Saturday, January 12, 2008
"MYTH AND TRUTH ABOUT LIBERTARIANISM"
An essay by Murray N. Rothbard
A reader sent in a link to the above essay which can be found on the LewRockwell.com website. It attempts to debunk supposed incorrect beliefs about what libertarians stand for. The paper is truly mind boggling. Where does one begin to refute it?
It opens by telling us that "Libertarianism is the fastest growing political creed in America today." That's enough to send a Christian to his knees!
Myth #1 is a straw man. It is not that those of us on the outside looking in believe that libertarians think each individual is hermetically sealed in a vacuum that has no influence on others. It is instead that we think libertarians do not care how they influence others apart from their own self-interest. That's a world of difference.
Rothbard claims that "What libertarians are opposed to is not voluntary persuasion, but the coercive imposition of values by the use of force and police power."
In other words, libertarians prefer a TV commercial to a gun.
Let me give you one example...
Before Christmas there was a frequently aired commercial showing a man giving a cell phone to his son, saying: "You're my numero uno." He repeats the action with his daughter and his wife. Then he is shown sauntering down the walk in front of his house playing with his cell phone and saying "Saving the best for numero uno." He glances up at the group of "network people" watching him and tells them "That's right." That is libertarian thinking. Completely self-centered, and telling others whatever he thinks they want to hear, even his own family. Remember "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted."
The entire Rothbard piece is filled with this sort of deceptive argumentation, and I'm not going to go through it myth by myth. I will only offer a couple of thoughts...
1. The French Revolution was an example of what can happen to a nation when the libertarian mindset takes hold.
2. God gave us the Ten Commandments for a reason.
3. The CCC discusses the duties of civil authorities in 2235 thorough 2246. It is clear from this that authority is God-ordained.
4. The chaos magicians who are well-represented on the web are libertarians.
It comes down to Christ or chaos, and as Rothbard tells us in the article "It is true that many if not most libertarians at the present time are atheists, but this correlaes with the fact that most intellectuals, of most political persuasions, are atheists as well." This is supposed to persuade us that libertarians are harmless?
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
