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As the government creepily keeps talking itself into the next war—which promises to be one of the worst cultural crimes against humanity in history as the US proposes to use a barrage of possibly nuclear missiles on a country that, dictator or no, is a living museum of the cradle of human history—some Libertarians are uttering real nonsense on the subject of Libertarianism and war. Aside from the retro-conservative blogs that mis-bill themselves as ‘Libertarian,‘ perhaps the most emblematic of the worst is the recent article in LP News by the Libertarian Party Chair in California who in effect suggests supporting an increasingly police-state government pre-emptive attack—i.e., Libertarians sign off on Democrats and Republicans who wish to do what the Japanese were accused of doing in Pearl Harbor. I don’t mean to be harsh on this fellow, and don‘t think this is exactly what he meant; but to judge by e-mails I've received this is how his comments came across. While this go-go-government rhetoric is a minority view in the Libertarian discourse and leadership, it is not some LP aberration—many Libertarians are clearly confused on not only the Libertarian concepts involved, but the specific steps needed. If people are saying odd things, those who know better need not to criticize but to speak up.
"Make virtue fashionable.”
Understanding the “Libertarian Paradigm”Many Libertarians imprecisely believe that government must institutionally provide defense and justice, confusing this with the very different Libertarian idea that government is a non-coercive process of social resolution that provides defense and justice “anarchically”—without traditional monopolistic, coercive institutions. The disconnect is in not realizing that Libertarianism corrects and transcends the old language of anarchy and government. Libertarian action is what abolishes and replaces government as generally understood, and many Libertarians have been slow to appreciate and communicate this Libertarian paradigm—or understand that what they must do is get people to use it instead of government. This imprecision has created perennial and predictable misconceptions—that some military is needed for ‘national defense’ or that Libertarianism is impossible unless everyone becomes Libertarian or that Libertarian ideas are untested. The truth is that Libertarianism is the most powerful weapon ever devised, one that disarms the adversary by his own will. Governments around the globe spend incredible effort to misinform on and stamp out Libertarian ideas precisely because they are effective. In contrast, many Libertarians have been inattentive to Libertarian results and theory, and repeat things that are wrong, subconsciously accepting the government paradigm that it is where the action is, and Libertarianism is dependent on influencing government action to have any effect. Here is the truth: Libertarianism is not about national defense, there are proven voluntary steps; Terrorism is a scam; “Defensive” police measures are not allowable; Security Measures increase vulnerability; Libertarianism and Anti-interventionism are not the same; US interests are never interventionist; plus: There are things underway which average people can do. It is time to outline the Libertarian approach to war.
“Whatever is done without Liberty is as imperfect as a wing without air.” 1) Libertarianism is not about national governmental defense, it is about international voluntary offense and stabilization. Defense, and war, is for sissies who get themselves into these messes to begin with. “How will national defense occur in a Libertarian or freedom-oriented Democratic society?” is the wrong question and generates the wrong, backfiring defense doctrine. Societies even somewhat free do not attack each other from common ideology and the mutual cultural and trade bounds they develop amid growing wealth—and are not threatened by less free societies. On the contrary: They absorb less free societies or tend to isolate them as cultural areas. But this works smoothly only to the extent that people realize a) That’s the process; b) Government has nothing do with it—it’s done by the growing transnational person-to-person bonds; c) Government policies such as interventionism, tariffs, restrictions on peaceful political work across borders, etc., are non-freedom oriented and backfire; d) Libertarians are the best defense in that they are already in numerous countries working for common goals of creating peaceful, non-aggressive societies. We must move away from the model of a wall-like. reactive and easily-targeted weapon-heavy Pentagon to things like infiltration-like goodwill building sister city programs (begun in the 1950’s by Libertarians such as my father) and conference among Liberty scholars and in-country groups spreading Libertarian or at least freedom-oriented ideas. Is there a problem in Russia, China, Peru, Serbia, Afghanistan and now Iraq? Libertarians in those countries played key roles in removing the threat and creating increasingly vigorous Libertarian groups leading key reforms—and would in Iraq except for the incredible difficulties the US itself imposes. Thus Russia is ameliorating tax policy based on Libertarian advisors; Chinese leaders attend classes on the free-market; Fujimori specifically blamed Libertarians for his overthrow on what Latin newspapers are calling the biggest corruption clean-up against fascists and communists both in Latin history; Serbian Libertarians and, in Afghanistan, leading families have played key roles and complain their biggest problem is counterproductive US support for nut-cake groups like the Taliban. A military paradigm for the future? Here it is: Don’t send in the Marines. Send in the Libertarians.
