Ideology has become almost a swear word in our society. It is thought that by simply labeling someone an “ideologue” you can dismiss anything they have to say. But what is ideology? Ideology is simply a set of principles or ideals that explain how society should work. Those principles or ideals can either be right or wrong and can’t just be rejected outright.
We do know that some ideologies are wrong, and even evil — for example, Communism. But that doesn’t mean that another ideology can’t be right. Most of us are already familiar with liberalism and conservatism, but how many people are familiar with a third option — libertarianism?
Unlike liberalism and conservatism — which for the most part are just based on attitudes and feelings — libertarianism is based on principles. Those principles have evolved from a classical liberal tradition that goes back to the Founding Fathers and great thinkers like John Locke and Adam Smith. Economists like Nobel Laureate F.A. Hayek have demonstrated the practicality of a society based on those principles, while philosophers like Ayn Rand have demonstrated their moral truth.
The principles I’m talking about are the rights to self-ownership and private property. These rights can be derived from the simple recognition that murder, rape, theft, extortion, fraud, coercion and slavery are universally wrong. They are wrong in Blacksburg, they are wrong in New York City and they are wrong in Tanzania. And nothing but absolute necessity can justify them (like if the entire human race would perish unless you stole from one person).
Those wrong actions have one thing in common — they all violate either self-ownership or property rights.
Self-ownership is your exclusive right to make decisions regarding your own body. Rapists, slave-owners and murderers violate that right by imposing their will on their victims’ bodies.
The libertarian concept of property rights can be summed up in one sentence: you have a right to own the product of your labor, as long as it was justly obtained. Thieves and defrauders take the product of your labor (the money you worked so hard to earn) without your consent, which violates your property rights.
Once you accept the universal validity of self-ownership and property rights, you are one step towards becoming a libertarian. The problem is that many people fail to see how the government violates those principles on a daily basis. Examples of that include the war on drugs, the erosion of our civil liberties and the expansion of social programs that don’t work and burden us with more taxation.
Government is primarily an instrument of force. People do what it says, because they are threatened with imprisonment or worse. When it uses that force for reasons other than protecting individual rights, it usually ends up violating them. That is why libertarians are such steadfast defenders of small, limited government.
The result of a system of limited government that protects self-ownership and property rights is what we call freedom. People are free to do whatever they wish except harm others by violating their rights.
Most people would agree that this idea of freedom sounds nice, but they object to what they think it would lead to. By far the most common objections are that the poor would suffer in the supposedly exploitative free market, the environment would be destroyed and traditional values would be lost.
First, these objections fail to recognize that libertarianism does not rule out private, voluntary methods to solve the problems you see in society. If you want to set up a voluntary organization that provides a “safety net” which guarantees basic necessities to all its members, a libertarian society won’t stop you. It won’t stop you from promoting your values either.
Also, the free market would help the poor by stimulating economic growth, which improves living standards for all of society. If you want to know why this must be so, do a Google search for “Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics,” click on the first result, and read chapter 14.
And a true free market, rather than being hostile to the environment, is actually its best friend. Contrary to popular belief, having a free market does not mean that businesses are allowed to pump absurd amounts of pollution into our environment. That would actually be a violation of individual rights, because pollution inflicts harm on people without their consent. In a truly free market, pollution would be required by law to be below the level that would cause significant harm to people or their property.
Libertarianism is a principled ideology that offers a clear distinction between right and wrong and a plan for a more prosperous and harmonious society. If you’ve ever thought that the government is just getting too big and too intrusive, or that liberalism and conservatism aren’t particularly appealing, libertarianism might just be for you.
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