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writing for godot

Libertarianism: A Critique

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Written by David Starr   
Thursday, 07 April 2016 06:27
Libertarianism has been a controversial philosophy or ideology where there its basic tenets are flawed. It is an incomplete system.

Peter Vallentyne and Bas van der Vossen describe libertarianism generally as
"a political philosophy that affirms the rights of individuals to liberty, to acquire, keep and exchange their holdings and considers the protection of individual rights the primary role of the state." (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, first published 9/05/2002, revised 7/01/2014.)

Vallentyne and van der Vossen write that libertarianism rejects "many powers" of the state because the latter uses individuals' wealth to "bail out large companies, provide for pensions, to help the needy, or to pay for public goods (e.g., parks and roads)." Lumping all these examples together, however, merely provides a B/W view of government. Based on today's world, there is an ethical difference between bailing out corporations and providing for the needy. Corporations have institutional power by funding politicians in their political campaigns and in turn receive favors. The needy do not have institutional power.

Vallentyne and van der Bossen also cite different tendencies of libertarianism, primarily, left and right libertarianism. Left libertarianism includes socialists, who support collective self-ownership of the means of production rather than having the state control it. Professor Massimo Pigliucci, a philosopher of the City University of New York (CUNY), calls left libertarians "non-propertarians," i.e., they reject forms of private property. Right libertarians are "propertarians," i.e., they support private property as equal to life and liberty. They also support "free" trade, while left libertarians reject it and instead support fair trade.

A key flaw with libertarianism, at least the right-wing version, is that it perpetuates "the law of the jungle." Without a state, or "less government," one is left to fend for themselves. Pigliucci puts it this way: "The problem is that any anarchist position [generally a branch of libertarianism],-be it propertarian or not-simply puts too much trust in humans' ability to live a good and reasonable life without societal checks and balances. For all our cooperative instincts, we are still too darn selfish and greedy for that to work."

Libertarianism has also been described as a society without a state, i.e., since the state is a form of oppression, it would not exist at all. Defenders of libertarianism, especially on the right, see government as totally evil. Reform is out of the question. They yearn for a stateless society. But it would take further evolving and maturing of humankind to reach a stateless society, if that is even possible. For now, it is utopian.

Regarding violence, libertarians blame it all on the state. But this is an incomplete, and vague, position. While there is talk about personal freedom, nothing, as far as I know, is said about how this freedom comes about and the consequences. While libertarians condemn the violence of the state, they will act violent if necessary (the Non-Aggression principle). If violence were condemned consistently, then libertarians would be pacifists. Another point: one could say that one has the freedom to violate the freedom of others. Of course this wouldn't be justified. Laws come into play, i.e., the checks and balances that Pigliucci mentions. Otherwise, as I stated earlier, one has to fend for them self in a libertarian society.

Whenever one rebuts a libertarian, the accusations fly, like, "you want to point a gun at me" or "you want to use the state to enslave me." But the shrill accusations ignore what would happen in a libertarian society. The potential violence and degradation of a "truly free society" is ignored, where it would be survival of the fittest.

Libertarianism is a utopia, and as long as humankind remains imperfect, it will not exist as a workable system.
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