Changes in perception on libertarianism

For a while I considered myself very libertarian, and in many ways I still do, but perhaps now I am more of a little L Libertarian. I am finding myself ever more conservative, especially in light of recent events.

As the news sources continually pour out stories of Russia invading the Ukraine, the rise of the Islamic State, and general belligerence from other nations in the world, I find myself reassessing old points of view on libertarianism.

Point of View

During the 1800’s, from the time of the Napoleonic War all the way until the start of the first world war, Great Britain ruled the oceans. Being a mostly free nation, concentrated on trade, the world entered a boom phase. Not only did the United Kingdom lead the industrial revolution, it brought peace and relative stability to the world, allowing capitalism to flourish.

Today the United States of America is the world’s foremost superpower. It is a mostly free nation, concentrated on trade.  Since the end of the second world war, America has been dominant, maintaining relative peace and stability in the world.

Now, there have been many wars, and many lives lost over the last few decades, but those numbers pale in comparison to the lives lost in the two world wars. The US took up where Britain left off in maintaining trade and capitalism in the world.

America’s foreign policy is one of a projection of force. Most countries have the understanding that if they are peaceful toward us, we are glad to trade with them, if they are hostile toward us, we are likely to obliterate them.

There have been many mistakes in America’s foreign policies over the last few decades, many of which will be argued over for many more decades to come. A lot of people say that we should never have gotten involved in Iraq to begin with, and I can understand these arguments.

However. The rise of the Islamic State is not something the world should sit by and allow to happen. The Islamic State is a barbaric and backwards regime. Not only do they kill thousands of innocent people in droves, but they are totally hostile toward western civilization. They will not stop until we are either all Muslim, or all dead. Forget Al Quadi, they’re soft in comparison, these guys mean business.

As the world’s foremost superpower, we do have a duty to maintain order in the world. As a friend of mine once said “nature abhors a vacuum” Do you really want the likes of communist China, or soviet style Russia to be the world’s new superpower? Do you really think either of these countries will be even close to as fair as Britain and the USA have been to other nations throughout the last two centuries?

Do you really think if we just sit back on our hands that everything will just be alright?

I think not.

We, and we alone can stand up against these tyrants, we and we alone can restore capitalism, free trade and free thought to the world. The American way is one to be proud of.

Here’s to praying that the house and senate are swept with conservative republicans this fall, so that we can finally begin proceedings against our limp wristed, golfer-in-chief, The world will be a lot safer when we finally impeach this anti-colonial, communist traitor from the white house. Barack Obama’s lack of leadership has the world teetering on the verge of a third world war.

Real leadership is needed, and that starts at the grass roots. I am at least thankful for libertarians at that level, helping alter the progressive tendencies the republican party was heading in.

Another issue I am reconsidering is my old stance against Israel. Now, the very creation of Israel after the second world war, much like the creation of Syria and Iraq after the first world war, has caused nothing but problems for the surrounding area for the last few decades. But to say, as I did over a year ago, that Israel is inherently evil, is perhaps naive. Now, the Zionist Illuminati, and other such organizations, those are I believe not healthy to the world, but the Israeli state now exists, for better or for worst, and I do not want to see the killing of innocent women and children. It is not the fault of those born there that the state exists. It is evil however for an organization to launch rockets at peaceful population centers and use women and children as human shields. As the state now exists, Israel does have a right to defend itself. Hamas is an evil terrorist entity. Their emblem includes the communist hammer and sickle. This has made me rethink everything.

As for the general rule that many libertarians are atheist, I do not believe a lack of faith is healthy in society. Lack of faith leads to empty vessels, and after a couple generations of this, they tend to be hungry for new faith, which can be easily steered toward evil. The rise of radical Islam seems to take place right behind the rise of socialism. Socialism is the moral decay of a society, which puts altruism above self interest on the national level. Once this takes foot, it is hard to stop.

I believe in morality, in doing good to others, but also doing well for yourself, and setting a good example.

As for drugs and gay marriage, I do not like the idea of legalizing drugs, but I can see that the drug war has done no good to communities. For gay marriage, how can you support a notion which is generally not accepted by the populace, and damns the very idea of marriage itself?

These are questions I pose not only to my self, but to all libertarians. The fact that a group of people within a country can discuss ideas of freedom in such a way, is a miracle unto itself, but I do not know if all inclusiveness is sustainable.

I pray for the restoration and growth of this great nation and of her people.

An Orwellian America

The following post is a good example of where this country is heading. I do not bash both the left and the right for no reason. I want freedom for everyone, individual liberty is my ultimate goal. Please take time to read through the following material and study the graphs.

