An Examination of Libertarian Values

In a political climate seemingly monopolized by specialized punditry and highly technical policy arguments, the values which drive these debates are often overlooked. A loyal reader commented on last Thursday's post that she had never considered my comment that "non-aggression is the cornerstone of Libertarian thought".

Many, if not most of us, develop in a household or community which espouses a particular system of values and promotes the corresponding social, religious, and political institutions. Once these preferences have been inculcated in our minds, we make judgments easier on ourselves by relating new ideas and phenomena not to our value systems, but to the institutional inclinations we have based on those values.

Shortcuts are excellent. They save us time and increase our productivity as a result. But eventually these mental shortcuts begin to impede our reasoning processes by attempting to substitute an incomplete and finite part of the whole for the whole itself. I am frequently guilty of this myself. Because I agree so totally with the moral motivations of Libertarianism, I sometimes defer to their specific policy positions and agendas, assuming that they satisfy my values.

As tempting and facile as this chronologically conservative (in the sense of "conservation") device is, free minded individuals must eschew the blind and dogmatic deference to institutions that is necessarily effectuates.

Perhaps a delineation of what I believe to be the operative principles of Libertarianism will help some readers both recognize the motivations of the movement and inspire a politically, or even morally, oriented introspection.

1. Freedom. This should be no shock to anyone politically knowledgeable enough to know that Roe v. Wade was not a boxing match, but this value's importance to the ideology cannot be understated. In fact, any particular political position of the Libertarian movement can ultimately be traced back to the concept of liberty (hence the name). Although few of the politically conscious would claim to be anti-freedom, the controversy here lies in prioritization. For example, statists might claim that liberty is granted once one's social obligations have been fulfilled.

So paramount is the Libertarian emphasis on liberty, that the other values identified here will be defined in its context- as applications of the philosophy's eminent principle.

2. Social Liberty. I cannot speak for all Libertarians here, but the fundamental premise which leads me to the political conclusion of Libertarianism is that no human holds any inherent authority over any other. This premise also yields the inference that authority can be obtained only via contractual agreement. To me, the only acceptable reaction to the recognition of this premise as truth is to oppose laws prohibiting or limiting marriage, abortion, and drug use or ownership among others. E.g. since a homosexual couple seeking marriage obviously does not grant the government the power to restrict that option, the aforementioned premise rejects the legitimacy of the government statute which restricts the action.

3. Financial Liberty. I could argue all day about the merits of a state in which the only collected tax was one on the unimproved value of land, but in this post I would like to focus on why I, along with other Libertarians, have selected this as a governing body's best option. Following the previously presented line of thought, I believe no individual or institution has the authority to expropriate another's posession barring contractual permission. If any economic participant does not support a government operation, therefore, the wealth they create should have no part in its financing.

4. Personal Liberty. The use of force is condemend, just as usurpation, expropriation, and unjustified restriction have been by my rejection of compulsory obedience to authority. Unlike the other applications of liberty to political values, however, this one generates a need for the presence of the state. The defense of personal safety and property cannot always be conducted by the individual, and a society which ignores the rights to life, liberty, and property is indistinguashable from primitive barbarism. Thus the state is required to defend these liberties and establish justice in the event of their violation.

Hopefully this summary has helped explain what the most basic of Libertarian perspectives include, and perhaps why they are held.