At the same time that our governments are becoming more Socialist-Fascist, it is interesting that this trend is going hand-in-hand with the trend towards Radical Individualism — capital ‘L’ Libertarianism.
Over at The Federalist, Nathanael Burke has written an essay that looks into how the ascendancy of near-Absolute Individualism is providing Aid And Comfort to the Totalitarians in America.
A few definitions first…
I am fully in-line with Russell Kirk’s beliefs on this matter:
…libertarianism is a simplistic ideology, relished by one variety of the folk whom Jacob Burckhardt called “the terrible simplifiers.”
The capital ‘L’ Libertarians are Ideologues, who, like The Left, believe their Simplistic System Of Ideas will bring about a Heaven On Earth. They see themselves, in a mirror image of Leftism, to be in possession of The Secret Wisdom [aka: Gnosticism]. Like The Left, again, they have developed their System in a sterile laboratory, far away from the Real World. The difference between the two is that Leftism puts The Collective over the Individual, while the Libertarians advocate for Absolute Individualism.
More from Mr. Kirk:
…a number of the men and women who accept the label “libertarian” are not actually ideological libertarians at all, but simply conservatives under another name. These are people who perceive in the growth of the monolithic state, especially during the past half century, a grim menace to ordered liberty; and of course they are quite right. They wish to emphasize their attachment to personal and civic freedom by employing this 20th century word derived from liberty. With them I have little quarrel – except that by so denominating themselves, they seem to countenance a crowd of political fantastics who “license they mean, when they cry liberty.”
Descendants of Classical Liberals. For if a man believes in an enduring moral order, the Constitution of the United States, established American way of life, and a free economy — why, actually he is a conservative, even if he labors under an imperfect understanding of the general terms of politics. Such Americans are to the conservative movement in the United States much as the Liberal Unionists have been to the Conservative Party in Britain — that is, close practical allies, almost indistinguishable nowadays. Libertarians of this description usually are intellectual descendants of the old “classical liberals”; they make common cause with regular conservatives against the menace of democratic despotism and economic collectivism.
This is why I usually refer to these type of people as Classical Liberals. We can work with them because I believe that most of them possess what I call The Conservative Instinct.
Sadly, many libertarians have made themselves Vulnerable to the Leftist World View.
Regarding the Libertarians, as RK said:
…For the ideological libertarians are not conservatives in any true meaning of that term of politics; nor do the more candid libertarians desire to be called conservatives. On the contrary, they are radical doctrinaires, contemptuous of our inheritance from our ancestors.
They rejoice in the radicalism of Tom Paine; they even applaud those 17th century radicals, the Levellers and the Diggers, who would have pulled down all the land-boundaries, and pulled down, too, the whole framework of church and state. The libertarian groups differ on some points among themselves, and exhibit varying degrees of fervor. But one may say of them in general that they are “philosophical” anarchists in bourgeois dress. Of society’s old institutions, they would retain only private property. They seek an abstract Liberty that never has existed in any civilization — nor, for that matter, among any barbarous people, or any savage. They would sweep away political government; in this, they subscribe to Marx’s notion of the withering away of the state.
…
…the great line of division in modern politics, as Eric Voegelin reminds us, is not between totalitarians on the one hand and liberals (or libertarians) on the other: instead, it lies between all those who believe in a transcendent moral order, on the one side, and on the other side all those who mistake our ephemeral existence as individuals for the be-all and end-all. In this discrimination between the sheep and the goats, the libertarians must be classified with the goats – that is, as utilitarians admitting no transcendent sanctions for conduct. In effect, they are converts to Marx’s dialectical materialism; so conservatives draw back from them on the first principle of all.
I stand with Russell Kirk.
Now, let us look at a few highlights from Mr. Burke’s article…
…libertarianism has become less about a commitment to limited government and more a philosophy of autonomous individualism. The latter is an ideology that undermines the possibility of the former, in large part because it really does leave people alone….
One could justifiably say that it Isolates the Individual from those around him, as it promotes Selfishness as a Virtue — especially thanks to Ayn Rand and Murray Rothbard et. al..
More:
The paradox of libertarianism is that it depends upon cultural capital it cannot replenish….
The libertarian challenge is not of establishing government via social contract. Rather, it is to cultivate people capable of sustaining self-government, a task that is complicated by libertarianism’s official indifference to family formation, moral instruction, drug use, and other social factors essential to the development of citizens capable of flourishing in a libertarian regime.
Furthermore, because it has no place for economic solidarity, libertarianism sabotages itself economically as well as socially. The doctrinal imperatives of open markets and (often) open borders deny the existence of any national “We the people” who ought to be considered in economic policymaking. Libertarians cheer the “creative destruction” of the global market’s economic devastation of communities and regions. They believe those who cannot compete in the global marketplace must evolve or die — find a new line of work or move elsewhere.
There are several key Pillars of a Free Country missing here: Humanity, Compassion, Restraint, Morality. It’s as if these Ideologues have adopted the motto of the Evil Aleister Crowley: ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law’. The Ruthlessness of the Libertarians is something to behold.
The Libertarians seek Detachment from their fellow Human Beings. Their advocacy for Radical, Absolute Individualism will lead to the adopter of their Ideology being Lonely, Isolated — no one can live like this without descending into Nihilism.
More:
Thus, libertarianism corrodes family, faith, and community through economic and social pressures. An uprooted, insecure workforce might suit the interests of Wall Street (at least in the short term), but it is poison to a culture that aims to produce people capable of self-government. Economic insecurity depresses family formation and stresses existing families. It destroys communities. The economic effects of libertarianism really are to leave people alone.
This makes them receptive to big government. The crucial insight of Robert Nisbet’s classic book “The Quest for Community” is that individualism and big government are allies in the destruction of intermediate forms of community and authority. Individuals look to big government to liberate them from the bonds of faith, family, and local community, and big government is happy to weaken these rival centers of power and loyalty, thereby expanding its own dominion.
…As older sources of security, community, and meaning dissolve and decay, government will inevitably expand to take their place.
In other words: the Libertarians are playing right into the hands of The Left, which seeks to achieve Power And Control over all.
The old saw is true: If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is’.
I would add: If the solution is oh so Simple, it will Fail.