Libertarianism: Are We Enlightened Enough for It to Work?

“Consequently, we defend each person's right to engage in any activity that is peaceful and honest, and welcome the diversity that freedom brings. The world we seek to build is one where individuals are free to follow their own dreams in their own ways, without interference from government or any authoritarian power.” (excerpt from the Libertarian Party platform preamble)

I do believe in the general goodness of mankind and I believe that there is much more beauty in the world than evil (evil is often times just a bit “louder”). However, as members of the human race, I think that we need to be honest with ourselves.

Throughout the history of the Western world* we have provided little indication that on a grand scale and for long periods of time we are capable of pursuing our own dreams and liberty without infringing on the rights and liberties of others. (*certainly grave challenges have existed outside of the Western world, I am simply much more familiar with the history of the West)

Feudalism, exploration of new lands and conquering of indigenous peoples, the Crusades, slavery, the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, withholding of basic rights based on gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnic background, abuse of labor including men, women and children, sale of unsafe goods (including food and medicines) for economic gain, creation of vast corporate monopolies, destruction of our environment, institution-wide gambles that benefit a very few while putting the lives of billions around the globe in peril, wars to secure access to/expand resources and territory………

The list goes on and on. Despite the tremendous generosity of mankind, we also do terrible, terrible things to one another. Given the collective histories of Western societies, what makes us think that we can or will now, “defend each person's right to engage in any activity that is peaceful and honest, and welcome the diversity that freedom brings?” Have we not squandered so many opportunities to live this ideal?

I believe that individuals truly committed to the implementation of a Libertarianism directly from philosophy to agenda are misguided at best and often times are largely interested is furthering their own liberty and paying fewer taxes while conveniently failing to think about how to fulfill the “each other’s liberty” portion of the Libertarian platform. I am sure that many Libertarians would agree that vague philosophy needs to be boiled down to actionable plans, I have just yet to hear or read anything that I would consider realistically implementable.

Although certainly some government interference was/is overreaction to relatively small events, many of the institutions Libertarians hate so much—FDA, SEC, EPA for instance— were created after the wholesale and terrible infringement on the rights others. So what makes us think that we are so different now? Although the human race has advanced in some ways, in many ways we have not. In fact, in many ways we have simply become much for efficient and effective in our ability to create havoc.

I simply cannot advocate an approach in which communities, states and nations trust each other to be "our best selves." Based on our past and current behaviors, it is a fool’s errand as we have all been given ample opportunity to behave well--as societies and as individuals. Therefore, as we move through the Libertarian Party platform, I will outline the weaknesses of the Libertarian platform, reasons for my opinions and ultimately thoughts for alternative, implementable approaches.