How did you become a libertarian?

Economics Political Theory
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Hey all,

This question was recently raised on the Mises Institute’s Facebook page and I found the responses incredibly inspiring. Most surprising to me was that most people there came from a traditionally socialist philosophy. This is encouraging. I’d love to hear how members of this forum came to be libertarians and, in particular, what were the most defining moments in their conversion. It might serve to educate us as to how others may be converted. At the least, it will no doubt serve up some very inspiring reading!

I’ll start by sharing my personal journey. Thanks for reading!

For a long time, I was indifferent to politics. In 2000 (age 20), I voted for Bush, but I hadn’t researched any candidate thoroughly and remember making the decision based on a single statement that he made about science policy.

After 9/11, I had a feeling that something wasn’t right - the alleged terrorist motivations for the attack (“they hate democracy, our freedoms”, etc) didn’t make sense. During the buildup to the Iraq war, I had a bad feeling the administration was making a huge mistake, but I gave them the benefit of my doubt - after all, they have a massive intelligence network that surely knows a lot more than I do. They wouldn’t be doing this if they didn’t know for sure that Iraq was building WMDs - plus, they claimed to “know where they are” - and I’m sure they have our best interests in mind, right?

Shortly after the “fall of Baghdad”, I become disgusted with the Bush administration. Where are these “weapons”?! Could it be that our government LIED?! I remember a particular report on Fox News. The anchorman was showing footage of some collateral damage and a reporter in the field was describing how some innocent Iraqis were killed. The anchorman stopped and explained to the audience: “We want to remind our viewers that this is not the reason we went into Iraq. It’s unfortunate, of course, that innocents have lost their lives, but the United States’ intention is to achieve peace and justice (blah blah blah). Remember at all times that it was Saddam Hussein that is at fault here.” That really amazed me - it was the most brazen evidence that the media wasn’t reporting the situation objectively.

The media couldn’t be trusted. I started searching for the truth. I came across a variety of alternative websites; most of them, naturally, had a leftist slant. I had a great desire to read. For some reason, I stumbled across Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” which was a great piece of leftist historical revisionism. (Looking back, I realize that book could fit equally well into a libertarian critique of statism!) The take home message from Zinn’s book was that both parties have historically combined to support war and government coercion over “the people”. He mentioned that alternatives exist, such as Ralph Nader.

I started reading about Ralph and I realized his views were consistent for decades and I sensed he had an integrity that other politicians didn’t. I respected him for his achievements during the 1960-1970s. I remember looking into the Libertarian party around this time. Michael Barnarik was running for president on their ticket in 2004. I was also attracted to the Green party at this same time. I had a feeling that either of these ideologies could lead to a better world. (Of course, now I realize that while socialists talk a good game, economic theory shows that it isn’t possible in practice. Nor had I considered the amount of government coercion necessary to achieve it!)

In 2004, I decided the Green Party was better. By this time I had started listening to daily news casts from Democracy NOW! (Amy Goodman is legitimately a good reporter, even given her leftist stance.) My reading (especially Howard Zinn’s “Passionate Declarations”, which is very inspiring) was starting to lead me toward democratic socialism. My primary goals were ending the war and restoring our civil liberties. For some reason, I hadn’t made the connection that economic liberty is also a civil liberty. I talked about “following the Constitution” in one sentence, and in the next I advocated single payer health care for all. Amazing that I did not recognize the contradiction. Looking back, I think the problem was that I was reading only the Bill of Rights - and even that reading was distorted. For example, whereas “free speech” really means that one may use their own property to spread whatever ideas they’d like, I interpreted it to mean that government should act to give “the people” a voice equal to that of the rich, or corporations.

I saw “pure” democracy as the ultimate goal. “The People” should be able to “rule themselves”. I started advocating direct democracy - democratic control over everything. I wondered if there could be a way to have “the people” vote on every little bill, so as to abolish the legislature. I studied the best ways to achieve a “fair” voting system. I was disheartened to learn that Kenneth Arrow won a Nobel Prize in economics for proving that no such “fair” voting system exists.

