Facebook Group: SDSU Libertarians.

Our current world is beset with poverty, hunger and other types of human tragedy.  For decades, our governments’ solution has been to redistribute capital in an effort to give from those who have plenty to those who are needy.  This “solution” has proven to be temporary in nature, and instead has only prolonged the poverty and suffering.  Capital is becoming scarcer, and the poor are getting poorer.  It is obvious that the utilitarian answer is not an answer at all.

Unfortunately, at first it appears as if only two options are available to the average American: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.  Both are two names for the same thing—interventionism and centralization.  They attempt to differentiate themselves when describing their party line, but ultimately both are big business (unless you consider the bailout something else), both are welfare governments, and both believe in the warfare state.  Many prefer not to vote, or they opt for the party which “best fits their ideals”—although both parties are one in the same.

Many people are not aware that there is a third option.  This option is the Libertarian Party.  It remains to be seen if the Libertarian Party is as pure as it makes itself out to be.  Political power is addictive, and even the Libertarian Party has fallen prey to power.  Nevertheless, the principle of libertarianism remains valid and virtuous.  It is a social—not political—ideology worth following, or at the very least worth learning about.  Libertarianism is a philosophy in which one can spend a lifetime elucidating, but at its most basic principles revolve around the concept of liberty.  Liberty is nothing more than the respect of an individual’s most basic rights—property and life.  By extension, libertarians are also staunch supporters of capitalism—not the mercantilism which pervades the current world order, but true unbridled capitalism; the free-market—and human rights.

Many university students will go through their four years unaware of the fact that libertarianism exists.  They remain ideologically chained towards either the left or the right.  This spectrum is now obsolete (and was never very accurate, given that the left and the right are two names for the same thing).

The SDSU Libertarian club is meant to make students aware of this “third option”.

Objectives

SDSU Libertarians’ objective is not to funnel support to the Libertarian Party.  Our goals revolve around the principle of spreading libertarian ideals, and furthering the understanding of libertarianism amongst our membership.  In the long-term, this means that we look forward to shaping tomorrow’s leadership.  Only libertarianism can give leaders the proper ethical and moral foundations to govern relatively fairly and progressively.  Only a government which maximizes individualism can hope to see long-term development for all of human society.

Some main topics discussed at SDSU Libertarians:

• Free-Market Economics: One of the more frequent topics is capitalism.  Capitalism is not an economic order where the entrepreneurs are subsidized, or are helped by the government.  Capitalism is a natural economic order built around the concept of barter (even if said barter is conducted with the use of money, which is a common medium of exchange).  It is a system in which billions of individuals commit to trillions of individual actions, each with its share of subjectivity.  A political system of interventionism, therefore, can only serve to disrupt this natural economic order, as it aggregates what cannot be aggregated.
• Immigration: This is a more heated topic amongst libertarians, and ultimately revolved around the concept of free immigration, or free movement.  It incorporates the concept of private property.
• Taxation as Theft: Although there are plenty of libertarians—probably the majority—who believe that some level of government is necessary, taxation is generally considered a form of theft (your property is being taken against your will).  Discussions on this topic generally revolve around the concept of limited government, and to what degree government and taxation are necessary for a functioning society.  Given that there are both anarchists and limited-government (minarchists) individuals this topic is generally very interesting.
• Immorality of War: War is a product of interventionism and economic nationalism.  A free society would not see the wars we have seen in the past century (the 20^th century).  It should not be considered coincidental that the 20^th century was both the century of the left-progressives (or the interventionists) and total war (World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, et cetera).  As Robert Higgs one said, “Death and taxes, we’re told, are two unavoidable things… I’ll give you death and taxes all rolled into one, which is to say war.”
• Human Rights: Human rights are something which every individual should respect.  Differentiating us from other political ideologies, however, is that we do not stress the idea of stealing from one individual to give to another—that is only the infringement upon human rights.  Human rights, in libertarianism, are intrinsically linked with capitalism.  We stress the importance of allowing an individual to guard for his future, and therefore we stress the importance of private property.  So, our criticism of governments which infringe upon human rights focuses on the infringements, and does not try to solve government intervention with more government intervention.

Facebook Group: SDSU Libertarians.

Relevant Posts:

1. Some objectives for the new year, 7 January 2010.

Important Dates: