A libertarian 5 years later

It is hard sometimes to think back to that afternoon 5 years ago. It was afternoon for me as I worked in London at the time. We were on the 19th floor of a building in the City of London, desperately trying to follow the news over reuters feeds as most of the news web sites were over loaded.

The emotions I experienced then started off as disbelief, then sadness and absolute anger. Now 5 years later I had hoped to have a bit more clarity in my head concerning what happened, but while somethings are very clear to me I do find things conflicting with my ultra libertarian world view.

I am almost certain that one of the biggest dangers to our civilization as a whole is the rise of the extremist islamicists. They are dangerous in 2 very distinct ways. One is the more direct threat by them wanting to turn the world back to the middle ages, the other is the totalitarization of democratic states throughout the world under the excuses of fighting the islamicists.

These 2 threats present a really difficult mental task for libertarians. On the one hand I can not in anyway accept them attacking my freedom to live and work like they did on 9/11. I can’t accept in anyway that they try to attack my freedom of expression like they did here in Denmark earlier this year.

It is always difficult to know what to do against an enemy that is trying to force you to get rid of the basic rights you have. It is a fine line to try to attack them and not becoming them.

The patriot act and the many anti terrorism acts that have been passed or are being passed throughout the world are offensive to me as a libertarian. But then again most of the traditional opposition is no better.

For example the left in Denmark and in the US are not at all dealing with the real threat that the islamicists are, thus not helping anything. They talk against the patriot act, but what they really are doing is talking against Bush.

I’m all for opposition and they can do what they want, but in glazing over the islamicist threat and putting all their focus on fighting everything Bush is doing, they are really helping the totalitarian aspects of government more than anything. I’d go out on a limb and say that almost all non partisan people in the US and Europe are perfectly aware and scared of what’s going on.

This is why they keep giving support for ridiculous rules like the current ban on liquid’s on planes and the arrests of people with Arabic t-shirts. It’s because they are not presented with a real alternative.

I can say this as it is kind of the same thing that has happened to me. I was always anti Bush before 9/11. For me he was a social conservative, which for me was just another way of mixing bibles with social democracy.

Since 9/11 I have found myself supporting him by default, even though I really don’t. It’s just that he has presented the only part willing to do something. The left and some parts of the libertarian flank have become so fixed in a personality hate cult, that the worse parts of Bush’s government have been able to have a free rain.

I do not believe in the patriot act, I do not believe in the idiotic security measure that are everywhere. I do not believe in the way that the patriot act has been used by the IRS, INS and others in spying on it’s own citizens.

I do believe that the threat of terror and WMD’s is very real. However I don’t want to change my life because of it.

I do not care if they found WMD’s or not. It’s irrelevant.

I do believe that moderate muslims are being foolish, when they huddle up with the islamicists due to idiotic misplaced national pride. After all they have more to loose than anyone else. The should like thankfully some of them are now in Denmark be the most outspoken critics of the islamicists. They are the only ones who can define who they are and should not let neither Osama nor Bush decide for them as they have done until now.

Democrats in the US need to attack Bush when he does something bad (they have plenty of opportunity) and not just for being Bush. No one believes them about being strong against terror. Carter started this whole war in the first place. Clinton was a useless corrupt idiot who did more to sabotage the war on terror, than anyone before him. And yes the people do remember this.

I think it is time for us libertarians to try to work out workable alternatives. None of us want to limit our rights by reason of neither Bush nor Osama. The way it has been presented is that we have to pick one.

I am a libertarian and I do not like government. This is one of those things were Libertarians like to think up alternatives and yes there are potential alternatives to government, but they were not available right at the moment we needed them. However the free market has an important part in securing our world today. For example all the ridiculous TSA rules are just that, ridiculous and serve no purpose except letting people know that the government is doing something.

The free market could easily handle varying security requirements, through requirements of insurance companies but also through the free choice of people. A great and very funny example of how the free market could solve security on flights is Penn Jillette’s idea for Bacon and a Kiss airlines, where you scan skip the security check if you eat a piece of bacon and kiss the male purser on his lips. He later revised this for Jewish travellers, where they would get on by drawing a caricature of Mohammed. This may be funny, but there is absolute seriousness behind the thought of this. There is no need for a TSA or any such things.

Anyway as you can see I really have very few answers, just continued frustration. My guess is I’m not alone.