Nationalising ‘Compassion’
Being a Libertarian does tend to get you called a lot of very interesting names. Fascist, Right-Wing Nutter, selfish child hater being some of the kinder things that I have been called in the last two years.
Usually I excuse these ‘insults’ because they are usually born out of an ignorance of what Libertarianism is, or at least as far as I interpret Libertarianism.
My Libertarianism is quite a simple one. I accept that to be free from the interference from the State and the oppression of ‘others’ on how I live my life, I have to act in a responsible manner, AND be responsible for my actions. (This usually means a lot of apologising to a lot of people a lot of the time, for gaffes or the thoughtless consequences of my actions). Libertarianism does not allow you to say that it is the Governments/Parents/Society’s fault I am not as rich as Croesus or as happy and contented as I should be. The only person that is responsible for me is me.
This is really quite tough going at times. As we all need help from the people we value and love, and we should also build up a store of good will with our family and friends. (Before anybody gets the wrong idea about me I can be as negative and grumpy as the next man).
This is how we all used to get along before the Fabians ‘nationalised’ compassion and perverted it.
This morning I heard a very interesting (for me at least) programme about the shock revelation that Neanderthals had compassion for their fellows. ‘How?’ snorted the the BBC Radio 4 interviewer, no doubt thinking that for any society to survive at least fifty per cent of that week’s kill had to be handed over to a class of Neanderthals that sat around the hut/cave all day waiting for the ones actually doing the hunting, to return and reveal how many Elk had been hunted and caught, and redistribute the meat amongst all the other tribe members whilst threatening the hunters with being put in the big black cave if they did not.
This would also mean giving a share of the food to Wayne the spineless who preferred drinking fermented berry juice all day long, and Sharon ‘burying me in a Y shaped coffin’, who could not remember why she had so many offspring when she had neither the skill or the mate to go out and hunt.
The learned interviewee then explained that skeletons that had been excavated from sites all over Europe had been found with birth defects or horrific injuries that would have rendered them incapable of hunting or gathering. Yet these same human remains showed that they had been cared for by the family/tribal group for decades. Evidence also showed that when Neanderthals and other early humans died they were buried with flowers, hardly much use in the ‘afterlife’ but a sign that they were loved and cared for.
One suspects that Wayne the Spineless would have received a quick tap round the back of the head with a club and told to get his act together and get out there with the rest of them as it was not feasible for survival for fifty per cent of the tribe to sit around doing nothing productive all year round.
However we have ‘progressed’ to a situation where Fabians have nationalised compassion, and the one thing that Libertarians are accused of of being is now ‘normal’, that of being selfish.
Having handed over fifty percent of your earnings to the State, you are now absolved from taking any further responsibility for anybody other than yourself. It is the State’s responsibility to educate your kids. Wrong! – the State will indoctrinate but not instill a code of ethics that is your responsibility. The State will house you and feed you. Wrong! – this is your responsibility; to do otherwise dehumanises and causes isolation and degradation. You no longer have any responsibility for Granny, you are entitled to have her shut away in a home, so that it does not interfere with your two weeks in Benidorm and watching X factor or Strictly Come Dancing.
Locking ‘Granny’ away was ably demonstrated to me a few summers ago in France when for weeks there was a long lasting heatwave. Literally thousands of old people died of heatstroke in their homes and in nursing homes. For some families enjoying their August off, they did not find out that their elderly relative had been dead for weeks and was now lying in one of the many temporary morgues. The Minister of Health was sacked, because the hospitals were short of nurses and Doctors enjoying their August holidayand it was all his fault because the State should have looked after them. Their was no collective shame as a society.
We are all going to get old, the children of the 1940′s and 50′s are rapidly heading towards the the big retirement home sooner or later, and are in all probability not going to like what they find at the end of the big Ponzi scheme called the welfare state. Neglect by the State and ‘family’, and isolated from the young and bereft of company. Condemned by a sense of entitlement to serve their last years in the Gulag of the Old, where nobody remembers who Mark Bolan was.
Fabianism is not compassionate, it is based on theft, creates division and resentment between the generations, wisdom financial and moral is not passed on and breaches the natural state and order of things of what it is to be human.
Honour thy monther and father, is replaced with ‘Honour thy flatscreen TV, and I must get round to visiting mother sometime its been months’
The Libertarian is not selfish, he/she gives social credit that does not rely on Experian or Equifax. However rather than by the coercion of the State, the Libertarian should accept the responsibilty voluntarily helping the youngest and the old. Because we were all young once and we are as sure as Hell going to be old.
