My Road to Libertarianism

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Berkeley Posted: Mon, Nov 1 2010 2:41 PM

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Hello everyone,

I am a freshman here at The Ohio State University.  I am the fundraising director of the campus Young American for Liberty (YAL) chapter, which has about forty members.

Almost two years ago, when I was graduated from high school, I considered myself a fairly typical conservative Republican (I believe I am still a registered Republican in New York, my home state, as a matter of fact).

I recall precisely the moment when I started on my way to becoming a Libertarian.  In the summer of 2009, after my senior year of high school, I got a call from someone with  the National Republican Congressional Committee.  I listened to the volunteer's introductory spiel and let him talk about their plans for the 2010 election cycle until I heard something along the lines of:

"We need to end the Left's reckless expansion of government."

To which I said something to the effect of: "Republicans have recklessly expanded the powers of government under President Bush, which I did not approve of."

And so he said: "Well, uh, yes, and that's a problem we need to address with a new generation of grass roots Republicans in office, and this time we need to reign in Obama's [blah blah blah]".

Not sold.  The Bush years did not impress me.  My rhetoric that I used in political conversations with my overwhelmingly Leftist peers in New York was not being supported by the politicians and talking heads that supposedly represented me, which was a source of never-ending frustration.  And this dolt on the telephone was stuttering on about empty sensationalist agendas, and I finally felt that this was enough, the two-party system be damned.

Also, at this time, there was a little-known bill going around Congress that particularly infuriated me.  The PACT Act of 2009, as it were, aimed to prevent people form using the US Postal Service to transport the sale of cigarettes.  I am a loyal Nat Sherman smoker.  In NYC, the cost of cigarettes due to local and state taxes, is extortionate to the tune of $15 a pack of regular coffin nails, and even more for nicer cigarettes.  All of the wondrous civilization of Nat Sherman's 42nd street shrine of tobacco could not get me to fork over that much money, as I am not Gordon Gecko nor am I an addict.  So I ordered from the internet.  Private shipping companies, like FedEx and UPS, had long since stopped shipping cigarettes, and the only way to get them shipped was through the USPS.  Now, after the PACT Act, it is effectively impossible to order cigarettes over the internet.

More than the money, this struck a nerve with me.  I was too young at the time to appreciate the outrage of the public smoking ban in NYC (which included private restaurants, go figure...), so I guess I missed to the boat on feeling like an outraged marginalized class of people whose personal habits were being outlawed by a sanctimonious majority who believe in democracy (aka, mob rule) and do not understand the rule of law in a republic.

The PACT Act, though it had a few Republican dissenters in government, was mostly a bipartisan piece of legislation.

So to hell with them both, I said.  None of them get it.

After school I decided to work for a year instead of going to directly to college.  I worked for a market research firm where I learned and espoused the values of hard work in relation to the productivity and purpose of the firm.  I started off as a phone recruiter for focus groups, but I quickly got promoted to a manager position.  Immediately, I came to despise most people.  I don't think I am misanthropic, but I feel as though most people just complain and forestall work in hopes of being a squeaky enough wheel so that their demands are met.  I had a lot of entitled recent college graduates that I supervised who came in late all of the time, called in sick all of the time, and constantly questioned tasks as being too far below them or something.  Pathetic.  It is these same people who love governments to steal from people to fulfill their wants.  This was all before I read The Law by Bastiat or had any real philosophical foundation.  At this point, I made a distinguishing observation in the political and social future of this country that there is indeed a war going on here, and I intend to be on the proper side of it.  I do not believe there are many people to be converted or swayed or what have you.  As I have learned through my line of work, people buy a particular brand of low-calorie sports beverages for more compelling reasons than for how they support their most basic ideologies.  I firmly and elitistly (is that a word?) believe that most people are idiots, and idiots should not have any control over force which they can use to oppress others.  I am eager to see some evidence against this snobby point of view, but I am not religious nor do I believe in any kind of "good faith", so I am comfortable with this I guess.

The moment I transferred from "disgruntled people-hating Republican" to "Libertarian" was when I came across the Young Americans for Liberty recruiting table at my university's student organizations fair.  Over the last couple of months, I have engrossed myself in the literature and technology of the movement.  I even went to the Youth Leadership School organized by the conservative Leadership Initiative to learn how to utilize winning political technology and strategy in organizing a successful youth movement.  I'm not going to half-ass this.