“Those who have Liberty seem not to know it; those who don't know it need to have it.” 2) There are proven voluntary steps, devised by Libertarians that are moral, thus practical and thus handle traditional military concerns. The US expeditionary military—and uncontrolled and coercive agencies such as the CIA and FBI—should be, where coercive, abolished and the rest devolved into local defensive militias based on the right to bear arms; a draft-less militia that is a professionalized, motivated, egalitarian and both impossible (by sheer mass and decentralized tactical command) to dislodge while encouraging both effective civil defense and strike forceless targeted to win—and is cheap. Advanced officer training should be provided by local beneficial associations and clubs, and officers elected by the soldiers and held accountable. Sound utopian? This was the working model of the US in the first decades of its existence; it is to a great degree the model for Switzerland, whose attack preparedness is such that its cheap, fighter based, in-the-air air force could, I have been assured, deliver a knock-out blow to the foreign-occupation-oriented, our-planes-are-in-the-shop bureaucratic US military and leave us utterly defenseless if it so chose. The purpose of armed forces is not to fight back by trudging around the globe, but make a blow unthinkable so the cultural processes above can, with active diplomacy, work. It is certainly not to send an occupation Army of pilots high on speed on what should be a commando raid on what was, after the hysteria is removed, a hostile commando group. A good transitional move might be an increasing bias to the US National Guard in policy planning, along with the present trend for a draft-less military, private conflict-resolution and peace academies, conversion of police-run community watches to community-run ones, and growing calls for an armed citizenry. Switzerland and Swiss private groups responded to 9-11 by issuing a bulletin counseling terrorists that the Swiss had assault weapons in every home, had plenty of private citizens in the “Axis of Evil” nervous about their Swiss bank accounts ready to blab about anyone suspicious, and inviting passengers to carry their Army knives aboard planes. It also reminded everyone that while it encourages democracy, each country had to solve its own problems and also nothing anyone could do would get them involved in some distant dispute—and the major Swiss effort abroad was humanitarian efforts such as the Red Cross and cultural understanding clubs built around stamp collecting. It has no border controls to speak of compared to the US. (Swiss authorities have since attenuated their position under US pressure, but a call to the Swiss Embassy on the current status elicited the enigmatic ”Fly Swissair and find out.”)
“[Government action such as…] Socialism is the clambering on the shoulders of the helpless by the ambitious.” 3) Terrorism is a scam, a “portmanteau” word propounded by naïve—or cunning by half—policymakers that in fact hides the problem freer countries have always faced. The enemy of advanced countries is not terrorism, communism, or any other isms. It is the twofold menace of a scare-based police state in the clothing of freedom and free enterprise from within … and support of destabilizing police-states and their revolutionary twins without. Even assuming for a moment everything we have been told about 9-11 is true—and that Bin-Laden was unhappy over US support of Saudi monarchists against establishing a religious republic (an undesirable but often culturally unavoidable way-station in the advance to a freer society—remember many US States, Israel, etc., still have religiously discriminatory laws), it shows that government by supporting anti-freedom governments import those problems to US shores. And freedom oriented and Libertarian forces don’t need or want the US or indeed any government’s support, which is often right-wing in rhetoric but carried out by left-wing US bureaucrats with their own agenda.
