Corruption of Libertarianism

For a long time, the libertarian sentiment in America has been used to attack the government.

My question for the libertarians: Does the fact that an entity is unofficial rather than official make it any less likely to abuse its power, to commit force and fraud, and to destroy people's lives, liberties and happiness?

It is a great and noble American tradition - which then became the tradition of better countries around the world - to keep tabs on the government entities to make sure that they do not violate people's rights. But what we are seeing in the real world is something that has been missed by mainstream libertarianism as a result of an inherent flaw in their ideology. Unofficial entities - Church, sects, small towns, families, gangs, old-boy networks, Texas Oil, corrupt networks in law and medicine - have been exerting greater control over the lives of the people than has the federal government; and, lacking the checks and balances upon them that are applied to the government, have been abusing their power to a still greater extent.

Yes, people in official entities can and do get away with great abuses. So do the people in entities that are unofficial. And while the American libertarian movement was most loud and most coercive under Clinton administration, which was among the most benign and the most unobtrusive in American history, it has been conspicuously absent under the Bush administration, which has been the most corrupt, most destructive, most intolerant, most abusive and most totalitarian regime that America has ever had.

Why be so loud under a benign and non-invasive order, but so quiet under circumstance of real fascism? Perhaps we are dealing with people whose character is that of frogs, who jump all over King Stump who is kind to them but quiet down under King Stork who eats them for lunch. Perhaps we are dealing with people who are tools, and as such get used by entities that have the worst of intentions. Did aggressive anti-government movement under Clinton affectuate any improvement in people's lives, liberties, values? Absolutely not. The reason is that it was not life or liberty that it was used to protect, but rather the abusive, controlling, totalitarian unofficial entities, such as the Southern old-boy networks, Texas Oil, Jehovah's Witnesses, small towns and incestuous families, who were fighting for their rights to commit brutality, abuse and injustice against those unfortunate enough to be under their control. And when those entities got in power, through fraud and corruption, the libertarians were no longer of use to them and were discarded like old tools.

Libertarianism in 1990s was made out to be the cool, the smart, the ethical, stance. It was in fact neither of the preceding. The Clinton government not only made possible the greatest peace and prosperity in American history, it also made effort to fight real abuse by cultures based on and dedicated to the same. The people who were against Clinton government, were the people who wanted to perpetuate these abusive, destructive, murderous habits and entities. And now they are in power, thanks largely to libertarianism, which was used against a noble, benign government dedicated to protection of human and civil rights, by entities who did not want meddling with their corrupt, murderous, forceful, fraudulent, and deceitful ways by which they ran and destroyed people's lives.

An associated movement - known as communitarianism - has been likewise an accessory to imposition of real fascism. Communitarianism wants the community to have power over people's lives. Why would a community be any less prone to abuses of power than the government? Experience proves, it isn't. Some of the most hideous abuses have come from communities, which lacking official founding documents also lack checks and balances upon them and are, justified by communitarianism (and overseen and protected by out-of-touch libertarianism), given absolute power to commit the most horrific of crimes against people both within the communities and without.

If libertarianism is to be done in a principled and effective manner, it must see and check the capacity for abuses of power by unofficial entities to the same extent as it does the official ones. And if libertarians are the real, smart, tough men that they say they are, that is exactly what they will do. A true cause for freedom will see the capacity for oppression by all entities, whether they be governments or they be small towns, mosques, churches, old-boy networks, gangs, corporations, corrupt networks in law and medicine, or societies themselves. And it will focus its energies upon protecting people's rights, lives and liberties from unofficial organs of oppression to the same extent as it will from ones that are in White House or Congress.