An Orwellian America

Zero Hedge – by Gordon T. Long

As a young man, I voraciously read George Orwell’s “1984”,  Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and Alvin Toffler’s trilogy which included “Future Shock”‘, “The Third Wave” and “Power Shift”. During the era of the Vietnam War, I wondered seriously about the future and how it was destined to unfold. Now being considerably older, I have the vantage point to reflect back on my early ruminations and expectations. Unfortunately, I am too old to alter the lessons that are now so painfully obvious. Instead, I pass the gauntlet to those who can understand and take action on what I have unavoidably come to expect for America.

A FRAMEWORK OF UNDERSTANDING

THE ‘HUXLEY-ORWELL’ TRANSITION

I recently read a perceptive paper by Chris Hedges that would have made any English Professor envious, powerfully philosophical but not something an Economics department would pay much attention to. I found it both intriguing and enlightening.

I have borrowed so heavily from it, that I am unsure where the lines diverge. Therefore, below I give full credit to Chris Hedges and take full credit for all the bad ideas.

Chris Hedges of TruthDig.com wrote 2011: A Brave New Dystopia, from which the following evolved.

The two greatest visions of a future dystopia were George Orwell’s “1984” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” The debate, between those who watched our descent towards corporate totalitarianism, was who was right. Would we be, as Orwell wrote, dominated by a repressive surveillance and security state that used crude and violent forms of control? Or would we be, as Huxley envisioned, entranced by entertainment and spectacle, captivated by technology and seduced by profligate consumption to embrace our own oppression? It turns out Orwell and Huxley were both right. Huxley saw the first stage of our enslavementOrwell saw the second.

We have been gradually disempowered by a corporate state that, as Huxley foresaw, seduced and manipulated us through:

•    Sensual gratification,
•    Cheap mass-produced goods,
•    Boundless credit,
•    Political theater and
•    Amusement.

While we were entertained,

•    The regulations that once kept predatory corporate power in check were dismantled,
•    The laws that once protected us were rewritten and
•    We were impoverished.

Now that:

•    Credit is drying up,
•    Good jobs for the working class are gone forever and
•    Mass-produced goods are unaffordable,

…. we find ourselves transported from “Brave New World” to “1984.”

The state, crippled by massive deficits, endless war and corporate malfeasance, is clearly sliding toward unavoidable bankruptcy.

It is time for Big Brother to take over from Huxley’s feelies, the orgy-porgy and the centrifugal bumble-puppy.

We are transitioning from a society where we are skillfully manipulated by lies and illusions to one where we are overtly controlled.

Huxley, we are discovering, was merely the prelude to Orwell.

Now that the corporate coup is over, we stand naked and defenseless. We are beginning to understand, as Karl Marx knew:

Unfettered and unregulated capitalism is a brutal and revolutionary force that exploits human beings and the natural world until exhaustion or collapse.

UNSOUND MONEY LEADS TO STATISM

With this as a backdrop let’s explore how Unsound Money in concert with the Huxley-Orwell Transition leads to Statism, the path which I believe we are presently on.

THE CATALYSTS BEHIND THE “TRANSITION”

1- UNSOUND MONEY

•    Removal from Gold Standard and adoption of Fiat Currency regime (in August 1971 during the winding down of the Vietnam War; the first War ever fought without tax increases to pay for it; the beginning of endless ‘conflicts’ and the War on “Terror”).
•    Creation and Fostering of a $67 Trillion Shadow Banking Credit Growth,
•    Massive Securitization & Off Balance Sheet Contingent Liability Debt Growth.

2- POLICY FAILURES

•    Failed Monetary Policy & Monetary Malpractice,
•    Moral Malady,
•    Failed Fiscal Policy,
•    Failed Public Policy,
•    Growth of Political Polarization,
•    Entrenched ‘Left-Right’ Factions,
•    An Un-Governable Democracy.

3- CRISIS OF TRUST

•    Lost Respect & Confidence
•    A Doomed Middle Class
•    A Broken Social Contract

4- AUTHORITARIAN ACCEPTANCE

•    Central Planning
•    Growth in Regulations & Control
•    Crony Capitalism & Corporatocracy
•    Big Government
•    The Huxley – Orwell Transition

CRUMBLING BARRIERS

•    The Great Huxley-Orwell Transition
•    From Manipulative to Repressive

ROADBLOCKS
•    Financial Security through Sound Money            REMOVED
•    Reduced Personal Freedoms through a Crisis         PENDING
•    Reduced Personal Security through a Constitutional Crisis    FUTURE

DRIVERS
•    Globalization & Complexity
o    Fragile versus Robust Systems
o    Interconnectivity and Counter Party Dependency

•    The Productivity Paradox
o    Creative Destruction & Job Creation

Let’s shift gears and consider what “greases the skids” in enabling this transition in our society to occur.

