The Libertarian Party, with its political philosophy, seems to believe in anarchism, that is, the belief that man is inherently good and it is only corrupt political institutions that make him bad. Once, these political institutions are destroyed, the angelic man (and woman) will emerge – rise up –and become real.
This anarchistic philosophy has synthesized with the theory of free-enterprise, as founded by Adam Smith. Smith’s basic idea was that once man is given maximum individual freedom to pursue his economic interests – and all the laws and institutions that suppress this freedom are dismantled – an ideal society will emerge, based on individual freedom.
Just like with the anarchist philosophy, radical free enterprise (libertarianism) believes that an ideal man will emerge. We will live in the most ideal society possible, with everyone competing to to realize their potentials, and contributing these talents to society, at a profit to themselves, of course.
These basic beliefs of free enterprise have been tested on human history and have been proven – to a limited extent – to be nothing short of magical. As wealth grew among hundreds of millions of people, a new standard of living gave rise to a firm belief in free enterprise — and along with it libertarianism.
One example of this belief was expressed by an entrepreneur in an East European country. This country was dirt poor as a result of the domination of communism, and was now prosperous, as a result of free enterprise.
One observer asked the entrepreneur what was the cause of such rapid economic success. The businessman responded with, “we read Milton Freedman” (an economist-evangelist for radical free-enterprise).
The beliefs of free-enterprise have been synthesized in history with the Jeffersonian beliefs of democracy, resulting in the popular international belief that a society based on free-enterprise and democracy is the best society possible.
Men have been willing to fight – and die – for these beliefs, as displayed in WW II (the fight against fascism) and the cold war (the fight against socialism). Some proponents of these wars argued, “We are fighting for the American way of life.”
The Antitheses
With every idea there is an opposite idea. Sorry, this is how the world runs.
So, let’s look at some of the opposite ideas – the anti-theses – to free enterprise – the thesis.
The first anti-thesis is the earth itself. The earth is the anti-thesis to much of science as well. This is why we have scientific experiments. In science, if we have an idea (a hypothesis), and then we test it. We test it with earthy reality. If the idea is not disproven we can believe in it until it is disproven, and most ideas are eventually disproven, or at least improved upon.
Let’s put the Idea of free enterprise to the test in our experimental laboratory called human history. What has been happening in recent history?
With our growing economies, we have been running out of non-renewable resources, and soon we may have run out completely. These resources include: fertile soil, fresh water, clear air, oil, sand, coal, and rare minerals like lithium.
This evaporation of resources, which are the foundation of the free enterprise economy, demonstrate that we can’t go on like this. We can’t go on freely producing and consuming as much as we like. Our tiny, 25,000-mile earth can’t sustain it.
Then we have population. Perhaps we could continue to produce and consume as much as our free hearts desired if the earth’s population was, say, one billion. But it’s not. Now we have seven billion — and growing at about 3% — and everyone wants to produce and consume as much as Americans do.[1]
A second anti-thesis to free enterprise may be the corona virus. This tiny micro organism may know more about reality than Donald Trump. In its desire to duplicate as much as possible – as every organism on earth desires – it has contaminated the whole earth and has forced us to reduce our production and consumption.
And what has happened? The ozone layer has been temporarily healed. Our waters are clearer (there is even fish in the once polluted canals in Venice). City air is purified (you can actually see buildings for miles). Meat production plants are closed (that is, people are forced to stop stuffing themselves with toxic dead animals). And crime is down (all the stores and restaurants are closed, and all the victims of theft are holed up in their homes).
So, what is this virus telling us?
It’ saying that we must stop producing and consuming so much, especially toxins.
And how can we do this world-wide?
We must control our economies more. And this can only be done with more national and international control.
And this means a limited world government.
The tragedy of WW II brought us the United Nations. (It took us that much.) And now this tiny, little virus may bring us to a limited world, democratic government. (It may take us that much.)
[1] See the essay on The Categorical Imperative
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