This is not the first time I’ve broached this topic and baby it won’t be the last. And not just because I live in the Free State of New Hampshire. The one the Free State Project anointed for the Libertarian invasion. The movement to encourage Americans to pack up and emigrate to the Granite State. At least a few of whom are liberty loving separatists and anarchists, complete with all those contradictions.
There is no liberty in anarchy. Individualism on steroids doesn’t work. People can’t leave well enough alone. It is not in their nature. It’s the same problem the left has in reverse.
Democrats, Liberals, Progressives, Socialists, all insist that human beings, elevated to positions of power, will ultimately use it for good. That through more government we will arrive a less. We never do and never will. And the history of human life on earth provides no evidence this is possible except in death. And ample proof that the goals of the progressive political system (the most common form of government in human history) send more people to their death increasingly denied even basic freedoms while they lived.
Anarchy is no different. The premise is that individuals free to function without even minimal oversight will manage their differences effectively for the combined benefit of all. Where? When? Try never. Factions inevitably from that then grow and use force to impose their priorities on others.
Both ideas are utopian visions incompatible with human nature. Both end in tyranny and oppression.
Mostly It’s about Liberty
To their credit, most of the Libertarians or Free Staters I know get this. They grasp a more believable goal. Maximize liberty by working toward a more limited form of government. The Republican form of government. One where local people have more control because the power to control is closet to them. Arrangements that leave more resources in the hands of the creators rather than the takers. A community dedicated to upholding limited laws that apply equally to all. That include protections for our natural rights including life and religious liberty.
People who see the left’s Culture war, not as a journey to liberation but a path toward oppression.
But more than a few pines for a shade of liberty that always ends in tyranny. Some of those end up on the side of the socialists, others on the side of the anarchists. Neither can deliver on their promise. But then, perhaps that is why we have them?
To remind us that despite what they say these are two sides of the same coin that strive for a similar tyrannical outcome. Whether they realize it or not.
