Being a Libertarian does tend to get you called a lot of very interesting names. Fascist,Right-Wing Nutter,selfish child hater being some of the kinder things that I have been called in the last two years.
Usually I excuse these 'insults' because they are usually born out of an ignorance of what Libertarianism is, or at least as far as I interpret Libertarianism.
My Libertarianism is quite a simple one. I accept that to be free from the interference from the State and the oppression of 'others' on how I live my life, I have to act in a responsible manner, AND be responsible for my actions. (This usually means a lot of apologising to a lot of people a lot of the time, for gaffes or the thoughtless consequences of my actions). Libertarianism does not allow you to say that it is the Governments/Parents/Society's fault I am not as rich as Croesus or as happy and contented as I should be. The only person that is responsible for me is me.
This is really quite tough going at times. As we all need help from the people we value and love, and we should also build up a store of good will with our family and friends. (Before anybody gets the wrong idea about me I can be as negative and grumpy as the next man).
This is how we all used to get along before the Fabians 'nationalised' compassion and perverted it.
This morning I heard a very interesting (for me at least) about the shock revelation that Neanderthals had compassion for their fellows. How snorted the the BBC Radio 4 interviewer, no doubt thinking that for any society to survive at least fifty per cent of that weeks kill had to be handed over to a class of Neanderthals that sat around the hut/cave all day waiting for the ones actually doing the hunting, return and reveal how many Elk had been hunted and caught, and redistributed the meat amongst all the other tribe members whilst threatening the hunters with being put in the big black cave if they did not.
This would also mean giving a share of the food to Wayne the spineless who preferred drinking fermented berry juice all day long, and Sharon 'burying me in a Y shaped coffin', who could not remember why she had so many offspring when she had neither the skill or the mate to go out and hunt.
The learned interviewee then explained that skeletons that had been excavated from sites all over Europe had been found with birth defects or horrific injuries that would have rendered them incapable of hunting or gathering. Yet these same human remains showed that they had been cared for by the family/tribal group for decades. Evidence also showed that when Neanderthals and other early humans died they were buried with flowers, hardly much use in the 'afterlife' but a sign that they were loved and cared for.
One suspects that Wayne the Spineless would have received a quick tap round the back of the head with a club and told to get his act together and get out there with the rest of them as it was not feasible for survival for fifty per cent of the tribe to sit around doing nothing productive all year round.
However we have 'progressed' to a situation where Fabians have nationalised compassion, and the one thing that Libertarians are accused of of being is now 'normal' ,that of being selfish.
Having handed over fifty percent of your earnings to the State, you are now absolved from taking any further responsibility for anybody other than yourself. It is the State's responsibility to educate your kids, wrong, the State will indoctrinate but not instill a code of ethics that is your responsibility, the State will house you and feed you, wrong, this is your responsibility to do otherwise dehumanises and causes isolation and degradation. You no longer have any responsibility for Granny, you are entitled to have her shut away in a home, so that it does not interfere with your two weeks in Benidorm and watching X factor or Strictly Come Dancing.
Locking 'Granny' away was ably demonstrated to me a few summers ago in France when for weeks there was a long lasting heatwave. Literally thousands of old people died of heatstroke in their homes and in nursing homes. For some families enjoying their August off, they did not find out that their elderly relative had died for weeks and was now lying in one of the many temporary morgues. The Minister of Health was sacked, because the hospitals were short of nurses and Doctors enjoying their August holidayand it was all his fault because the State should have looked after them. Their was no collective shame as a society.
We are all going to get old, the children of the 1940's and 50's are rapidly heading towards the the big retirement home sooner or later, and are in all probability not going to like what they find at the end of the big Ponzi scheme called the welfare state. Neglect by the State and 'family', and isolated from the young and bereft of company. Condemned by a sense of entitlement to serve their last years in the Gulag of the Old, where nobody remembers who Mark Bolan was.
Fabianism is not compassionate, it is based on theft, creates division and resentment between the generations, wisdom financial and moral is not passed on and breaches the natural state and order of things of what it is to be human.
Honour thy mother and father, is replaced with 'Honour thy flatscreen TV, and I must get round to visiting mother sometime its been months'
The Libertarian is not selfish, he/she gives social credit that does not rely on Experian or Equifax. However rather than by the coercion of the State, the Libertarian should accept the responsibility voluntarily helping the youngest and the old. Because we were all young once and we are as sure as Hell going to be old.
Perversely our caring Welfarism has created a dependent uncompassionate society, the road to Hell is paved with Fabian good intentions.
Andrew Withers
5 comments:
Quite so. However, a large part of the problem that you have communicating your beliefs may be the fact that many self-identifying 'libertarians' constantly bang on about 'self interest'; without recognising that biological self interest also includes altruistic behaviour. That is, 'self interest' does not equate to 'selfishness'. But you wouldn't realise that from reading many in the libertarian blogosphere :-(
Amen to that
Quite.
In regards to what Patrick says I fully agree and take it one step further in my work as a voluntary youth worker, above and beyond basic altruism; my view is that the majority of these children victims of circumstances put upon them by their parents; it is never that far a stretch from finding where state involvement has had a detrimental impact in my work.
I echo the sentiments of the OP and comments, above.
Welfarism fosters abdication. It also creates a false impression of dominion over people. "Free" NHS means those within the State feel they can tell you how to live, "because it costs".
This post is an excellent companion to anand a posting elsewhere by Mr Civil Libertarian about Corporatism, the true Welfare Queens. Both of these should not be allowed to slip into oblivion.
I find these two concepts very important for providing a clear view on what Libertarians ARE NOT as well as what they ARE.
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