“Action is the dignity of greatness.” 4) “Defensive” police measures are not allowable, and in fact are unconstitutional. Think—we are slowly being sold on the idea that defense requires spies pre-emptively monitoring everything lest any bad guys step out of line. These measures make prosecuting even the bad guys impossible, aside from the many other privacy and other impacts, since the judicial process of proof is thrown out the window—not to mention that the country is defenseless against corrupt or inattentive police planting evidence, advancing internal turf-wars, and creating a slipshod atmosphere where, as we are seeing, anybody becomes a suspect. The pre-emptive action is thus an illusion: no crime has been committed yet, everyone is a suspect, and by the inflexible logic of the system’s assumptions the innocent will be prosecuted while the guilty cannot be identified. The Libertarian view is that such measures are unmanly results of not doing the needed work to properly identify any adversaries and take the conflict to them. What sort of policeman is it who is not out there catching crooks but instead sitting in your bedroom having you fill out forms to get a drink of water from your kitchen lest you be a terrorist, than prosecuting you for filling out the form improperly? That‘s what we have, because that's all these measures amount to.
“Happiness exists on earth. It is won by rationality, seeking natural harmony, and constant generosity.” 5) Security Measures increase vulnerability, because while the Keystone Cops are busy trampling your rights they have created a uniform, bureaucratic and predictable system—unlike the variegated, changing and interlocking measures of various voluntary efforts. It avoids the first rule of security: open unpredictability in an atmosphere of popular support. The hit movie “Catch Me If You Can” is remarkable in that while for years only one person even thought of infiltrating airlines, the CIA at that time was so spy-ridden and worse, ideologically compromised. Nixon reputedly called it the US Office of the KGB! Now, new Government Security measures provide a road map for attackers to penetrate undetected, disguised as police agents; government policymakers calling for more restrictions; and gunmen machine-gunning hapless and disarmed mobs at security checkpoints—all of which is happening with increasing frequency. Complex and coercive security systems invite security judo. When the Communist Counter-coup began in Russia, Libertarians who had been in place starting 15 years before shut down their computer and other security systems, paralyzing the entire pro-Communist military. When the code-happy US Government proposed secret cryptology monopoly to sell to the public with the police having a key, Libertarians defied everything the government academics “know” about how ‘greedy, profit-maximizing’ free-enterprisers behave. For Libertarians—guided not by some central command but their own moral imperative—devised essentially unbreakable codes that they then gave away free, throwing the Government’s plans into chaos—and demonstrating, as 9-11 proved, that no spy system can best independently motivated people who can keep their mouth shut…or diverse people with an open secret. Indeed, the spy system becomes a Trojan Horse. Thus today? False alarms are creating chaos. Why not? Why bomb buildings when someone looking unkempt creates a daily panic? Why bomb a 2-Billion Dollar Building and kill 3000 people when by remaining cagey—whether Bin-Laden did it or not—you can get 6000 US soldiers shot and thousands of citizens arrested on hysterical charges, 270 million Americans prisoners in their own country, waste so much effort the US goes into a near depression and have this mark spend Trillions? And doesn’t a country that responds this way have one big “Kick-Me” sign on its rear? On Murray Avenue in Pittsburgh the book chain manager complained to me of daily incidents despite security personnel and visible anti-theft doors—nearly all false alarms, including mischievous school-kids—and daily customer complaints. Across the street the retiring Libertarian-friendly small bookstore had a sign: “Stealing from this store is easy, but what person who reads books should steal?” She had an honor-system free book bin next to rare books in plain site worth hundreds. She and her husband reported not one incident in 20 years and much of their inventory was from people who, far from stealing books, donated them. Which book seller was the true leader in “Homeland Security”?
“Freedom is not the freedom to stand by passively while others are dishonored.” 6) Interventionism. Get this straight: The issue is not Libertarians want non-interventionism versus interventionism. They want no government intervention—particularly by the culturally arrogant, historically ignorant, and self-righteously uninformed coercive Government. They want in contrast Libertarian intervention—including by removing the many laws that, for example, prevent the hundreds of Libertarian Cubans from venturing off to Castroland and peacefully turning the country around through trade, exchange, spread of Libertarian books and cultural discussion. Right wing groups such as the IDU—modeled after Libertarian efforts—may be a good step toward international co-operation but fail for the same reason Marxist Internationals failed—they dream of influencing governments collectively, not the Libertarian paradigm of empowering individuals and encouraging person-to-person goodwill spontaneous order and unexpected approaches. (LIO as an example is not an organization of Libertarian parties, but of lead activists in many Libertarian groups that drive action in them and their communities. They internetwork person to person. It is bottom organized with information an e-mail away and has every desire to remain there, not bottom-up but bottom-bottom. Many highly effective groups have adopted similar models.)