As an aside, I am a very friendly and well-mannered person.  I have learned that people assume that I am a bitter recluse when I explain to them my philosophical foundation.  This is why I rarely ever like to discuss politics or religion with people, but in these frivolous times, it is not an option to remain quiet when liberty is so dangerously besieged by the masses.

Respectfully,

B. Berkeley

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Lagrange multiplier replied on Mon, Nov 1 2010 2:54 PM

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Berkeley:

As I have learned through my line of work, people buy a particular brand of low-calorie sports beverages for more compelling reasons than for how they support their most basic ideologies.  I firmly and elitistly (is that a word?) believe that most people are idiots, and idiots should not have any control over force which they can use to oppress others.  I am eager to see some evidence against this snobby point of view, but I am not religious nor do I believe in any kind of "good faith", so I am comfortable with this I guess.

I regard people as remarkably intelligent when it comes to their own specialties. I can't fix my own car, for instance, but I know many people that can (and, yet, they cannot speak intelligibly about how natural selection impacts morality, how entropy affects our understanding of the world, how property rights increase economic efficiency, etc.). With the division of labor, intelligence itself is specialized. Now, I would still suggest some people are brighter than others, but that shouldn't cause conflict until we get to politics...

Having a clearly-supported ideology is only demanded by politics. In an anarcho-capitalist world, you have every incentive needed to choose law and enforcement wisely. Under democracy, informed public opinion is a public good (and, as is obvious, it is underproduced). People are rationally ignorant about politics.

Bryan Caplan:

In a modern democracy, not only can a libertarian be elitist; a libertarian has to be elitist. To be a libertarian in a modern democracy is to say that nearly 300 million Americans are wrong, and a handful of nay-sayers are right. So how can you be one of the nay-sayers, unless you think you and your fellow nay-sayers have exceptionally good judgment?

None of this means, of course, that libertarians ought to be rude or unfriendly. . . . But in a modern democracy, libertarians cannot honestly praise the wisdom of the common man. He's the guy who got us where we are today.

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Berkeley replied on Mon, Nov 1 2010 3:25 PM

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That's a good way of framing it.  Thank you for that insight.

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I. Ryan replied on Mon, Nov 1 2010 4:05 PM

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StrangeLoop:

Having a clearly-supported ideology is only demanded by politics.

Excellent point.

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Lou Gignac replied on Fri, Nov 5 2010 10:13 AM

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Berkely,

I can understand your frustration completely. I just turned 40 in Sept. and began my venture into Austrian Economics and Libertarianism a year or so back. I am guessing that as a Freshman you are a fair amount younger than me but good for you for seeing the light early. I have dealt with the same battles and quit trying to defend the Republicans a long time ago. It got difficult to say it was ok under Bush (either one) but bad under Clinton. The hypocricy was overwhelming. If you look at the platform of McCain vs. Obama in 2008, the only difference was HOW they were going to waste the money of the taxpayers. Nobody seemed to care that it was going to be wasted in the first place... only how it would be wasted. Tom Woods had a good line at a convention that was posted on YouTube. He said, "You have the really evil party... and the really stupid party. Sometimes they work together and do something both evil and stupid. That's bipartisanship." If you haven't already checked him out, you should. One thing that I can say is that the times are changing. People are starting to get interested in what is going on around them. They realize that they can't fly on auto pilot any more. I have been able to win over and convert people over to our side, first by fact and logic, but more important because people don't believe the line of crap anymore. The drones are waking up. Keep pushing. Keep asking questions. Five years ago many regular people did not know what a Keynesian was nor did they care. Now they know... and don't like it. Remember it ain't over until they take you to the political re-education camp.

Lou

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notP replied on Fri, Nov 5 2010 1:10 PM

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Berkeley,

You're pretty lucky to have an organization like that on your campus. I'm not that fortunate. I work in the Film Animation world, so I cant even give the hint that I have views other than mainstream leftism. For all intents and purposes, I am a closet-Libertarian. I envy the fact that you have a group of peers receptive to your views. There are about 400 people at my studio and I have only found 1 other Libertarian. I try to make it subtly known that I'm here (I have a "Tu Ne Cede Malis."  coffee mug) Still, both my friend and I are very carful not to let our views become known. It may prove extremely difficult to get work in the future, or even to stay employed. We don't even wax libertarian in the shop. We drive 10 min to a local bar and gripe over cold beers. It's like being a fish, and neo-liberalism is the bitter, "intolerant-to-other-world-views" water. I don't know where I was going with that.

Anyhow, you are indeed very fortunate.

Cheers,

andy