COLLECTIVISM

In The Road to Serfdom, F.A. Hayek showed how governments, supported by a collectivist mindset, always tend towards totalitarianism. Even the most libertarian government thus far created, the government of the United States, has slipped incrementally towards totalitarianism over the past two centuries. This is because it is an inherent trait of a government.

The degree of socialism in the United States increased substantially after the establishment of the Federal Reserve System (1913) and the measures taken during the Great Depression (1929-46) which it created. Ever since the early 1900′s the United States has had a two-party system dominated by ‘socialists’. The Republican Party has always advocated conservative socialism. The Democratic Party, which in the 19th century favored libertarianism, advocates social-democratic socialism. So long as people are divided by Left and Right, Democratic and Republican, the US is prone to being influenced by factions who transcend party politics and from behind the scenes could possible exert strong control over the United States. They could do this by maintaining power over public opinion and hence over the course of government. Steadily, the United States has been travelling down the road to totalitarianism, and many people have not noticed, possibly because they are only looking at the position on the Left-Right paradigm.

Upon further analysis, it is clear that Left, Right and Centre, are all forms of socialism. In particular, we may call them “social-democratic socialism” (the Left) and “conservative socialism” (the Right). They are both socialism because they both share the principle that the government should “run” and “mold” society, by using legal force and intervention to transfer property and personal wealth as part of the political scientists’ process of ‘redistribution of wealth’.

The differences are only in the particular ways the government should run society – the methods it should use, and who, exactly, should be the recipients of government wealth transfers and who should pay. In particular:
•    Social democrats tend to prefer heavy taxation, large wealth transfers to the poor, and nationalized industries, and oppose price controls, regulations and behavioral controls.
•    Conservatives tend to prefer lower taxation, a smaller welfare state, regulated (cartelized) industries, price controls, product  and behavioral controls.

Nolan Charts: Personal Freedom versus Economic Freedom

The modern Republican Party is Center-Right on the Left-Right paradigm. As with the Democratic Party, this obscures the huge range of views Republicans hold on how powerful and how much control the State should be allowed. Their 2008 presidential nominee John McCain, like Barack Obama, strongly favored socialism, though with a Right-wing flavor. Barack Obama (blue circle) and John McCain (red circle) are positioned in the accompanying graphic. Thus, the two main candidates at the 2008 Presidential election represented a false choice – really no choice at all. One candidate, Ron Paul (yellow circle), stood in stark contrast to the candidates, favored by the mainstream media and political establishment. As would be expected, he was neutralized by the mainstream media outlets as a zealot with an unsound political view of America.

THE POLITICAL CONTINUUM

THE EMERGING ROADMAP TO STATISM

Let me now develop and explore the roadmap that outlines the path leading from Policy Failures and Monetary Malpractice, stemming from Unsound Money, to STATISM.
First we will build the outline for the basis of a roadmap on a number of observable continuums.

The more complex that issues become, the more collectivism will dominate and individual needs will be repressed. In turn governments will be forced to be more repressive to maintain control over increasing polarization and diverse views and opinions.

EVOLVING STAGES
When we arrange our various continuums we arrive at the representative grid model shown below.

We will quickly acknowledge it is not ideal, but it allows many concepts currently at play to be shown in relationship to others.

This grid is best described as the social forces at play within Globalization – Financial, Economic and Political.

DRIVER$ – VISIBLE & INVISIBLE
There are both visible and less visible forces at play that are forcing ‘greasing’ the skids in the movement towards Statism.

The roadmap integrates well into our roadmap from our THESIS 2011: Beggar-Thy-Neighbor / Currency Wars and2012 Thesis: Financial Repression papers. ()

ORWELL’S 1984 IS HAPPENING

We are one crisis away from a police state. All the powers are in place. Someone will flip the switch. Whether a Cyber Attack, escalating Currency War tensions or a ‘terrorist’ attack by indebted college youth, it is only a matter of time and circumstance.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-15/orwellian-america

The economy or your life

We are currently more concerned with taxation and the economy and fluff issues such as gay marriage and immigration, that we are not concentrating on the biggest issue of all, which is our individual liberties.

