my opponents commies and fascists. But those labels fit. Everyone claims to be a defender of freedom, so saying you believe in some amount of freedom makes no difference to me. The Constitution of the Former Soviet Union was a rousing document detailing freedoms of speech, assembly, and worship. You can find a copy of it here:

Constitution of the USSR

Here's my favorite section:

Rights, Freedoms, and Duties

Like I said, everyone believes in freedom. But here's the key:

Enjoyment by citizens of their rights and freedoms must not be to the detriment of the interests of society or the state. . .

There you have it. What the State giveth the State taketh away. Remember, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, or what have you were all well-intentioned people who had what they considered to be your best interests at heart. Freedom and liberty in their mouths is simply rhetoric and propaganda. Even "heroes" like Che Guevara are actually murderers who killed people for nothing more than having a differing opinion. You won't see that shit in The Motorcycle Diaries. But folks like Bob Redford seem to have no problem overlooking this shit. I wonder what he would think of a similar treatment of the early life of Hitler.

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