3 July

I wonder if political debates, like the one currently surrounding David Leyonhjelm, would get further if people actually made the effort to understand the beliefs and ideas that drive the different views. Leyonhjelm for example is a libertarian, and libertarians are currently taking over the world. Trump is a libertarian, Tony Abbott and his followers are, most modern ultra-conservatives are. But there’s not much talk about libertarianism, and what it means. Libertarians think all freedom is freedom of the individual. So they see all social things, all groups or institutions, as restricting freedom in some way. That’s the biggie in politics, that’s what we should be arguing, but I suspect it’ll just be more outrage for a week, and then moving on. Libertarians, like Ayn Rand, in many ways a vile, hypocritical woman, simply don’t see the freedom that comes from humans associating into institutions, and that these institutions actually are the only way humans are ever free. That’s the debate to have. Her books are flying off the shelves, we need to be battling these ideas, not the manifestations of them in individual incidents, like Leyonhjelm’s. These ideas are gaining traction, and we’re not understanding or fighting them. Libertarians are often bullies, grown ups who don’t want to share their toys, they see that as a healthy assertion of their individuality.