The Worldview of the Liberty Minded Man

Recently I was asked by a good friend for the most concise and cogent summation of “what we believe” that he could in turn share with someone that he cares deeply about.

The more I thought about it, the more I was intrigued at the prospect of finding or authoring such a summation. Eschewing all one-size-fits-all labels like conservative, libertarian, Republican, etc., maybe it’s best to label this worldview as The Liberty Minded Man.

I posed the question to a handful of people that I respect and whose views are well within the sphere of what I had in mind when I coined the phrase The Liberty Minded Man. One of those people is libertarian journalist Vin Suprynowicz who mildly challenged me on the need to avoid the label of libertarian. My answer is that far too many people think they know what a specific label means, when in fact they do not. And if the basic premise is to define a worldview, then jettisoning preconceptions that are likely erroneous anyway seems to be the best way to start.

The Liberty Minded Man (let’s call him LM2 in the interest of saving keystrokes) is an avowed individualist who despises being controlled by others. He’s not averse to working with others in pursuit of his goals, but he generally chaffs at arbitrary control; particularly of the sort exercised by government bureaucrats of every stripe! A trip to the Driver’s License agency is a pretty painful experience for the average LM2. On the subject of government, the LM2 firmly believes the old truism that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Can anyone deny that government’s main purpose (in actuality, NOT theory) is to grow more government? The LM2 looks to the Founders and Signers and generally agrees with their view that government should serve the people, and not the reverse.

Today the US government purports to serve the people, but that is nothing more than a thinly veiled illusion that is easily digested by the legions of benefactors of wealth redistribution. Doubt that? Then the next time you find yourself in front of one of the tax feeders that exercises some bit of authority over your life, try voicing the view that they work for you. Watch the reaction you get. I promise you it won’t result in a positive outcome. If you honestly and sincerely want to discover the degree to which you have become enslaved to the growing government colossus, then read a book by James Bovard entitled Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty. You can NOT come away from reading that book without a sharply defined sense of being robbed of your liberties!

So the first defining characteristic of the LM2 is a mistrust and generally dim view of government – ALL government.

On the issue of rights, let me first offer a definition for rights that I hope will set the stage for me expound on the many issues that stem from a proper understanding of same.

It should first be clearly understood that anything called a “right” cannot cost someone else anything – and most especially their rights! For this reason, healthcare or employment are not seen by the LM2 as “rights”. And if something is indeed a right, then it cannot be treated by government as a privilege. If you must ask permission to exercise it, then it’s not a right – or it’s a right that the government doesn’t recognize as such.

John Locke put some ideas into the heads of men like James Madison and Thomas Jefferson; ideas that were written down in the Declaration of Independence. Ideas that in and of themselves, even without being included in one of the greatest political documents in the history of man, had sufficient veracity to stand alone. That is to say these ideas are “unalienable”: a man has a right to life, and to defend that life, no matter what some government bureaucrat might say about it. Get on the internet, (and using a search engine that doesn’t keep a permanent record of everything you’ve ever done) research the subject of Natural Rights.

So now we’ve firmly established that the LM2 sees real rights as Natural Rights; not being government grants, but as superseding all government authority.

Which brings us to the issue of guns!

Since the LM2 is an individualist with a self-reliant bent, and because he usually doesn’t trust government, it stands to reason that on something as important as the defense of himself and his loved ones he’s going to take the view that it is his responsibility alone, and not something to be delegated to others – and most particularly not to strangers wearing government costumes. Just in case you harbor any illusions dear reader, know this: It has been repeatedly ruled in a variety of courts (and upheld on appeal) that the police do NOT have a duty to protect anyone! They are strictly there to come in and clean up the mess after the fact.

LM2s are often labeled as “gun nuts” by those with Statist/Collectivist worldviews, and that’s not really an accurate label. It would probably be more accurate to say we are “liberty nuts”. The LM2 tends to view his gun rights as the proverbial canary in the coal mine. The Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights made it pretty clear that the right to keep and bear arms “shall not be infringed”. Yet our lovely government has trampled all over the plain English meaning of that phrase and literally infringed the crap out it. Here’s where the “canary” argument comes in: If the government can ignore the plain-spoken and utterly clear admonition of “shall not be infringed”, then what else can and will that government ignore in its never-ending quest to grow its own power?

