THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LEADERSHIP BARRIER
Why is this important? Because at its core Libertarianism is pure leadership. In a Libertarian society we are all the leaders of a pack of one: You. Whatever you do or do not do it is entirely up to you. There are no rules or regulations nor supreme authority over you. You are sovereign. You are the leader. You are the decision maker… and our instincts tell us that this is dangerous.
Is this leadership barrier that makes the Libertarian society so improbable that in the modern history of humanity has not yet expressed itself. Until most people become able to cross this barrier, there will be no Libertarianism.
This barrier is something that every person must cross by themselves. We cannot depend of other people and we cannot seek consensus. It must come from inside just like any other genuine political evolution.
TRAIN, TRAIN AND THEN TRAIN SOME MORE
But how do we become able to cross this barrier and more importantly, why would we ever be able to cross it? This barrier as with any other barriers is so because it creates discomfort and fear, which is something that humans avoid instinctively. Therefore if we are to cross it, there must be larger discomforts and fears than the barrier itself. This makes the decision of crossing it a no-brainer. Actually, this makes the crossing a necessity and the only necessity large enough to push us through this barrier are economic necessities. When our reality becomes miserable enough, we act to make a better reality for ourselves. This is again the engine of true political evolution. But people do not become Libertarians overnight. They evolve. And how do they do so? Through training.
It is quite simple, really. You don’t just wake up one day and decide to go skydiving (or parachuting as they used to call it). You don’t just hire a plane, strap a parachute and jump through the door at 3000 m. of altitude. Any reasonable person would first consider if skydiving is really what they want to do. Once they have decided to do so, they take classes, they get familiar with the equipment, they practice increasingly complex and realistic exercises until eventually, when they feel ready, they jump through the door of an airplane in midair. Most people do this successfully.
Becoming a Libertarian is the same process. Because your reality is threatened beyond what you can tolerate by the actions of politicians you begin to make independent decisions. You exaggerate a little bit in your mortgage application. You “forget” to declare a little bit of income. You avoid paying Value Added taxes when possible. You become part of the freed economy (or black market as they call it). In other words, you free yourself bit by bit because you have to, not because it is easy. You train yourself to think independently, to think as a sovereign because you realize that there is nobody else there that will do it for you. Everybody else is in the pack and being in the pack is what created the problem in the first place.
And here comes the punch line. Governments take. As they take they are locked-in into a vicious circle of taking and spending. In order for politicians to stay in power they must invariably spend more which means taking more. The very concept of government and democracy is based on a path that have no other choice, no other direction but to worsen our economic conditions. As such, it is then simply a matter of time and personal tolerance as to at which point in time a person will become a Libertarian. The very concept of the existence of government (and democracy) dictates that eventually the majority of the people will become Libertarians, whether they like it or not; whether they know it or not. This is the only path. It is inevitable.
THE REST IS HISTORY
Once people get to act in the spirit of Libertarianism, it becomes easier and easier to keep behaving in this manner. People suddenly find themselves empowered as never before. This new sensation is as exhilarating as it is liberating. Those who have experienced it cannot believe that they were so afraid of it for so long. But this is not even the best part. Practice produces familiarity and with familiarity becomes confidence. Confidence breeds criticism and eventually opposition. Opposition is the basis for political evolution. And the rest is history. Libertarianism will shine gloriously until the end of times, right? Give us a break. Libertarianism is simply the next political evolutionary step. That’s it. After Libertarianism there will be something else. What will “it” be? We don’t know but if you are interested in our speculations, check the article Lucy Transcendence And Austrian Economics.
RETURN TO THE PACK
But there is more. Much more. Once people begin to behave as Libertarians they begin to discover that they do belong to a pack. Actually, they belong to many, many packs. Some of the packs are simply formal relations and associations with people that think similarly. Some of the packs are simply fellow Libertarian travelers. Some of the packs are based on art and culture and some of the packs are based on technology or work and so on. Libertarians suddenly discover that the original pack that they used to belong to was in fact incredibly limiting. It could not have been otherwise because it was limited by laws. Libertarians tend to blossom once they have freed themselves because they understand that the world does not make sense; it was never designed to make sense. One must oneself make sense of the world by re-defining it in our own terms. And this is the beauty of Libertarianism because each and every re-definition of every person on earth will be different, custom made and custom tailored. Yet, even though we will all be different and live in different worlds we will all belong to the packs that we want to belong to, not to the one that was assigned to us when we were born. Libertarianism is not about being isolated, it is about being free to choose the relations we want to have. The tough part is that the path to Libertarianism is through the road of isolationism. We must first learn to isolate ourselves from the propaganda they brainwashed into us since we were born and this is not easy. However, once isolated and once we develop our own bearings, we can then go back to the world and see it with renewed eyes for the first time. It is then and only then when we will be able to become part of something because we truly want to, not because we were forced into.
CONCLUSION
In ultimate analysis the answer to the why question is simple: it is the inevitable path of governments and democracy in particular. It so happens that this answer may be enlightening but it is also boring. The real interesting element is the leadership barrier which we all must cross. This is a new concept that partially explains the reluctance of people to self-determinate and their almost pathological need to believe in governments. It is this leadership barrier that will continue to prevent a Libertarian political shift and will only yield once economic conditions are desperate enough. As such the near future is not bright. Things will get really bad before they turn around and begin to improve. It would be wise to take this into consideration.
This is, unless you prefer to believe politicians and their mindless optimism that worked so well for over 200 years’ worth of democratic history and human-made economic calamities. In the end, it is your choice.
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.
