How to Be a Libertarian (Without Losing Your Soul)

1. Believe that you are one.

From a libertarian perspective, there is no reason to have a strictly materialist conception of the human person. Avoid emphasizing matter over mind and vice versa.  A strictly materialist view quickly becomes about behavior not action and determinism not freedom. A person is body and soul, matter and mind.

“When [materialists] think they have said enough to establish that they are brutes, they show themselves as proud as if they had demonstrated that they are gods.” ― Alexis de Tocqueville

2. Don’t be a libertopian.

In the children’s book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, nothing seems to be going right for young Alexander who resolves to move to Australia. The book ends with Alexander’s mom comforting him about his day saying, “Some days are like that. Even in Australia.” The Free State Project reminds me of this book. Fighting for greater liberty may be a cause to which you devote your life. But remember that utopia is impossible because of the unchangeableness of human nature. There will always be some limits to your liberty. Even in New Hampshire.

“Man cannot be free if he does not know that he is subject to necessity, because his freedom is always won in his never wholly successful attempts to liberate himself from necessity.” ― Hannah Arendt

3. Ask yourself: Liberty, then what?

Moral rights are fun, but moral truths are even more exciting. Once there is freedom from coercion and actions have moral weight, then the question becomes how to exercise this freedom. Freedom is instrumental. Once you have this indispensable condition for moral agency, then what will you do? Beyond what is necessary, what is meaningful and fulfilling?

“Suppose that all the objects in your life were realised; that all the changes in institutions and opinions which you are looking forward to, could be completely effected at this very instant: would this be a great joy and happiness to you?” And an irrepressible self-consciousness distinctly answered, ‘No!’ At this my heart sank within me: the whole foundation on which my life was constructed fell down.” ― J.S. Mill

4. Bind Yourself.

At first, it might sound thrilling to be able to do anything. But ultimately, as Chesterton says, “the worship of will is the negation of will. To admire mere choice is to refuse to choose.” Choice is paradoxically fulfilled in choosing something particular. This is why marriage is a fulfillment, rather than destruction of freedom. Chesterton also explains that anarchy would make fun impossible. If bets, contracts, and rules were not binding, then these activities would be meaningless. Libertarians understand the importance of respect for contracts, promises, and law. This respect that binds us is equally important to morality in public and private life.

“I would never conceive or tolerate any Utopia which did not leave to me the liberty for which I chiefly care, the liberty to bind myself.” ― G.K. Chesterton

5. Remember the long run.

We may laugh at the short-sightedness expressed in the quotation from Keynes that says, “The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead.” And yet, the expression You-Only-Live-Once (“YOLO”) is presently popular among young people. Sometimes libertarians discuss their personal, rather than theoretical attachment to pornography, casual sex, drug use, etc. At the end of a libertarian seminar, several other young women and I asked ourselves: Would we want to date any of these young men who advocate a moral right and not only a legal right to these things? We found liberty mistaken for license to be unattractive. Living only for the moment is not only bad economic policy; it’s bad for relationships.

“The only liberty, I mean is a liberty connected with order: that not only exists along with order and virtue, but which cannot exist at all without them.” ― Edmund Burke  

6. Practice friendship.

Introducing yourself as a rational egoist, an Epicurean hedonist, or an anarcho-capitalist is not a great way to make friends. And this does actually happen. Human beings are individuals, but individuals who are born into the world in utter dependency and into families and communities. To forget this is to ignore fundamental realities of what it means to be human. Even the most radical individualists like to be together. Even Randians have clubs. Try to find the golden mean between individualism and community.

“The individual alone is powerless. Individual will and memory, apart from the reinforcement of associative tradition, are weak and ephemeral. How well the totalitarian rulers know it.”
―  Robert Nisbet

7. Stop Whining.

There’s buzz about “intergenerational inequity” and the injustice of the welfare state. Deficit financing is not wrong because it hurts future generations. It’s simply wrong in the here and now. Libertarians should make arguments using the standard of an eternal morality for the particular circumstances of the present. Publicly it may be appropriate to decry the welfare state. Privately, the responsible thing to do is to not count on a pension or other entitlements. Strive to offer constructive solutions based on reality rather than constant complaints based on fantasy.

“To see things as they are, to estimate them aright, and to act accordingly, is to be wise.”
—  John Jay

Add your ideas for libertarianism with a conscience in the comments section below.