11 Questions You Should Ask Libertarians to See if They’re Hypocrites | Alternet
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There is a kind of libertarianism that’s nothing more or less than a strain in the American psyche, an emotional tendency toward individualism and personal liberty. That’s fine and even admirable.
We’re talking about the other libertarianism, the political philosophy whose avatar is the late writer Ayn Rand. It was once thought that this extreme brand of libertarianism, one that celebrates greed and even brutality, had died in the early 1980s with Rand herself. Many Rand acolytes had already gone underground, repressing or disavowing the more extreme statements of their youth and attempting to blend in with more mainstream schools of thought in respectable occupations.
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But the libertarian movement has seen a strong resurgence in recent years, and there’s a simple reason for that: money, and the personal interests of some people who have a lot of it. Once relegated to drug-fueled college-dorm bull sessions, political libertarianism suddenly had pretensions of legitimacy. This revival is Koch-fueled, not coke-fueled, and exists only because in political debate, as in so many other walks of life, cash is king.
The Koch brothers are principal funders of the Reason Foundation and Reason magazine. Exxon Mobil and other corporate and billionaire interests are behind the Cato Institute, the other public face of libertarianism. Financiers have also seeded a number of economics schools, think tanks, and other institutions with proponents of their brand of libertarianism. It’s easy to explain why some of these corporate interests do it. It serves the self-interest of the environmental polluters, for example, to promote a political philosophy which argues that regulation is bad and the market will correct itself. And every wealthy individual benefits from tax cuts for the rich. What better way to justify that than with a philosophy that says they’re rich because they’re better—and that those tax cuts help everybody?
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The Libertarian Hypocrisy Test
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Are unions, political parties, elections, and social movements like Occupy examples of “spontaneous order”—and if not, why not?
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Is a libertarian willing to admit that production is the result of many forces, each of which should be recognized and rewarded?
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Is our libertarian willing to acknowledge that workers who bargain for their services, individually and collectively, are also employing market forces?
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Is our libertarian willing to admit that a “free market” needs regulation?
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Does our libertarian believe in democracy? If yes, explain what’s wrong with governments that regulate.
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Does our libertarian use wealth that wouldn’t exist without government in order to preach against the role of government?
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Does our libertarian reject any and all government protection for his intellectual property?
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Does our libertarian recognize that democracy is a form of marketplace?
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Does our libertarian recognize that large corporations are a threat to our freedoms?
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Extra Credit Questions
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Does he think that Rand was off the mark on this one, or does he agree that historical figures like King and Gandhi were “parasites”?
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If you believe in the free market, why weren’t you willing to accept as final the judgment against libertarianism rendered decades ago in the free and unfettered marketplace of ideas?