Perversely our caring Welfarism has created a dependent uncompassionate society, the road to Hell is paved with Fabian good intentions.
Andrew P Withers
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1
October 5, 2010 at 12:42 -
The law of unintended consequences writ large here, great post Andrew, I couldn’t agree more. Fabianism is an evil creed, far worse than the wildest excesses of capitalism could ever be and about as far from compassion as it is possible to be.
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October 5, 2010 at 12:57 -
Fascinating and enlightening.
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October 5, 2010 at 13:13 -
This post sums up everything that is good about libertarianism/anarchy/minarchy and everything that is foetid, vacuous and useless about the Fabian way. Excellent work, Mr Withers.
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October 5, 2010 at 13:30 -
We have always assumed under the influence of Darwin plus our notions of “progress” that as we survived we are the superior hominid species. Increasingly, I am coming round to the view that more intelligent and social forms have been lost, driven out by an aggressive greedy and relentlessly stupid form.
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5
October 5, 2010 at 13:36 -
A lovely and pointed analysis which, to me, explains how it is possible for me for to be a left-wing libertarian (despite the best snorting efforts of those who believe libertarianism is always fundamentally right-wing).
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October 5, 2010 at 15:31 -
Love the picture at the top.
Could be titled.
Typical British family circa 2150 after the policies of ,
“Greenie Fabianism”. -
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October 5, 2010 at 16:53 -
Who’d have thunk it?
I am a Leveller at heart, and hate that the socialists have approriated them as part of their ‘History’ Please join us !
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10
October 5, 2010 at 20:52 -
Yes indeed, hearing proto-Stalinists lay claim to Lilburne or Winstanley as one of their own makes me sick to my stomach.
Join us? The New Levellers? Sounds fun.
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12
October 6, 2010 at 13:04 -
In so far as I have been led to believe, children in France inherit absolutely, so therefor they are expected to care for their elderly parents. Although I don’t quite know what The State does about this.
But I do know that any Welfare Benefits are clawed backed when said parents are dead and their house gets sold. Presuming that they have a house, of course.
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October 6, 2010 at 23:12 -
Spot on!
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October 7, 2010 at 09:40 -
I really do wish that people who call themselves ‘Libertarians’ took the time to describe exactly what Libertarianism is, where it comes from and how it is precisely defined.
There is no such thing as ”my Libertarianism’. Libertarianism is a clearly carefully thought out set of ethics and positions, as detailed by Murray Rothbard in ‘For a New Liberty’:
http://mises.org/rothbard/newlibertywhole.asp
That is what Libertarianism is. It is that, and only that.
If you do not accept what is in that book, then you are not a Libertarian.
If you want to explain Libertarianism to anyone, you should quote from that book or even better, give that book to them.Libertarianism is an air tight philosophy, without contradictions or compromises, cop outs or concessions. It is complete, logical, ethical, moral, cannot be successfully attacked or picked apart, and provides a way for everyone to live in peace with the maximum amount of prosperity and freedom, without violence or coercion.
It is the only philosophy that has a logically coherent and complete description of rights, where they come from and what they really are. After understanding Libertarianism, the state, its apologists, the frightened (“but what would we do without government provided police? There would be CHAOS!”) and all other types who simply do not get it, would get it.
People call Libertarians names because they have not been exposed to Libertarianism. They have not had the arguments put before them in a clean and thorough way, in the way that Rothbard does, and so it seems like insanity to them – and of course it does – the Libertarian is telling them that they have been living a nearly total lie all of their lives, from the money they spend to every aspect of what they expect from life.
And yet, you are not lying.
Libertarianism is not a supermarket from which you can choose only the parts you like to add to your personal philosophy basket. You are either a Libertarian or you are not. It is Murray Rothbard’s philosophical breakthrough that is fueling the Second American Revolution; that is because it is unassailable in every aspect, and demonstrably true. For that reason alone, it deserves close attention by all lovers of freedom.
If you want to destroy the ignorance swirling around Libertarianism (especially in the UK) you need to stop talking about ‘my Libertarianism’ and go straight to the source; Murray Rothbard. Quote him, link to his writings and be very clear when you rebut your critics by using only logic and Rothbard.
You will soon find that the critics will quickly run out of steam as they fail to find new ways to attack you. Libertarianism, correctly spelled out is an impenetrable shield of liberty. Don it, and watch it deflect all your enemies.
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