Libertarianism and Being Positive

One of the challenges of being a Libertarian is dealing with the frankly incorrect and often ignorant views about this ideology. There are too many objections, too many misinterpretations, to deal with in just one blog post. Frankly, it would take an epic volume to fully dispense with the myriad of objections that Libertarians encounter, and I sense that even if that volume was written, Libertarians would still face objections that begin “yeah but…”

But I want to deal with two objections that pretty much sum up the crucial arguments people make against the Libertarian cause because they also illustrate some crucial points about why I personally am a Libertarian – and one of the crucial problems encountered when people are advocating the Libertarian cause.

First up, we have a comment left at DK’s place about how people present and thus how some people perceive the Libertarian Party of the UK:

Some Libertarians present the party as a shallow "drink and do drugs wherever you like party" with no policy other than wishful thinking.

Well, Libertarians do tend to argue for freedom around drink and drugs. Frankly, I do not think it is any business of the state to legislate on what their citizens put into their bodies and how they live their lives. But it isn’t just about drink and drugs – there are far more fundamental points to be addressed here. It is down to the fundamental Libertarian idea that you own yourself – no-one else should have a claim to your body or the way you live your life. On top of that, there is the question of personal responsibility. As an adult, you should take responsibility about how you live your life and whatever successes and failures you have in your life. By legislating on how much you can drink, and about what substances you can put into your body, the state is removing your right to live your life as an adult. I don’t see a great deal of difference between opposing the state deciding how much of your income you can spend through taxation and the government deciding how much you can spend on getting pissed or stoned. Yes, drink and drug use is more frowned upon in polite society, but the issue is a deeper one – it is a question of personal freedom and personal responsibility.

The other objection the Libertarianism is summed up in this old post from Never Trust A Hippy:

Other examples are, of course, or friends the bloggertarians. Raise a question - any question - and the answer is always 'sack public employees' / 'school vouchers' / 'government can't work' etc. The thick shitheads.

Substitute Libertarian for Bloggertarian, and you have the way many people on the left view the Libertarian ideology. Except, of course, they are spinning what Libertarians actually want to make the ideology as a whole appear negative and attacking.

It is true that a lot of Libertarian proposals involve reduction. And cutting. And, yes, sacking. The whole credos is around reducing cutting government waste, and reducing government power. Part of that realistically means that some people will lose their jobs – but only if they are carrying out a job for the government that does not need to be done. So yes, you could argue that the policies of any Libertarian policies are negative because they involve attacking the status quo and changing the way things are at the moment.

Yet there is a reason why Libertarians want to cut, to reduce, to limit. And it is for very positive reasons. They want to reduce government waste to increase the amount of your money that you have to spend. They want to reduce government power and influence within society to increase the amount of freedom you have to live your life. And, yes, their policies will lead to some government workers losing their livelihoods – but guess what, that will increase the money in your back pocket as well. The means could be perceived by some (and generally by those who believe that state intervention is pretty much the answer to everything) as negative. The end results are extremely positive.

Part of making the case for Libertarianism will inevitably involve the advocates selling their ideas in the most positive way possible. We shouldn’t talk about reducing government waste, we should talk about increasing the net incomes of the taxpayers. We should talk about limiting the government, we should talk about liberating the people in this country. The reality is that so much of modern politics is about getting the right sort of sales pitch. It is very easy for the statist enemies of the Libertarians to argue that it is a negative creed; it is the fault of Libertarians if this deliberate misinterpretation is allowed to stand.

The Libertarian ideology is one of the most optimistic, enabling and life-affirming ideologies you could possibly come across. It aspires to give you more personal responsibility. It will give you more freedom and more of a right to live your life the way you want to live your life. Ignore the spin, ignore the jibes of the statists and of the left-wing. They want to tell you how to live your life; we Libertarians want to let you get on with living your life with minimal interference from anyone else.