Libertarian Anarchy

Have you had any of those “Hate Obama” messages? I have! America has been attacked from within by well-meaning people, bent on having their own way, and who fail to understand the times. They raise a flag of conservatism that claims democratic politics (Main Street politics, not just the Democratic party) are treasonous to American tradition.

They charge Barak Obama with being a non-American (born outside the 48 states), a Socialist (Communist) for advocating a cooperative approach to running the country), an intelligent enemy intent on destroying America as we know it. Oh, they also charge him with being a secret-but-devout Muslim, although I have heard his testimony of personal faith, and am aware of some of his Protestant Pastor friends. The biggest offense Barak Obama committed, although unspoken by his attackers, is that he was born black.

I see the current Tea Party phenomenon as representing the greatest threat to our American way of life since Adolph Hitler. Anything that suggests community-based cooperation, like some form of government, is socialistic, anti-reason, and anti-individual. Ayn Rand, as an atheist, idealized this brand of individualism, claiming the individual (she does not say which one) is at the center of society--the ultimate of society.

Do you understand what George Bush meant when referring to a free-market economy? It means everybody “voluntarily” does his own thing; each individual is the center of his/her world. That is economic anarchy, a form of Lone Rangerism.

Do we understand where Ron Paul comes from with his libertarian political views? Why did Dr. Paul name his son, the Kentucky senator, Rand? Why are so many politicoes emulating the moral philosophy (objectivism) of the Russian emigrant, atheist, Ayn Rand? Anyone wanting to know the answers to these questions and other related questions should google a little free information. Here are some helpful quotes:

“The Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Irvine, California, works to introduce young people to Ayn Rand’s novels, to support scholarship and research based on her ideas, and to promote the principles of reason, rational self-interest, individual rights and laissez-faire capitalism [hands off] to the widest possible audience. The Institute is named for novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982), who is best known for her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.”

*Did you note that self-interest, individual rights, and unregulated (laizzes faire) capitalism are at the center of importance?

Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend said in 2011, “Ayn Rand has a large and growing influence on American politics.” Fox Network quoted Don Watkins as asking-and-answering, “To what extent has Ayn Rand shaped our political landscape? So far, not nearly enough. Don Watkins is an analyst at the Ayn Rand Institute. You can follow his work at www.facebook.com/DonWatkinsWriter.”

Quoting further:
“Rand is usually thought of as a political philosopher, but that is not how she viewed herself. “I am primarily the creator of a new code of morality,” she once said. Whereas previous moral codes bestowed sainthood on those who served and sacrificed for others, Rand’s morality extolled “the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.” *Note: She eliminates the sainthood of service and sacrifice for others in favor of the morality of self-service.

Again quoting:
“Above all, you can see it in the moral outrage of the Tea Party activists, many of whom carry signs championing Rand’s works and ideas. Recall the Rick Santelli rant that started it all: “This is America. How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills, raise their hand? . . . . We’re thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July. All you capitalists that want to show up to Lake Michigan, I’m going to start organizing. . . . at the end of the day, I’m an Ayn Rander.”

*Note:
Santelli was not an ordinary workman ranting against government per se; he was ranting against Obama’s wanting to make his bailout help commoners with mortgages underwater, which was taking income from Santelli, a Wall Street Trader. Big business took Santelli’s ranting and turned it around as an anti-Obama, anti-socialism message because the government was “forcing” Santelli against his will as an Inside Trader.

“In other words, a Rand-inspired political movement would be a principled movement. It would champion laissez-faire capitalism—the total separation of state and economics—as the only system that fully protects the rational and productive individual, securing his moral and political right to pursue his own happiness.”
*I disregarded this story, which I found first in AlterNet, an alternative News Service, but then discovered the original on the Rand Institute Website. AlterNet’s interpretation of it was not original and is authentic.

Further reading of Rand revealed this term and its definition on Wikipedia:
“Anarcho-capitalism (also referred to as “libertarian anarchy” by anarcho-capitalists,[1] “market anarchism,”[2] “free market anarchism”[3] or “private-property anarchism”[4]) is a libertarian[5][6] and individualist anarchist[7] political philosophy that advocates the elimination of the state in favour of individual sovereignty in a free market.

“In an anarcho-capitalist society, law enforcement, courts, and all other security services would be provided by voluntarily funded competitors rather than through taxation, and money would be privately and competitively provided in an open market.

“According to anarcho-capitalists, personal and economic activities would be regulated by privately run law rather than through politics. Furthermore, victimless crimes would not be punished.” The bottom line of this line of thought is individual sovereignty in an unregulated (anarchic) market. But, when you eliminate all authority, all rule books, all cooperative efforts, except that which is voluntary, what do you have?

While Rand idealizes humanity, and imagines everything being peaches and cream, life tells us differently, as illustrated by this story of the Scorpion and the Beaver. The Scorpion asked the Beaver to carry him across the lake.

“If I let you get on my back,” responded the Beaver, “you’ll sting me and paralyze me and cause me to drown.”

The Scorpion reasoned, “I can’t swim. Thus, if I sting you while we are in the lake, I’ll drown too. Obviously, I wouldn’t do anything to cause that.” So, the kindhearted Beaver agreeably gave the Scorpion a ride. Sure enough, the Scorpion stung him, and the Beaver reproachfully asked, “Why did you sting me?”

Tearfully, the Scorpion replied, “I couldn’t help it, it’s my nature.”

Atheism and sovereign individualism have no successful way of dealing with the realities of human nature (what the Bible calls sin). That sin is what nobody talks about, but everybody does. From Warner’s World, I am walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com