Mitt Romney’s ‘running mate’ Paul Ryan voted for the NDAA act, multiple bailouts and to extend the patriot act. That doesn’t sound like much of a liberty loving patriot to me. As for his budget, it is a mere drop in the ocean as to what we face and need to do to reign in the horrifically ballooned deficit. A 30 year program? That’s pathetic. Is that the best we can throw at the democrats?

As for the republic ticket thus far, giving them ‘red meat’ is not going to work. Republicans are historically only elected when the appeal to both sides of the isle.

Ron Paul’s message would appeal to both sides because he wants to bring the troops home (which the democrats like) and cut the budget by 1 trillion year one (which the republicans would love).

If you truly want the republicans to win, it has to be Ron Paul. Even if Mitt Romney’s plan (does he even have one?) boosts the economy, do realize that you are not voting for liberty. None of the candidates but Ron Paul have any interest in your liberties.

There are so many issues created to keep us divided, that we only concentrate on the one thing that immediately effects us all, and that is the economy. We are distracted by that, all the while the politicians are stripping away our freedoms one by one. We still have a chance to elect a libertarian candidate to the GOP ticket, who will restore liberties. Ron Paul would not only restore the economy, but restore the freedoms that protect our lives.

Economies boom and bust all the time, but they can be rebuilt. If we lose our liberties, there will be nothing left to rebuild from. So the most important question to ask is, which is more important? The economy or your life?

“We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our selection between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude” – Thomas Jefferson

Why I am Libertarian

I believe that the current establishment of left vs right is a racket designed to steal our thoughts away from the truth.

Before Barack Obama came along, we were not talking about progessivism. Before Glenn Beck exposed it, we did not know about it. And why are were we not currently talking about all the ills from George W Bush’s term? Why did the democrats and the ‘left’ put down the wars until President Obama came along, and yet you do not hear about it so much now?

I believe that the left vs right is a stupid game that no-one wins.

I am libertarian because it is the only political course that makes sense. It is the course that the founders of this country took, and it worked well for them. As it will for us, if we return to our values.

What is libertarianism?

Libertarianism is, as the name implies, the belief in liberty. Libertarians strive for a free, peaceful, abundant world where each individual has the maximum opportunity to pursue his or her dreams and to realize his full potential.

The core idea is simply stated, but profound and far-reaching in its implications. Libertarians believe that each person owns his own life and property, and has the right to make his own choices as to how he lives his life – as long as he simply respects the same right of others to do the same.

Another way of saying this is that libertarians believe you should be free to do as you choose with your own life and property, as long as you don’t harm the person and property of others.

Libertarianism is thus the combination of liberty (the freedom to live your life in any peaceful way you choose), responsibility (the prohibition against the use of force against others, except in defense), and tolerance (honoring and respecting the peaceful choices of others).

Liberty is one of the central lessons of world history. Virtually all the progress the human race has enjoyed during the past few centuries is due to the increasing acceptance of free markets, civil liberties, and self-ownership.

Our goal as libertarians is to bring liberty to the world, so that these wonderful and proven ideas can be put into action. This will make our world a far better place for all people.

We hope you will join us in embracing this ideal – and in taking a stand to personally bring about a world of liberty, abundance and peace.

There are many different views on libertarianism. I have attended Tea Parties in my local area, and I agree with all of the small government rhetoric, but I do have my reservations. I believe in small government and individual freedoms. If the tea party leans more toward libertarianism, I’m all for it. If it falls back toward stateism, it becomes a waste of time. What does your local Tea Party represent? And is there a way you can help steer them fully toward the tree of liberty?

The difference between republicans and democrats is a lot like two opposing football teams. They both have plenty of commentary, but their tactics are essentially the same, and their goal is to win. The trophy is almost never in the interests of the people.

Are you a libertarian? This video shows what libertarians believe in:

This is how I scored on the test:

How did you score? http://www.shanekillian.org/quiz.php

Libertarianism is the philosophy of liberty:

Libertarianism should be the goal of both democrats and republicans. To move up toward liberty, rather than down toward stateism and government control. Let us educate the world, so that we might build a future with freedom, rather than destroy the present, so that the future looks bleak.

I am a libertarian because I epitomize liberty. I believe in individual freedom for all mankind, no matter what creed, sexual orientation or beliefs. I don’t care what your habits are, or what you do with your life. If you ruin it, that is your fault, not mine nor the states. I only care if you harm others. If you do not, you should be free to do what you please.

What do you believe in? How did you score on the test? Are you libertarian, liberal, conservative, centrist or stateist? And what are you going to do about it?