I and most Liberty Minded Men out there tend to look on guns as the barometer for all other rights that are supposedly protected by the Constitution; and most especially because that particular right was offered as the protector and guarantor of all the others. If the 2A can be so easily and completely ignored, then no other right is truly guaranteed. I can envision a nation wherein its people are completely disarmed by layer upon layer of laws and regulation, and yet at the same time those citizens are told “Look, we just want reasonable restrictions… you still have the 2A!” Sound familiar? It should, because that’s essentially where America is heading.

How did we get to the point where in-your-face, plainly stated provisions of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution are so blatantly ignored? There’re many contributing factors to be sure, but the vehicle that has been used to convey us to this point is, in the opinion of the typical LM2, the educational system.

Like government in general, the public educational system is rotten and serves a completely political agenda, rather than its stated goal of educating our most precious citizens. It is more a system of indoctrination rather than of education. Certainly there are exceptions to the rule, but generally public schools are of poor quality despite the incredible amounts of money that has been poured into them over the years.

Is this degree of systemic degradation merely the result of cumulative years of incompetence? I don’t believe so. I rather believe, from all that I’ve read, that the system was designed to produce little worker drones, little order-following, malleable subjects, willing to spend the rest of their lives taking direction and guidance from “those who know better”. And similar to government at large, school systems are microcosms of the larger bureaucracy in that they tend to do all in their power to “grow themselves”.

Know that liberty and government are seen by the Liberty Minded Man as mutually exclusive. You cannot expand the one, without infringing on the other. There are no exceptions to this rule. None. History has demonstrated this fact again and again.

This could go on and on, and I don’t wish for this essay to be dismissed as merely a rant. So let me close out by making it clear that the Liberty Minded Man (as I have) takes the view that we’ve been pushed far enough. There will be no more “Free Wacos” or “Free Ruby Ridges” out there. My friend Mike Vanderbough over at Sipsey Street can explain that so much more cogently than I can. Suffice it to say that the backing up is done. Liberty Minded Americans have finally reached their limit, of that I am convinced. There is no place to run. America represents the last bastion of potential freedom in the world today, and it’s rapidly flickering out. So don’t think that going out of the country is going to fix the problem. It’s like this everywhere in the world today. Boston T. Party has aptly described America as the healthiest patient in the cancer ward. The solution is here my friends. Fix America, or face tyranny for your children and grandchildren. There is no other alternative. George Orwell was once asked to describe the future. His response was “Picture a boot, stamping on a human face… forever.”

If you’ve read this far, then you must be interested in why we LM2’s feel this way. Let me invite (or challenge) you to take it to the next level. I have listed here a series of links that lead to a mix of essays, books and videos that collectively describe the views of The Liberty Mined Man so much better than I ever could. Follow these links, and in so doing you will be stepping outside of the “matrix”. All that remains for you is to answer the question: Do I take the Red Pill or the Blue Pill? Awaken to the reality facing our Republic and what the future holds for your children, or remain blissfully ignorant snoozing your way into the darkness of tyranny.

It’s your choice.

Guns

Why the gun is civilization

The Doctrine of the Three Percent

The Justification for Guns in Modern America

Boston's Gun Bible - by Boston T. Party

Rights

What are rights?

Why I am moving to Wyoming - Boston T. Party

The ideas and continuing influence of John Locke

Government

The Declaration of Independence

Lost Rights - by James Bovard

An excellent primer on government

My view of the police

Quotes of the Founding Fathers

Hologram of Liberty - by Boston T. Party

The Night-Watchman State defined

Political Correctness

Fodder for the Gulag - by Will Grigg

Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg (one of the best books I've ever read)

Political Correctness: The Scourge of Our Times


Economics

The coming of Caesar

The Austrian School

The Creature from Jekyll Island

The Crash Course


Education

Against School - by John Gatto

The Underground History of American Education (a MUST read)

America's proud heritage: 'uneducated, illiterate, barefooted, guntoting hay-seeds'?


National security / US Sovereignty

Obama poised to cede US sovereignty

US Sovereignty threatened by Law of The Sea Act


Overviews

A Nation of Cowards - by Jeffrey Snyder

Read anything ever written by James Bovard

Neal's Favorite Quotes

Eject Eject Eject

The Pussification of the American Male - by Kim du Toit

I Believe - by Old Jarhead