I’ll tell you. It feels bad. Being a libertarian means living with a level of frustration that is nearly beyond human endurance. It means being subject to unending scorn and derision despite being inevitably proven correct by events. ...
It is human nature to want to shoot the messenger bearing unwelcome tidings. And so, for the sin of continually pointing out that the emperor has no clothes, libertarians are attacked as heartless bastards devoid of compassion for the less fortunate, despicable flacks for the rich or for business interests, unthinking dogmatists who place blind faith in the free market, or, at best, members of the lunatic fringe.
It's a powerful strength to be able to see through politics, media spin and manufactured complexity by applying a simple, principled filter: Libertarians believe that each person owns his own life and property, and has the right to make his own choices as to how he lives his life - as long as he simply respects the same right of others to do the same.
It is live and let live. The Golden Rule. The non-initiation of force.
Once that idea is grasped and internalized it is tremendously liberating. But it is also extremely frustrating, even frightening at times.
When one suddenly becomes aware that ordinary people are often thoughtlessly supportive of the use of violence to be threatened or applied (usually, but not always, through the proxy of government) against others who simply don't believe what they do, hold their values, or believe in their subjective notions of right and wrong .... it can be quite disturbing.
Liberty's greatest weapons have always been crafted on one, personal, individual forge at a time. And forging one's ideas using the alloys of charity, humility, non-judgmentalism, patience and grace results in the most powerful, persuasive tool of all.
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1 comments:
It's all much simpler than that. A Libertarian is a moderate who's been audited by the IRS.
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