“Libertarian…You keep using that word”. That was my working title to the second part of my earlier blog piece, Libertarians Like Control. Here I work to answer, for me, what libertarianism is. That is a giant topic with scores of answers and offers to those questions by some very heavy hitters: Hans Herman Hoppe, Walter Block, Murray Rothbard, Ludwig von Mises, and more.
Sharing what you know, your accumulated knowledge of your specialized skill, is a gift which rewards the giver almost more than the recipient. In the olden days of the 1970s and 80s, no chef worth his salt would share any more than was absolutely necessary (and necessary was always determined by the chef). The thinking seemed to be that if the chef gives away his knowledge, you’ll have it and he won’t, or at least, won’t be in a position of control over you.
Today we can look on such practices as silly. Of course giving of yourself, teaching, does make you stronger. Leo Buscaglia made a career out of teaching that you can try, but you cannot, give away all of your love. You always have more, but, when you give love, love is returned to you. So too cooking skills or people skills or life skills. The exchange isn’t always like for like, but this for that. We know this. Today we know this. Leadership has been focus grouped and written about and pondered over and, in I think measurably good ways, all that thinking has produced good results. When leadership is about helping the other people grow so they become better and pass that accumulated knowledge to the next person, that’s a win. When leadership is used to keep a person down, that’s politics, and then little good comes from that.
I will offer that libertarianism, and to a degree R and D, is what you make it. Clearly no libertarian is going to call for higher taxes and more military. But, inside the parameters of NAP (Non-aggression Principle) and property rights, there is a lot of room for one to be comfy.
The free flow of people in an organization has often been unsettling to me. How can a group of people, political, employment, or civic, identify as a group and then say here are the basic rules, as long as you don’t mess with them, go and be? A group, by my definition (not a gang) has an implied set of guidelines detailing admission to and sustained membership in that group. How does a group allow wiggle room inside those rules? The absence of structure used to give me the willies.
I am happy with the quest for freedom and liberty. The NAP makes sense. As a political conservative, that was alien. Conservatives conserve their last best sense of themselves and to do that, they will use force.
Defensive force is acceptable, and necessary, if your life is in the balance. Offensive force, not so much. To stop on person from hurting another, you will get hurt. Joseph Heller invented this scenario. It’s the idiocy of the cop who shoots the potential suicider. Don’t kill yourself or I’ll shoot.
I feel I’ve found a good fit in libertarians. There are many places, all those fluid rules, where a detailed knowledge is useful and needed. Knowledge of economics and specifically Austrian school economics, praxeology, history, Constitutional law, the Declaration of Independence and so many other areas for specific knowledge that even if one doesn’t have it, the journey of getting it is rewarding. I’ve encountered many a fellow traveller who is crazy smart and eager to share that knowledge.
Sharing knowledge, teaching, is illuminating. I didn’t realize how little I know of cooking until I had to teach it. Teaching is a humbling experience. Teaching exposes the vulnerability of the teacher as incomplete. No one knows all about everything, or anything. I became a better cook by teaching cooks. I am learning to be a better citizen by listening to smarter citizens.
I started this blog in part to share my food knowledge. I also started it to document for all to see my progress as a better citizen. The path for that is through libertarianism. In the simple form, it’s a smart, simple (simple doesn’t always mean easy in cooking or politics) guide for how to co-exist. Libertarian thinking shows me the best solutions to complicated problems which are only becoming more complicated.
I’m sharing my journey with you in part to make sure I have it right for me. When you make my muffin recipe, the reason the procedure is as it is is because it works. I’ve made them many times and those procedures produce the best results. I know that by doing. I am sharing my doing with you so we can both be better.
Better at baking is control of baking. Libertarians aren’t unique in their want for control. We want each to control himself. As the anarchists say, No rulers, not no rules. You control your life, your job, your family, your money. Let each also do the same.
