People,
It's great to see this movement expanding so powerfully in the last year. We've done in that short time what it took us years to do up until then.
But don't think that calling yourself a libertarian--the philosophy that Ron Paul and we support--without understanding its fundamental tenets, is going to work for long.
You have to know the basics:
First, private property is sovereign. Private property is the fundamental element of YOUR existence beginning with your body, which we libertarians believe you own absolutely so long as you hurt no one else with it in the course of your life. By extension, we view your income and your property as merely additional but equal parts of YOUR existence so long as you acquired them fairly and honestly, and we oppose ANY efforts--well-meaning as they usually are--to take them from you for reasons THEY consider better. THEY have NO rights to the elements of YOUR existence so long as you hurt no one else with them. This is what we mean when we say only WE are truly 100% pro-choice on EVERYTHING. The Democrats are only pro-choice on abortion, but then they turn around and want to tell you that you owe them "taxes" from your income and property, which they'll later waste on a horribly inefficient government program or to pocket for themselves. We believe that only the INDIVIDUAL has a natural-born right, as also codified in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution, to decide how he/she will use his/her body, income and property. Got that? Very simple stuff.
Second, understanding just the BASICS of economics is critical too. You can't rightly get into a chat with someone who understands at least the basics of economics if you don't understand them too. Keep in mind that this aspect of our philosophy is probably the MOST relevant on the political stage right now--and usually and likely its most important. It's great to join antiwar protests and condemn the loss of civil liberties, but talking about the lack of economic understanding that led us into the war is far more effective and proves that you're no blind follower of the Ron Paul movement. It shows you actually UNDERSTAND that Ron Paul is merely the messenger of this great message I'm explaining yet again to you newcomers now.
We need you badly. But we're trying to save you the time of learning what is NOT important right now in favor of trying to give you the "fast-track" guide to libertarianism's most important discussion points.
Third, being a libertarian means you will PROBABLY NEVER utter the words "there oughta be a law" UNLESS it is a law that restricts the government. This is because you know that this phrase uttered against a fellow citizen is a law that will be passed by a government TODAY that will be just as willing to restrict YOU in the future. You know that the government that is strong enough to take something away from someone else to give to YOU is ALSO strong enough to take from YOU to give to someone ELSE.
Fourth, it means you NEVER--EVER...I mean this--EVER trust political candidates or sitting politicians until they are out of office again, no matter WHO they are. THIS INCLUDES RON PAUL.
The ONLY trustworthy politicians are either DEAD or OUT OF OFFICE.
Why? Because you know that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and the temptation of abusing that power NEVER diminishes until it is impossible for the wielder to possess it any longer.
This was the theme in Lord of the Rings, for those of you who missed it. It was nothing more than a huge and intricate allegory of this very simple concept.
I encourage you all to improve your knowledge by subscribing to both the more formal www. lewrockwell. com and read the comments from Lew's highly educated writers; and from www. strike-the-root. com to get a more defiant libertarian angle. They're both EXCELLENT resources for their own reasons.
Yes, some of us are religious, but many like me are NOT. We tolerate each other and are cordial and nothing more. We recognize that we need to work together and we often do, always keeping that division of religion and government in mind, exactly as Thomas Jefferson advised in his "wall of separation between church and state".
If you, indeed, desire peace, we anti-religious people MUST learn to coexist with those who insist in believing a given religion.
We can't expect world peace if we can't even practice local peace. What we desire for the rest of the world must first begin with we, the individuals.
"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities."
"There can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions forbidden to an individual, but permitted to a mob."
----Ayn Rand (1905-1982), Russian philosopher, author and political activist who reminded the U.S. of its own individualist founding principles.
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