“If you could have been a torch and ended up as a pair of moving jaws, you're a deserter.” 7) US Interests. A key delusion is that the US government has interests. One hears of oil, projecting power, pretended democracy (usually translated as friendliness to the latest US cultural craze or prejudice, such as the many ignorant statements on burqas), phony “free-trade.” These in fact translate into promoting commercial monopolies, café-socialist agendas, military extravaganzas, and even the US Government fighting a cut-taxes movement led by local Libertarians in Guatemala. The US people have one interest on which they can agree: freedom-oriented republics abroad that are democracies, or at least enjoy popular support (e.g. Lichtenstein). The Libertarian contribution to the discussion is that this process needs the spread of vigorous Libertarianism abroad and policies such as human rights, no tariffs, no kooky government border restrictions, and internal free enterprise including a mechanism for voluntary intentional communities and cultural areas—all leading to the mutual security of a Libertarian oriented planet. The US Government is unable to provide these things in the US—how can it do it in Kabukistan? The US interest is letting people work for their freedom, and keep the US Government out of the process. You want to end malaria? Don’t send off-mission Marines after mosquitoes who thus spread the human rights-destroying marsh. Send Libertarians to drain the marsh.
“Light the oven so that all may bake bread.” 8) There are things underway which average people can do. A sea change is occurring among Libertarians. The time has come to stop debating kabalistically on what government should do to defend us. That is not coercive government’s role. It is an obsolete cultural institution that if we don’t end it will end us all. The replacement for government is Libertarianism—the ideas, tools, attitudes and above all approach. Libertarianism has crushed Communism, the Latin dictators, and assorted problems—not the US Military, which foresaw only a bunkered future before final annihilation by the Hordes and couldn’t topple North Vietnam. But Libertarians there are making changes, That is the only issue Libertarians should be concerned about. The Fourth World War is ideological. Its weapon is the best angels of each person. Political power, as the young Libertarians and pro-libertarians who faced off Communist tanks showed, comes not from the barrel of the gun. It comes from the will to stare down the gun, and dissolve the attitudes that make such mentalities possible. Today, Libertarians write articles in Pravda more easily than the Washington Post. What can Libertarians and the general public do? Support with money and good wishes Libertarian or at least pro-human rights groups, scholars, and cultural exchange everywhere, such as creating sister-cities in some of these distressed countries. Work for non-governmental defense ideas. Work for accountable budgets, the volunteer Army, election of officers, and non-intervention with proactive Libertarian intervention. Share these ideas to change the paradigm. Eisenhower was not the most perfect advocate of freedom, and like many of his day did many strange things. He was however distressed that his inconsistent efforts seemingly only encouraged a military-industrial complex. But the admired general also understood where hope lay, and praised private efforts such as the sister-city program as a beacon. Talking to my father about the sister-cities program, he said to the effect that if people who loved less government and more freedom could someday communicate and build bonds on a personal basis worldwide, they would know more and act more effectively than all the CIAs, Communist Parties, Terrorists, party-movements and Armies of the world—and it was the lack of something like this that led to the World Wars and the Cold War. This, he said, would be a force for good against which nothing could stand except people‘s disbelieving unwillingness to use it. Eisenhower was right.
