Libertarianism's hook to be cool -- radical freedom and freely chosen social responsibility
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 08:05PM Surfing around various libertarian, conservative and liberal blogs, I’m amazed at the widespread acceptance of government structure in this age of changes. It’s almost like a certain part of the brain has been programmed to accept an interventionist government as a reality, with the only controversy being how much freedom we give up to maintain the structure.
The political part of the human brain is not evolving as quickly as the part which deals with technology. In the world of technology, there’s a freedom and an innovative spirit which infuses the world with genius magic, and this is sorely lacking in the political realm. The political realm trudges on, building it’s restrictive structure, pushing people more to sameness, more to rule-following, more to mediocrity and obedience. Charles Taylor in his book, A Secular Age, writes about structure and anti-structure - the late fifties, the sixties and the early seventies were a time when society broke out of a restrictive political mindset and blossomed in creativity and expression, diversity, anti-structure, and now in 2009 it seems like another great opportunity for that same sort of expression – if it does happen, perhaps the expression will be better guided by maturity and reason and production – but the times seem ripe for creativity, courageous innovation and another round of life-magic, another push to throw off the shackles of government structuralists and busy-bodies who delight in building bureaucracies with myriad dumb rules to follow – who delight in controlling and engineering and getting all the kids to draw between the lines.
Charles Taylor is an unlikely writer to make my point, but if libertarianism needs a hook to be popular with all the cool kids, a look at structure/anti-structure is a good start. Except, we're talking about limited-structure, not anti-structure. The new breed is bravely going forward into the wonderful world of technology and social interaction -- their public education tells them that their success is not complete, though, unless they support an activist government to save the planet, support the welfare state and promote equality. These young people have been busy learning and creating new realities, so they are practically politically illiterate, but they will get smart when they realize Big Brother is going to cramp their style. When these men and women realize that the private sector can use the same genius-magic to deal with social problems as it has to create social-sites and new technologies, they'll look on government like the sluggish, stupid obstacle it is.
Did Obama say something about enchantment? How about private sector enchantment? Taylor says we've lost the enchantment -- perhaps it lies in genius magic -- not that everyone will be a genius, but the spirit is alive and the technological movement is mind-blowing. Peace, love, laptops and Twitter.
Charles Taylor, innovation, libertarianism, technology 
Reader Comments (4)
I think it's all about freedom. We need to use the language of freedom. It's difficult to talk about the intricate parts of Social Security or Welfare or any aspect of the welfare state. But if we can make people realize that each government action either releases our freedom or constrains it, people can realize the stakes better.
Yes, we've come too far to be children of the state. People will become stifled by structure, and then there will be change.
So... how about those public roads, huh?
What about the public roads?