A libertarian society cannot grow overnight. This should be obvious to anyone living in today’s world of wall-to-wall government authority. Yet, many libertarians speak as if simply removing the state (from all aspects of life, at all possible speed) would immediately transform our world from “Airstrip One” to “Galt’s Gulch”, and there would be much rejoicing.
That is fanciful thinking.
No one wants the state of nature
If we were to conduct a thought experiment; one in which the state is removed immediately from the lives of citizens (whether it is removed completely, or just down to a Lockean night-watchman state is not important), we still would not see a libertarian paradise emerge. More likely there would be chaos and crisis.
The reason for this is that the state has become a natural part of the universe in the eyes of almost everyone. Its existence is seen as a precondition for stability and civilization.
In its absence, the spontaneous order that collaboration and markets can create would be hampered by fear and uncertainty.
Perhaps there is a chance that, in such a world, liberty would prevail and people would learn to adapt and thrive; however, it’s more likely, as has happened historically, that opportunistic and dangerous individuals and groups would seize the opportunity of the power vacuum and exert their own will.
Surely no libertarian, or anarcho-capitalist, would prefer a world of arbitrary authority exerted through unchecked force to the current world of the state; where force is a part of everyday life but the rule of law guides that force along understood patterns and keeps it within certain bounds.
The libertarian revolution
Many libertarians seem to almost welcome a monetary collapse or the spectacular failure of the Trump presidency, to bring about a revolutionary change.
The problem with this thinking is that the absence of the particular power structure we call the state, and the enforcers of that power structure we call the elites, would not be replaced with a libertarian order.
Force is already understood as the currency of power and authority. It is only by changing that fundamental equation that we can see the kind of world we dream of become a reality.
This is not to say that life without the state, or with a radically smaller state, is impossible. Rather, it is to illustrate that there is a second element of the putative libertarian revolution that would have to predate the actual deconstruction of the state. This second element is the educational and philosophical program of libertarianism.
It is only by reaching a critical mass of belief amongst a population that a libertarian society could emerge and survive. That means moving the needle of public opinion enough to inculcate a fundamental shift in human perspective.
Libertarianism is, at its core, not a rejection of the state or a paranoid terror of authority. Rather, it is a philosophy that elevates the human individual above the mean and grubby business of Hobbes’s state of nature. This cannot be accomplished by the mere removal of external power; we have to transform (from the inside) the very way we think.
It may seem like a strange reversal, but he libertarian revolution (if it is to ever truly take root) has to be won before the state is overturned as the chief locus of authority.
It is by affirming ourselves as individuals, above the need (or perceived need) for leviathan, big brother, or any other master, that we can truly live without the power of the state. This requires work, both within ourselves and in our interactions with others.
It is no easy feat to fundamentally shift another person’s worldview, but it can be done, and it must be done.
John Engle
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