It's All Related
columnist: Jahfre Fire Eater

Topic: Political Parties
Why I Am Not a Libertarian

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...or how my innate libertarianism is contrary to the Libertarian Party. Anyone who did not recognize the title of this article needs to move to the top of their reading list The Constitution of Liberty by F.A. Hayek.

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by Jahfre Fire Eater
(Libertarian)
Sunday, July 13, 2008

The last time I voted for a Republican presidential candidate was in 1980. I have never voted for a Democrat for any office. There were a couple elections where I sat out. Not on purpose, really, just because I wasn't interested and I wasn't paying attention. It wasn't a protest to sit out; just apathy exerting its relentless force upon my will. Oh who am I kidding? I was partying my brains out and aggressively climbing the economic ladder so I could afford to party more in the future. Recreation was my motivation for any success I achieved in my baby adult years.

In my late 20's and early 30's most of my then-friends realized I was not like them. I didn't support liberal economics, the welfare state, minimum wage laws, bigotry and I didn't watch MTV. Around that time I also discovered a new practice...moderation. Moderation in ALL things with intended emphasis on ALL. I didn't rule anything out, just applied moderation more often. Suddenly the threat of a hang over outweighed my love for beer. What happened? Who am I? Beer had been my anchor. I was adrift. When all else was going bad in my life I could cling to my extraordinary gift for quaffing.

I tried engaging my then-friends in conversation over political topics. That was an important lesson and the beginning of my getting used to being alone. Until then I had no idea how few people were able to discuss ideas without becoming enraged over disagreement. I spent much of the 1990's reading and participating in online message boards...an intellectual black hole, no racism intended.

This is when my personal philosophy, Its All Related, came to permeate my thinking and writing. One book in particular pulled this all together for me, The Great Reckoning by James Dale Davidson and Lord Reese Mogg. The picture they painted was larger than any I had ever encountered and suddenly, isolated incongruencies that had been annoying me by their inexplicability became clearly part of the larger whole. My quest for a new anchor crumbled into irrelevance as I became a bold surfer on the sea of ideas; daring to delve where my former comfort zone had prevented my entering and obscured my vision of what lay beyond.

My path may not be for everyone. The ideas and writings I found inspiring may not be useful to everyone. I'm not one to say my way is best, only to say why it was good for me. In 4 years of college I had not encountered a single professor who encouraged me to step outside the right/left paradigm. OK, to be honest, I had not encountered a single professor who encouraged me to step outside the left paradigm. Fortunately, I had served in the Navy prior to college so I was several years older than the general student population. I felt like a visitor to a day care center for all the difference between my view of the world and the view of those who had been high school seniors just a few months previous to my meeting them. The college experience has generally become nothing more than an extension of the baby sitting service that public schools have become. This relentless liberal paradigm is suffocating our civilization by teaching citizens to be irresponsible and dependent from cradle to grave...but this is a topic for a complete article unto itself.

So far I have mentioned two books that have helped me reconcile the seemingly contradictory statement that I am a libertarian who will never be a Libertarian. Here are a few more:
- Illusions, Richard Bach (Just the 1st chapter is enough to set the tone with regard to this article, the reluctant messiah's notebook defines how I approach my journey.)
- What Do You Care What Other People Think, Richard Feynman
- Ideas Have Consequences, Richard Weaver
- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Jared Diamond
- Empire of Debt, William Bonner and Addison Wiggin
- The Contemplative Life, Joel Goldsmith

This is just a small sample of important books from my library. The sum of my take-away from these is that dogma stagnates minds. Libertarian dogma is no less destructive to advanced thinking and therefore advancement of society, than is liberalism, conservatism, Christianity, Judaism and all the other isms you can imagine.

Many Nolan Chart readers take offense at my views regarding Libertarian Party politics. Thank you for the vote of confidence. Without your comments and feedback I might have doubts about my views. You've never let me down so far. Some things never change.

I've deliberately left many of my points unpolished and open for debate in this article. I will cover them more completely, individually, as the November elections draw closer. For anyone interested in how I will vote and why, please see my Nolan Chart article, Don't Waste Your Vote. This article covers all the ways a vote can be wasted, including simply voting for a major party candidate because of the belief that a third party "can't win". (Voting for something you do not support...)

Until next time...
Jahfre Fire Eater

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2008 Jahfre Fire Eater, all rights reserved.
Published: Sunday, July 13, 2008
Last modified: Monday, July 21, 2008

The views expressed in this article are those of Jahfre Fire Eater only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Jahfre Fire Eater is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

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