I believe in Liberty, but I’m not a Libertarian because I don’t believe property is the end all be all of being. I believe the truth is. But my problems start smaller: with government.
I have a problem with speaking of the governments singular institutions. Like most people, there are good ones and bad ones and among every one of those there are good and bad attributes. Like most people, Libertarians included, there are policies I like that make the government function better and policies I don’t like that, while possibly well intentioned, have had disastrous consequences. My problem with Libertarians is that rather than change policies to improve the government, their arguments often diverge into the problems with government in general. And while I agree with their major frustrations, I disagree that there is a better alternative to representative democracy and feel that all of their greatest frustrations are far more valid in the contexts of corporations or private institutions–institutions that can and have and I believe would act with even greater indiscretion than the government without government oversight. And I believe the best cure to government indiscretion is citizen oversight.
My belief in the importance of transparency totality trumps my belief in the importance of personal property. The policies he supports treat transparency like an invasion of personal property. For me, without transparency, you can’t enforce your rights–to property and otherwise. The game isn’t fair if you don’t get to see who’s making the rules–and as a human being born into a world already well underway, you don’t start out in a very good position to help yourself if you’re occluded from the truth.
As for me, I’m not convinced the government is sitting on bigger secrets than individuals. In fact, I’m absolutely certain they aren’t because groups are bad at keeping secrets and our history is full of secrets which are revealed long before it’s makers intended. So, my money is still behind the government to protect me from rogue individuals–and then citizens to protect themselves from rogue governments, but the cure is always the same: sunlight.
It’s the best disinfectant, don’t you know?
