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Ayan Rand once wrote, “The tribal notion of the “common good” has served as the moral justification of most social systems—and of all tyrannies—in history. The degree of society’s enslavement or freedom corresponded to the degree to which that tribal slogan was invoked or ignored.” Libertarians believe in law, government and order. We believe that each person has certain unalienable rights like life, liberty, and property. To protect these rights government was created. The government’s job is to ensure that these rights are not violated. In a libertarian world, murderers and rapists would be arrested, given a trial and thrown in jail if found guilty. It is hard to comprehend how a world where everyone has their unalienable rights and where a government’s sole job is to protect them could be a tragedy.
Why do libertarians complain about the overbearing government that tries to control everything from drugs to SUVs, pornography to what you eat? Because as we try to control these things for the “common good” we start taking away personal responsibility. As people are told what they can and can’t do, they lose control of their lives. They lose responsibility for their actions. If one is not responsible for their own actions then why should they care what they do? As you lose your own unalienable rights what makes your neighbor’s rights any more sacred? No wonder our world is going to hell. It’s what my friend used to call an “infinitely regressive situation.” The more the government tries to solve our problems, the more problems the government creates. Which leads to more government problem solving. We need to start demanding back our freedom so we can be responsible for our own lives.
Ryan Bialas wrote, “The fact of the matter is that humans will not self regulate themselves…but also act in self interested ways that are destructive to the whole community.” The problem here is that self-interest is not a bad thing. The entire world revolves around self-interest. Every time you work for money, in some way you do it out of self-interest. Anytime you buy anything, in some way you do it out of self-interest. In turn, other people are able to make money or benefit from your work. From time to time people will try to hurt your rights in the process. That is when self-interest becomes wrong. That is when the government should intervene.
Libertarians recognize that the world has its problems. Even a libertarian world would have problems. So what kind of world would you like to live in? Libertarians would like to live in a world where they have the freedom to control their own destinies. There would be problems in this world, however only in a libertarian world would you best be able to solve those problems. With freedom comes responsibility, take away freedom and you lose the responsibility. Libertarians are not calling for anarchy and lawlessness. We are calling for a world where everyone has the right to life, liberty and property. Laws would exist to protect these rights from being violated by others. To give meaning to those laws the government would enforce them. Would you like the right to your life, your liberty and your property? Would you like to have the ability and responsibly to maximize those rights as you see fit? The time is now to start evaluating what is truly lawless and what in the name of the “common good” is perpetuating true lawlessness.
Andrew Harris President College Libertarians of Albright [email protected] http://campuslp.org/ac To learn more or see the sources for this article please visit the web page.