How often do we hear the word "libertarian" being used in contexts relating to politics or some kind of political understanding? Even most dictionary definitions of "libertarian" emphasize political implications.
Yet libertarians will never experience the full personal benefit of their libertarian impulse, and never be completely successful in any political activism they undertake, unless they understand the Libertarian Way is much deeper and more basic than concern with political conditions.
Before there is politics ... before there are relationships ... there is life. When human beings feel their deepest-rooted inner desires (as opposed to addiction to intellectualism for the purpose of avoiding the depths of their being), they sense inside themselves a yearning for the fullness of life to shine forth and be experienced.
"Fullness" is the key. Liberal-progressive dictators will tell you their programs and agendas help people have a better life, but they really don't mean very much more than material life ... food, shelter, a good wage, health care, bicycle trails, a little comfort, a measure of politically correct happiness. All these things are well and good (liberal-progressives mean well), but liberal use of government dictatorship denies people the true fullness of life, a supreme fullness which includes spirited exercise of one's sovereign will and freedom to experience the results of one's choices so life's lessons can be thoroughly learned.
Notice that extravagant exercise of free will is not the primary goal, but merely one of the necessary conditions of the very natural ultimate human goal ... complete experience of the fullness of life.
What about the NAP, the vaunted libertarian Non-Aggression Principle?
Just as individually our deepest impulse is to live fully, so in relationships our natural impulse is to let live because we would have to close down our own fullness of joy and love and inner peace in order to feel the urge to abort or inhibit another's possibility of living fully. This natural impulse to live and let live we call the Libertarian Way, in which live fully is the overall objective and let live is a necessary sub-intention (resulting in the conceptualization of the NAP as a corollary principle).
But if live and let live is so deeply natural why do so many people favor dictatorship to achieve their goals? Why do husbands sometimes seek to control their wives, or mother-in-laws try to insert themselves into the children's married lives? Why do the rules of some employers seem overly dictatorial? Why do politicians make laws containing "mandates," a deceptive word for blatant dictatorship?
The answer is lack of trust. If husbands truly trusted their wives, they would not seek to control. If mother-in-laws really trusted the children in marriage, they would not try to insert themselves. If employers fully trusted their employees, they would feel no need for excessive rules. If politicians actually trusted people's deepest instincts, there would be no attempts to force people to operate according to political mandates.
Lack of trust arises from fear, and fear is not our natural state of being. Fear closes down the full expression of life. Attempted dictatorship rising from fear (in any relationship) is the opposite of the Libertarian Way.
"Well almost everything has to do with relationships, so what's wrong with focusing only on the NAP?"
If every issue is evaluated only in terms of the question "Does this violate the NAP?" it is easy to fall into the trap of evaluating issues solely intellectually divorced from one's full being. This can lead to observers forming the impression that we are dispassionate and uncaring regarding anti-life activities such as convenience-favored abortion, dangerous drug use, police being murdered, or carnage and genocide in foreign lands.
To honor the true and natural libertarian impulse, the deeper question which a libertarian must ask when evaluating any issue is: "Does this serve the fullness of life?"
Yes, the Libertarian Way is observing the NAP ... but it is so much more! The Libertarian Way is honoring, supporting, and celebrating the fullness of life.
fas-cism
noun
a socialist governmental system led by a dominant elite which seeks to control industry and commerce, and uses legislation and governmental decree to force Utopian programs on people.
free-dom
noun
one's natural state of being; a governmental system reflecting one's natural state, including voluntary funding and voluntary willingness to join and cooperate with minimal intrinsic rules, but with no programs of "good intention" forced on people "for their own good."
If you are newly waking up to your innate libertarian core and want to investigate deeper the underlying nonsense of the liberal-progressive religion of government worship, give yourself the pleasure of reading Ayn Rand's epic and masterful novel, Atlas Shrugged.
"God's laws will keep your minds at peace, because peace IS His Will, and His laws are established to uphold it. His are the laws of freedom, but yours are the laws of bondage. Since freedom and bondage are irreconcilable, their laws CANNOT BE UNDERSTOOD TOGETHER. The laws of God work only for your good, and there ARE no other laws beside His. Everything else is merely lawLESS, and therefore chaotic." -Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles
Interesting factoid: for the last election year studied (1998) some of the highest percentage of votes for Libertarian Party candidates were for candidates who had been studying free of charge the lessons of: Course in Political Miracles
For a great discussion on Christianity vs. State Socialism see: Christianity vs. State Socialism
“I did not understand what made me free, nor what my freedom is, nor where to look to find it. Father, I have searched in vain until I heard Your Voice directing me. Now I would guide myself no more. For I have neither made nor understood the way to find my freedom. But I trust in You. You Who endowed me with my freedom as Your holy Son will not be lost to me. Your Voice directs me." (Prayer from A Course in Miracles)
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