There is a continuum from libertarianism to Marxism. It's scale ranges from anarchy on one side to a virtual prison on the other. Not all of libertarianism is bad and not all Marxism is evil. Somewhere between anarchy and total control lies a spectrum of sanity. Most people go insane and consequently the government of insane peoples rule insanely. Those who favor Marxism are insane! Any person who would place themselves in bondage to a government have no confidence in themselves and no faith in God! Those who run wild in the streets are mobs who have no confidence in the One True God and no faith in government.
I've written extensively of socialism and communism, both degrees of Marxism. (http://kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com/2011/11/socialism-is-it-compatible-with.html).
This immediate commentary is on the ideology of libertarianism. Like socialism and it's desire to do good for the masses, libertarians desire to do what's good for the individuals. Socialism destroys those who it seeks to help and libertarianism destroys the structure where people can help. Both are destructive although much different!
The word "liberty" is sacrosanct to Americans! What is "liberty"?
"The state or condition of people who are able to act and speak freely or : the power to do or choose what you want to." (Meriam-Webster Dictionary).Liberty sounds as if it's the ultimate satisfaction! It raises the question why anyone would even dream of opposing liberty. For some, the socialists, liberty seems unfair because they view human nature as selfish. Indeed pure libertarianism is selfish! What's strange though is that both Marxism and Libertarianism have elements of Darwinism. Both propagate the notion of "survival of the fittest"! Libertarians want individual power and Marxists desire that the weak be weeded out to make a strong government. Of course the weak, in the eyes of the Marxists, are those who rely on God to allow them to cope in life. They have disdain for God because faith in God robs people of faith in government!
The United States is based on liberty. That's good because liberty was tempered by regulation to protect the people. Democracy is a form of libertarianism because the strong rule the weaker. Our founders wisely tempered democracy by making the nation a republic. We have representation in government through the electoral college and the senate chamber which makes small states have some sort of equalizing power with the large states. Liberty is good when its rational. However, there is much irrationality to modern libertarianism!
What does God say about liberty? First off, Adam and Eve sought liberty. Their desire was to stand away from regulation and do what they pleased. The entire concept of "original sin", the disobedience of Adam and Eve, is individual liberty without regulation from God. Sure, they wanted God's provision and protection, but they still wanted the freedom do do what their own will desired. Human nature is for pleasure, the accumulation of wealth and knowledge. That's what our forebears desired. That's what they got! However, there are consequences to individual freedom. Free people are subject to their own mistakes!
God was patient with the early libertarians. Yes, the Hebrew people did most of the year whatever they wanted, then the priests made a yearly sin sacrifice to appease God. These early libertarians actually "paid" God for their liberty. They were free to do what they wanted as long as they redeemed themselves by a poor animal on a fire!
The Jewish people, save for those who listened to God, continued to be libertarians throughout the centuries. All of a sudden these free peoples were enslaved by the Egyptians. Before, when they were free people, they were unwittingly slaves to sin, because sin is bondage! The master is the devil. Then all of a sudden they became captors of a vile nation. They were regulated in most aspects of their lives. However, they were still free to sin, and sin they did! When in Egypt they did what the Egyptians did and when God saved them from Egypt (obtaining their liberty), most sill preferred the bondage of Egypt where their reward was sin!
Many years went by and the Hebrew people strayed away from God. They thumbed their nose at regulation. They still play-acted allegiance to God, but all the while, they failed to obey God's commands. These people didn't make good Marxists because they hated regulation, but didn't make good libertarians because in their "freedom" they were still slaves to sin! They were fooled by the fooler. They couldn't see the bars of their prison, but they were still prisoners. Their liberty was a facade faked by the deceiver!
There came a time when anarchy came into existence. Anarchy is the extreme condition resulting from unabridged liberty! Again let us turn to those who know:
Anarchy is "a situation of confusion and wild behavior in which the people in a country, group, organization, etc., are not controlled by rules or laws." (Meriam-Webster Dictionary)In Canaanland here is that same condition:
Judges 17:6 "In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes."Most all the Hebrew people were libertarians! There was no law, at least laws they obeyed! They ignored the decrees of God and his just punishment for disobedience. Sin reigned! They were free, but free to do what the powers in hell wanted them to do! Again, mankind was back in the original state. Thinking that they, being enlightened, were free, they were in bondage to sin! They were Egyptian slaves again in a new land with the same ultimate master! They no longer built structures of brick for their masters, but obeyed every whim of the Prince of the Air!
Liberty is the ultimate in doing what was right in the individuals' own eyes. What were some of those things? Anything which pleased them: idol worship, same-sex relationships, fornication and adultery, theft, murder, strife, filthy deeds and speech, and all the sins of hate prohibited by God! In truth, they had the liberty to self-destruct and they did sometime later! There are consequences to anarchy! The weak are destroyed and the powerful self-destruct, all because there are consequences to liberty!
At this moment most libertarians think of themselves as independent minded conservatives. There are many aspects of conservatism to libertarian ideology, but thre are degrees of anarchy as well! The liberty to self-destruct is still a tenet of libertarians. Most believe whatever people do in their own home is their own business and who cares what's good for society, let alone what God wills?
Drug use and condoning the pursuit of happiness by escaping reality is a result of too much liberty. They fail to see the cost to society in favor of the pleasure of the individual. There are consequences of a Prozac nation and that is mediocrity, high health costs and early death. Other citizens are endangered by the selfish freedom of others.
Although many libertarians claim to cling to God and gun, those who know that "faith" turn their heads to same-sex marriage, abortion, drunkenness, promiscuity and all the sins of Egypt that are alive and well in the western world! Libertarianism is "creeping" just as is socialism. It's not a sudden surprising change, but these extremists on both sides allow time for citizens to become acclimated. Who does the acclimating? The deceiver; Satan!
There is a war going on. It's a spiritual war and on one side are the socialists destroying through control and libertarians destroying through unbridled freedom. Each without due respect for God embrace hedonism. The war is being won by invisible forces and time will take it's toll! Test libertarianism with scripture. Just like socialism, both fail the test!
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