Libertarian Pessimism

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.
H.L. MENCKEN

The prospects of liberty have always been grim. Any survey of human history will show you that every page of the human story is bloodsoaked with tyranny. The American experiment is but a blip in that history, and it is not that great. Granted, things are a lot better than Tudor England or the Roman Empire. We don't crucify people anymore or disembowel them. This is because those take too long. Cruelty has been replaced with indifferent mass execution on a large scale.

I can only address what is happening in America, but I can safely say that we do not live in a libertarian country. We never will. Now, I think some progress might be made on a few issues. Marijuana might be legalized if only so it can be taxed. Gays may marry. But, fundamentally, this country will never be a libertarian country where the majority of the citizens adhere to the principle of non-aggression and champion both personal and economic freedom. There will only be marginal improvements on the social side of things and virtually zero on the economic side.

Why is this? Why do people reject libertarianism when many people such as myself make both a moral and empirical case for liberty? Why do people keep trotting out Marxism and Keynesianism when both are clearly failures? Why do people keep looking to the welfare state and a government check?

There is one fundamental truth that I know. Freedom works. From everything I have read and studied, I know the world and human society is better off under a free market system. Conservatives believe it even if they do not always adhere to it. The Left will never believe in it no matter what empirical data you put before them. No fact will interfere with their belief, and those beliefs are older than Marx. Governments for eons have learned that the mob can be bought off with welfare usually looted from some conquered people.

Society works best on the basis of mutual exchange. When all people are producing and trading, everyone does better. Intelligent people know this. Stupid people may or may not know this, but they don't care. This is because free trade is merely a second option to their prime option and desire. This is the desire to steal. People always prefer theft to trade.

This desire to steal and live at the expense of others is pervasive and hardwired into these people. They are always going to support a government than gives them a welfare check. This is the farmer getting subsidies to not grow crops. This is the bankster getting free money from the Fed and the Treasury Department. This is the rest of America getting some kind of check or freebie at taxpayer expense. None of these people are ever troubled that a system of looting is unsustainable. They only know they are receiving goodies they did not have to earn.

This is never going to change. Even economic collapse is not going to change this. Look at Greece now as it is collapsing and receiving bailouts from the rest of Europe. Are people facing reality and choosing the more libertarian direction? Of course not. They simply clamor for their government checks knowing full well that there is no money left. These fools do not care. Find someone else to loot.

If reality is not enough for these people to abandon their error, what else is there? What can you possibly say or do to convince these people to embrace the libertarian philosophy? The answer is nothing. You can show again and again that there are no free lunches. It won't matter. They want free lunches and always will.

I can't not be a libertarian. Asking me to not be a libertarian is on par with asking me to believe in a flat earth. The best I can do is lie to you, but I can't lie to myself. I know the world is round just like I know that the free market works. But I must also admit that if someone has a vested interest in not believing in a round earth, there is nothing I can do about that. No photographs or reasoning is going to change the mind that is already committed to believing what it wants to believe.

I don't expect to see liberty in my lifetime. I don't think this country will ever be anything close to the minimalist government Nozick outlined much less the anarcho-capitalism others want to see. I am not the first libertarian thinker to face this fact. Others have thought along the same lines. I think of all the great libertarian voices that died without ever seeing anything close to libertopia. This would be Spooner, Rand, Nozick, Rothbard, Friedman, Mencken, Browne, and others. I believe America will be a communist dictatorship before it ever becomes a truly libertarian nation.

I am a libertarian and continue with the message not because I expect results because I don't. Ultimately, I think it is all a waste of time. Then again, life is a waste of time since we are all ultimately food for worms. But I can't think of a more noble cause to waste my life on than the cause of freedom. I take pride in knowing I was on the right side of a lost cause.

Will my pessimism ever change? It would take a great deal for that to happen. If a guy like Ron Paul was elected to the White House, that would be a huge deal for me. But as it stands, I doubt he could even win the GOP nomination. This shows how stupid the people are. People know Ron Paul is right. They just don't care. They want the fantasy and are never going to release their hold on it.

I pattern myself after Mencken. He is definitely on my heroes list. That guy was a real pessimist, but it made him wickedly funny. This is what I dedicate my life to--mocking the mass of imbeciles. I know that I can spend my entire life gloating at the folly of these fools, and the mockery will echo far into the future because the folly does not change. This is because Mencken's ridicule echoes today and still holds true.

The answer to despair is humor. You just have to laugh at it all. Life is short, so get all the laughs you can. This is the antidote to the utter hopelessness of the notion that fools can ever be free. They can't. Lower your expectations and just be glad that you aren't stupid like them.

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