How Can You Laugh at a Time Like This?
Bruce Madison
No. 23
Is libertarianism a faith?
June. 5, 1995
Gypsy & Willy - The Original Libertarian Bloggers
I get letters (email). Most of them are generally favorable, with criticisms of this or that point that I have made. Some of the are downright bizarre. Take this one:
Subject: you are a stupid nigger loving piece of crap. I hope someone turns you into tar
I love you, best wishes.
I did not know quite what to make of this decidedly mixed message. Ever the optimist, I replied.
Subject: Re: you are a stupid nigger loving piece of crap. I hope someone turns you into tar
This has got to be the weirdest love letter I have ever got!
I love you too, asshole.
Another letter, from another fan, said he had trouble dealing with people like me of the Libertarian "faith." Which leads me to my subject for today, "Is Libertarianism a Faith?" The answer, as you probably hoped and feared, is "Yes and No".
First of all, what constitutes a faith? Well, most obviously it is something that someone believes in. So, I had better explain something about my beliefs about belief. I do not believe that belief is volitional. That is, I do not think that one can decide what to believe and what not to believe. I know when I first discovered this fact, as a kid, it really troubled me. Here were all these religious people saying believe this and believe that, as if:
- you were a bad person if you did not believe it;
- you had to have faith to believe it;
- it was easy to believe if you only tried hard enough;
- there were certain rules you had to follow to prove that you really believe it.
Notice, I did not specify what "it" was. You can fill in that blank from your own experience. Maybe it is the central Christian tenet that Christ is the Only Begotten Son of God. Maybe it is the Old Testament God who gets pissed off at practically everything that people do. In any case, I found that I believed what I believed and that no amount of mind squeezing could make me believe something I did not.
Today, when people ask me if I "believe in God," I always respond
"Which God? If you mean the Angry Old Man God with the white beard who sits up in the clouds disapproving of homosexuals and single mothers, I do not. If you mean that there are things about the workings of the universe that far beyond my comprehension and that if and when these things are ever revealed it will blow my mind, then I do."
My problem is that I just can't believe that any God capable of constructing a universe as beautiful and as wondrous as the one we live in could ever trouble his or herself with the stupid affairs of humans.
To me the meaning of life has always been life itself. That's it! Life is self explanatory. I live because I am alive. Is this lucky? No, it just IS. But, this is a topic for another essay. Back to Libertarianism.
Hell, Yes, Libertarianism Is a Faith
What are the usual sign posts of a faith? I would say that the following are necessary if not sufficient:
- A faith has core principles that are accepted without proof.
- A faith has rules for the true believers to follow.
- A faith has prophets who articulate the core principles and lay down the law. These prophets are revered.
- A faith has an overarching authority who resolves all problems for the believers.
It is not hard to find any of these elements among true believing Libertarians. Only one core principle is necessary to qualify you as a Libertarian. Less government is better. All other principles are variations of this one. The Libertarian Party states the principle somewhat differently, as a prescription against violence, but they quickly twist this to mean less government by asserting that all government is violent.
You can pretend to be a Catholic by learning how to perform two simple acts: how to genuflect and how to make the sign of the cross. Similarly, you can pretend to be a Libertarian by uttering the following five opinions "
- The War on Drugs is an abject failure and should be abolished. It is better to have a pipe in your mouth when you say this one. It will seem more scholarly.
- All taxation is bad. Be prepared for complete agreement from everybody.
- The government is the root of all evil. Ditto!
- Violence is bad, except in self defense. Ditto, ditto! Hey, am I turning into a ditto-head?
- Anybody should be allowed to own a gun. Be prepared to back off far enough to correct yourself, "All adults should ...etc."
The list of prophets is long, including Ayn Rand and, my favorite anarchist, Karl Hess. You would swear that these folks were biblical heroes to read Libertarian publications. It's a little tougher to find an overarching authority, as freedom lovers tend not to follow the dictates of authoritarian figures. So, the problem is resolved for Libertarians by making the Constitution of the U.S. the overriding authority, which isn't such a bad idea, since it is the core document of the country that is the most nearly free of any that has ever existed. (If you wish to argue with me about this issue, by the way, DO NOT mention ancient Greece. Puh-leeze, any "Republic" where four/fifths of the people were slaves hardly qualifies as "free." Also, save your email keystrokes if you want me to include primitive societies as free. Read Hobbes, then talk to me later...)
On the other hand, these qualities that seem so universal among organized religious groups and can be seen to be a crucial part of any organized Libertarian group, are also characteristics of every human organization. It may very well be that our need to seek Leviathan (the great Ruler in the Sky of Hobbes) is totally instinctual and out of our control. In any case, you need go no further than your local PTA to find each of these elements. So, does it really matter, whether Libertarianism is a faith or not?
Heck, No, libertarianism Is Not a Faith
There is another way to look at libertarianism, as merely a set of postulates, theories about how the world works and how it might work better. As such, these theories take the place of principles accepted without proof. Unlike such principles, theories can be put to the test of reality. We can actually compare various results of doing things one way or another. Then, if I say that it would be better if everyone were allowed to own any kind of gun, I can and must provide evidence to support this view. So, for example, I point to Switzerland, where each and every household is required to own and know how to use a fully automatic assault weapon and where the violent crime rate is minuscule compared to here.
You scratch a Saint and you find an asshole. Sorry to put it that way, but as far as I can tell, it's true. Perhaps it takes an asshole to be able to be single minded in pursuit of lofty goals. Which means, I guess, that if I get good enough at pushing libertarian thought, I too will qualify as a saintly asshole! I can hardly wait.
As for ultimate authorities I frankly don't see how any libertarian worth a pinch of salt could ever blindly bow to any authority, including the U.S. Constitution, but , hey, like I said before, it'll do in a pinch.
Talk to you later...
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