Sometime in the last five or six years, I made the decision to dedicate myself to the advancement of human liberty. This decision has led me to do all sorts of wild and crazy things like campaign for some Republican congressman almost fifty years my senior, create this very website with some like-minded friends, and start my own weekly podcast. I receive all sorts of criticism – often good-natured – for why I spend my time on such things.

The intriguing thing behind these criticisms is that they often come not in the form of philosophical disagreement, but more of the anti-intellectual “why bother, brah?” nature. Common phrases I’ll hear include:

“What’s the point? People are never going to change.”

Or

“People are too stupid to get all this liberty stuff.”

Or even,

“Why don’t you just focus on your career? You don’t even make money doing this!”

These criticisms make several presumptions. The first two regard the “nature of man”, and yet those who make them seem to think they don’t apply to themselves. It’s only “other people” who can’t change or who are “too stupid” or “will never change”, while those who make these accusations toward the rest of humanity are somehow immune to these afflictions.

Call me crazy, but as far as I can tell we are all humans beings. We are all made up of the same basic DNA, cellular structure, organs, etc. There is no rationale behind the idea that “most humans can only act or think in this particular way”, while simultaneously believing “except for me…I’m different.”

Even the most cursory examination of history and the world around us will reveal that humans, as a species, are quite subject to change in our societal structures. The vast majority of individuals today would scoff at the idea of being ruled by kings, or at the idea that some humans may own others as slaves. And yet several hundred years ago these were commonly accepted ideas!

Mankind has not developed perfection in its social and governmental systems, but it has certainly shown a propensity to cast off many of those which are such blatant affronts to humanity once the population becomes educated enough about them.

One must only look at the incredible technologies and written works man has produced to show that “people” are not “stupid.” The Great Pyramids? The Brooklyn Bridge? The works of Shakespeare? Exploring oh, I don’t know…SPACE?! Clearly these were not the developments of a stupid species, but rather of a uniquely ingenious one, capable of more than most individual minds can ever grasp at any one time.

Lastly, there is a presumption that in order to spend this much time on all my liberty jazz, that I must be some sort of “losertarian”; that surely I live in my mother’s basement and have nothing resembling a real career.

It is true that I sacrifice many things in my life to focus on advancing liberty; my career is not one of them. I may sacrifice certain social functions, watching the same amount of television as my other friends, going to certain movies, etc, but one thing that does not suffer from my devotion to the cause I believe in is career advancement.

But I really shouldn’t have to justify this final criticism with the above paragraph. Even if I didn’t have a career, even if I did live in my mother’s basement, even it I was a complete pauper and cared not for material things, would this really be an appropriate criticism? To place morality over economic gain?

If the world had more people that placed a sense of morality over pure economic gain, maybe so many wouldn’t make excuses for fascistic policies in the name of “economic efficiency”. Perhaps people would argue for individual liberty first, so that so many wouldn’t conflate libertarians with those who just simply love “big business.”

“Money can’t buy happiness”, as they say. Did this phrase just emerge from the ether, or is there some truth behind it?

Surely many individual humans make the choice not to change, while surely many others certainly do stupid things. But just because some men abandon reason and logic in their decision-making does not mean that human beings do not have the capacity for such things. It only means that many men have lost their way.

Who will show them the way back?

The War on Drugs. America’s imperial war-making overseas. The cartelization of the food, medical, and education industries. These policies advocated for and implemented by evil and irrational humans upon their fellow man should be loudly and boldly condemned by anyone with an understanding of individual liberty. To remain willfully silent or to discourage those speaking out makes you nothing more than a cheerleader for tyranny.

Once one begins to understand the wrongs inflicted by their fellow man through various means, we are left with a choice to make:

Will you boldly speak out in defense of individual liberty?

Or would you prefer to be an apologist, an aider and an abetter, for tyranny?

Me? I choose liberty, “brah.”

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