Socialist Libertarianism: A Manifesto

Posted on August 4, 2003 in Liberty

After I wrote my brief piece about turning in the fossil collector at Pectin Reef, I got to thinking about my particular libertarian bent. There’s been a lot of rhetoric in American politics that equates libertarianism with capitalism, particularly from the followers of A*y*n R*a*n*d. In their minds, libertarianism is exclusively about selfishness. There’s no room for community. All that is important is the right of the monied few to make more and more money without government restriction.

I do not consider these to be true libertarians because inevitably they turn into mouthpieces for self-centered de facto despots who want no checks on their right to enslave others. They also hold that the people are stupid and that only their gods offer a true creative impulse. They point to Frank Lloyd Wright as an example of their genius, not mentioning that every one of his stylish Prarie-Style houses is falling down because he did not listen to contemporaries who warned him that they needed more structural support. They never speak up to the fact that you can be fired for criticizing your boss, that the moment you walk in your workplace in the morning, you lose your rights to freedom of speech and freedom to organize into unions. Corporations severely limit what you can say within them and what changes you make within them. Only those whose imaginations end at the board room door think that they offer ultimate freedom.

There are true capitalist libertarians, but these I have mentioned do not fit the criteria. As a socialist libertarian, I hold firm on the principle that I must not only be free to speak, but ready to listen to reasonable points of view. Where the capitalist libertarian puts the emphasis on protecting the making of money, I put it on protecting what we hold in common. I style myself after John Stuart Mill who held that it was for the good of the community that we must have freedom of speech, that even stupid points of view must be allowed their day if only to show their stupidity.

All libertarians hold that any law should be carefully considered. Is social pressure enough? Is the damage being done by the act physically real and prosecutable? The socialist libertarian goes on to ask does this law benefit only one person or the whole community? We allow no despots in socialist libertarianism, we prevent no organization of people within the greater body politic. We thus oppose not only the excesses of Capitalism, but those of Communism as well. Russia failed because it did not allow correction of its economy by free voices. It failed because it was taken over by conservative leadership. It failed because it did not respect diversity in outlook. The socialist libertarian holds that diversity is a good thing, that free markets do benefit us in some affairs, but in things we all share — water purification systems, electricity, roads, police and fire, parkland — profit can only warp and seduce us towards authoritarianism and loss of resources. A socialist libertarian does not enter the house of the man who wants to be self-sustaining in energy because there is no need to have him for the sake of profit. For this reason and for reasons of better air and water quality (things that are shared by everyone), it is the socialist libertarian who champions solar energy and other clean fuels. Only under our present system of capitalist authoritarianism are contracts made to limit energy independence. Capitalist libertarians, too, love these things, but only the socialist libertarian takes steps to allow everyone to have the means of independence in their lives, to supplement incomes and make it possible for everyone to put a solar generator on her or his roof if he/she desires. This is one of the reasons why I am a socialist libertarian: it puts all people first. It does not naively say that only through selfishness can there be freedom. We’ve seen too many despots rise on selfishness and we’re looking, encouraging other ways.

Turning the jerk who I saw fossil-collecting was not inconsistent with this view. Community property exists for all people. All libertarians believe that there should be some laws. The question is what do they protect first: private interest or the good of all the people?