Other OrganizationsAside from LIO, three very effective Libertarian-oriented peace, conflict resolution and war-prevention initiatives include the 1) Sister-Cities program (http://www.sister-cities.org/) initially inspired by a working group headed by my father and later Secretary of State William Rogers that culminated in a study financed by various industrialists and foundations. While non-partisan and now oriented to government involvement, it encourages cities to form alliances across the globe and serves as a framework for independent citizen action. Also, an ongoing informal working group has culminated in the much-desired creation of the 2) ISIL Peace Institute (http://www.isil.org/peace/) which will hold its first conference in what is turning out to be a Libertarian stronghold, Lithuania, this year. The Institute is networking scholars and opinion leaders, providing net resources, and sponsoring articles. 3) Finally, Libertarians are advocates of secession and confederation as a tool for peace, which has had practical effect in the Libertarian guided conversion of the Soviet Union into the Commonwealth of States, the separation of Czechoslovakia into two distinct republics under pro-Libertarian national leader Vaclav Klaus, which many people feel avoided Civil War there, and a more respectful to ethnic differences system in Namibia. A group facilitated by Carol Moore and the new http://www.secession.net/ has served as a resource for world Libertarians for many years in using these tools. The LP of the United States, under its Strategic Plan, here (page 200) notes the many conflict resolution and prevention techniques used by Libertarians, from “SPT” strategic planning, itself pioneered by Libertarian-oriented management consultants, to intentional listening to brainstorming to simply listing desired outcomes. Libertarians have even developed a hilarious process of tossing soft nerf balls at each other to signal when tensions are being caused while giving status to “champions‘ of hard to implement or controversial proposals. Methods involve
Included in such tools is detailed review of the System to understand what is going wrong as a conflict resolution and consensus-building technique and prevent organizations from going into cycles such as, e.g., governments in the Middle East. The LP began with an analysis of itself, and in Florida activists are learning to engage discussion for change by analyzing how planning, controlling, reporting and feedback occur in local government with teams of citizens. These have been imitated by the Greens, who go so far as to link to Libertarian sites so members can instruct themselves, since they have had serious problems internally in organization and consensus building along with other leftist organizations (one leftist group recently attracted surprise when it fought unionization by its workers). An array of news stories sites detailing Libertarian actions abroad is at the LIO main page at http://www.libertarian.uni.cc and the Achievements section http://maxpages.com/lio/Libertarian_Action . On Libertarian efforts on destruction of USSR see http://www.fullcontext.org/people/wheeler.htm and other efforts such as: Costa Rica: http://maxpages.com/lio/Interlingua and http://www.libertario.org. Peru: here and also http://www.ild.org.pe/. Libertarian inspired or led efforts that prevented war through the Libertarian Paradigm include: Communist China: http://www.unirule.org.cn/unirule.htm Russia: http://www.libertarium.ru/libertarium Serbia: http://solair.eunet.yu/~pokret/movement.html Cuba: http://maxpages.com/lio/Cuba Libertarian Islamic Discussion in many countries: http://www.minaret.org/ And charitable work: http://www.iazf.org/.
While official US policy is neutral, and a growing number of people in government support Libertarian ideas, US bureaucracies frequently block Libertarians abroad, and there are tales from diplomatic interference to bizarre sagas of interference with expatriate businesses and transit by Libertarians. Recently, the US tried to stop a Libertarian tax revolt in Guatemala (here) one now credited as stopping an Argentina-style IMF created mess. And of course Switzerland: http://www.prolibertate.org/. This includes discussion of anti-weapons efforts and improving Swiss militia by at a Libertarian site found here. In the last two years, new Libertarian groups have been organized in Argentina, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, India, Mexico, Slovakia, Italy, South-Africa and Australia: http://www.ldp.org.au/index.jsp. A valuable site on Marti is at http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/jmarti.html. Marti was an eloquent classical Liberal and is held to have advocated voluntary Libertarian communities as valuable for those interested, and international action among citizens to create peace. The organizer of Cuban independence, he sadly died leading the charge in one of the first skirmishes of the War of Independence, known in the US as the Spanish-American War. His initial concerns, expressed to some followers that massive American intervention in Cuba—well beyond the initial diplomatic support and allowance of export of weapons—would backfire, were well-founded. Michael Gilson De Lemos ("MG") is on the National Committee of the US Libertarian Party, and also co-ordinates the Libertarian International Organization. Retired as a Fortune 100 management consultant, he is working on books on management and libertarian philosophy. His email address is gilsondelemos@msn.com.
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