Because I have been asked, I want to confess my history with libertarianism. The careful reader will note that some of my commentary intersects with libertarian commentary, particularly on the war and entitlement spending. I've visited quite a few places on the political spectrum in the evolution of my political thinking, but by far the most fun was libertarianism. When I was a socialist, the world was just terribly depressing. By and large the world's poor didn't seem to be doing so hot and living in a sea of politically apathetic citizens amidst such misery enrages any altruistic person who believes that a better world is possible if only we could get the right people in power to use government power for good. The quixotic attack on greedy capitalism gets kind of stale.
And face it, the more moderate positions on the spectrum, conservativism, right-centrism, centrism, left-centrism, liberalism, are just plain boring; where is the thrill of pioneering new territory, of going against the grain? Where is the risk? For anyone with a sense of adventure, these kind of wishy-washy political systems just won't do.
But libertarianism, you were different. Oh, when I called myself by your name I could laugh in the epiphany that nearly all of the world's problems sprung from one source; that the poverty, corruption, social decay all around us were all logical consequences of government interference in the free market, that holiest of holies. In a free state, replete with respect for the rule of law and property rights, the free interplay of supply and demand would harmoniously dance toward equilibrium, naturally maintaining a healthy society and distributing resources to everyone, with more regularity, more generosity and more elegance than Uncle Sam could ever hope to muster.
Inequalities would persist, but everyone would be increasingly wealthy! It was a heady time in my intellectual life. The enemy was never more well-defined and the solution simply a matter of ensuring that the government got the hell out of the way, letting sovereign individuals trade freely. What could be more beautiful than a society operating entirely on the basis of voluntary contract, with no coercion from above, every man his own king?
As far as the usual choices go, libertarians tend to have a much firmer theoretical base than other "ists." Where socialists tended to be somewhat affective, libertarians possessed almost nerd-like propensity for philosophical discussions and had by far the highest average economic literacy of any movement. With such irreverent, intelligent rascals as co-conspirators, politically correct liberals and predictable reactionaries hardly offered much food for thought and seemed asleep in comparison. What intelligent, thrill/truth seeking person doesn't want to take the red pill?
But like a meteoric romance that eventually burns out, my affair with libertarianism eventually came to an end. The brilliantly abstract grounding of libertarianism impressed my mathematical mind, but as with any formal system of ideas about the people and the world (messy, ugly things), serious cracks emerged. Why have Scandinavian countries done so well despite their almost religious opposition to the free market? How can a society, libertarian or otherwise, thrive if they aren't reproducing, like the West? The almost universal belief that racial disparities would go away if only the free market were unleashed did not have the support of the facts and seemed as hopelessly na've as the theory that affirmative action would close achievement gaps.
Gradually - grudgingly - I came to the realization that family, culture and biology matter in a deep way not addressed by libertarianism. While any academic who wishes themselves to be taken seriously must grapple with the formidable economic understanding of the libertarian, the application of these insights is not as straightforward as promised by the proponents of laissez-faire. It's been traumatic in ways - I don't think I'll ever seriously be able to accept another ideology; but it was a damn good ride and I've taken away quite a bit from the experience. I still like mixing it up with libertarians, a thoughtful bunch. I wish they would just realize that ideas don't really matter all that much.
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