This blog will offend you

It has become painfully apparent in my life that whenever I talk about politics with anyone, I am put immediately into a box. This does not particularly bother me, as this is an easy method for understanding people; we categorize complex patterns and distill them down to their most basic elements in order to understand. My problem is that in our culture there are generally only two boxes into which one can be placed politically, neither of which I identify myself with. The only two identities that we as a political culture are able to immediately identify with are termed 'conservative' and 'liberal'. So ingrained are these ideas in our society that often it is assumed that any one person's beliefs will surely fall somewhere neatly between the two extremes on this spectrum of political thought characterized by this overly simplified ‘liberal-conservative’ dichotomy. I assert that this view of political identification is narrow-minded and that it is possible to approach modern politics from entirely new angles. In order to understand how someone falls out of this traditional spectrum, we must first understand what the terms 'liberal' and 'conservative' are most often taken to mean. In very general terms:

• Liberals value the personal liberty of the individual to make their own choices in a social context, and as a group strive to create public economical institutions which are supported by community effort (most often, through taxes or other democratic, governmental means) which allow individuals to pursue life with a sense of security and safety
  

• Conservatives traditionally differ from liberals in that they are not as focused on the personal rights of the individual, but instead move to institute well-intentioned paternalistic laws (eg. Prohibitions on abortion, gay marriage, church and state conflicts etc) and are defined as being pro-small government, and thus, more financially reserved and pro-free market than their liberal counterparts.

In extremely simplified terms, one can look at liberals as "pro-human liberties, pro public economic and social institutions" while conservatives can be though of as "pro-paternalism, anti-government and pro free market". As an example of how ingrained these concepts in our society, imagine that you knew someone who told you that they believe "homosexuals should have the right to marry", we might then reasonably assume that they would certainly support socialized medicine or the establishment of a welfare state. Conversely, if someone were to tell you that they were a pro-life believer we might also assume that they must support free market policies such as privatized health care or the elimination of aid to foreign governments. Remarkably, the correlation of these assumptions seems to be very accurate in people who consider themselves to be politically active in our culture.

How it came to be that economic thought became so intertwined with the creation of social policies is unknown to me, but it does almost always seems to be the case. By separating these two seemingly unrelated concepts of economic theory and social policy, we can create boxes of political thought which are entirely separate from the traditional conservative-liberal dichotomy. I exist in one such political box, though I have yet to ever be properly placed in it over the course of a discussion. This box is that of libertarianism.

An exact definition of what libertarianism means is not widely agreed upon, but generally it can be taken to mean that one believes in the maximization of personal liberty for all individuals. Libertarians support laws and policies which allow individuals to make their own choices much as liberals do, but financially, the believe in the right for individuals to have freedom from government interference as much as possible, which results in a conservative-style ,free-market model. In extremely simplified terms, libertarians are socially liberal but financially conservative. Many libertarians would support gay marriage while simultaneously supporting capitalistic goals such as the abolishment of a minimum wage. In this model, restrictions imposed by the government, either financial or social, act as a limitation of personal freedom, and are thus undesirable. Liberals support the financial infringement of personal freedom as policy through taxation and socialized spending, while conservatives support the social infringement of personal freedom as policy through paternalistic and prohibitive laws. It is really a simple philosophy that rejects both of these traditional models and embraces one defined by a respect for the natural freedom of individuals.

Libertarianism bucks the predictable model for political discourse, and thus it is difficult for many people to understand. This is why I predict that this blog will offend you. Many of you will find yourselves agreeing with someone whom you perceive to be a fellow liberal/conservative until I state something which you find utterly repulsive; something that the other side might say. That is a problem when our modern political discourse is characterized by such polarization and animosity between the two political extremes: when someone possesses beliefs which are different from your own, it is easy to cast them as evil, wrong and ignorant. I predict that liberals will perceive a conservative bias due to them being more aware of pro-conservative financial ideals in this blog. I also predict that conservatives will perceive a liberal bias due to the pro-social freedoms I espouse. I predict that either side will find the things they disagree with more shocking and memorable than the things with which they do agree.

I do however wish that you consider the libertarian perspective, not because I love you, not because I care about you, but because I respect you. I respect your freedom to choose and to decide as human beings. As human beings, the only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to reason, and if we sacrifice that ability, if we short change our innate right to freedom, we sacrifice that only thing which makes us human. I, as a libertarian, fight for your absolute freedom from governmental, social, and financial restriction so that you can be free to make whatever choices you deem fit for your life as a human being. I don’t have to like you to respect you, and you don’t have to like me to realize that you deserve that freedom. Fight for it. Buck the trend of traditional politics, and fight for what you deserve! Get mad as hell and say that you’re not going to take it anymore!