What happened next was a sort of oddity. I was playing an Xbox game called “Bioshock” which is set in a dystopian anarchocapitalist world. The society’s creator was “Andrew Ryan”, an obvious reference to Ayn Rand. After playing the game, I was interested in reading Rand’s work, so I borrowed Atlas Shrugged from the library. I loved this book. The characters were disappointingly one-dimensional and I still thought that her vision of capitalism was naive, but for whatever reason I really enjoyed the story! I read about some of her views online and found them particularly interesting - in particular, her opinion that civil rights legislation is a violation of one’s freedom to discriminate was shocking, yet it made sense in a way. I kept trying to think of ways to undermine her philosophy, but it was difficult.

Around this time, Ron Paul’s presidential campaign became popular. He was the only vocal anti-war candidate. How could a REPUBLICAN be anti-war? His exchange with Giuliani was fantastic - and he stuck to his guns, even when under fire. But I was disappointed by Ron Paul’s insistence on economic liberty. I didn’t understand why he kept talking about the Fed and the gold standard. I started reading economics to see “why he is wrong”. To my surprise, I realized that his argument was a very good one. Even as a leftist, I understood that printing money as a means to devalue the currency of the poor was wrong.

I read more…and more…and more. After reading Ron Paul’s manifesto, I knew I had reached a tipping point. His consistency was refreshing. He opposed drug laws – a REPUBLICAN opposing drug laws! He wanted decriminalization of prostitution and anti-homosexual laws, etc. This was radical stuff! Most importantly, he really hit home the importance of economic liberty. And he framed it in a way that made it sound important for poor people; not just the rich.

Afterwards, I read Henry Hazlitt’s “Economics in One Lesson” - this was an incredible book which convinced me that the entire liberal economic platform actually achieves the EXACT OPPOSITE of its goals. Even if I still believed in the goals of the leftist position, it seemed that I STILL ought to support libertarianism.

But, I wasn’t an anarchocapitalist until after I read Rothbard’s “For A New Liberty”. Every chapter, I said to myself – “OK, Rothbard…I accept that we can provide service A on the market, but you are out of your mind if you think the market can provide service B!” But sure enough, he made his case time and time again.

Now I am on a path that I must complete. There are aspects of Rothbardianism that I don’t accept - Rothbard appears to claim a uniform set of libertarian principles over all private court systems. I want to consider the problem of the private court system completely - what will a free society look like if courts use different sets of principles?

I don’t know the perfect answer to this yet - but I think some might call it “panarchy”.

I wonder if I was always a libertarian but just hadn’t realized it yet. As I made the journey from ignorance & indifference to leftism to libertarianism, at each significant step there was an exciting experience of discovery, not a change of opinion.

In fact, I’d say that it feels most like an adventure of self-discovery of my own morality.

Most influential books:

Howard Zinn, “A People’s History of the United States” (lost trust in the government)

Ralph Nader, “Crash!ng the Party” (became supporter of Nader)

Howard Zinn, “Passionate Declarations” (started to consider democratic socialism)

Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged” (introduced me to libertarianism)

Ron Paul, “The Revolution: The Manifesto” (converted me to the liberty movement)

Henry Hazlitt, “Economics in One Lesson” (convinced me of free market capitalism)

Murray Rothbard, “For A New Liberty” (converted to anarchism)

The Ultimate Beginner meta-thread
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I discussed with people on these forums, and read Hazlitt.

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Civil war maybe ?

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Juan, how did you become a libertarian?

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I have always considered myself “pro-Capitalist”, until not as much as I consider myself that now. As a Spaniard from Madrid, I have always felt a large degree of nationalism, and so I probably leaned towards national socialism, only in the sense that I supported a strong central government in Spain. At the time, I did not really understand the relationship between the State, economics and freedom. Nevertheless, I did see merit in Capitalism and many of my friends considered me European liberal. I would not call myself that now, though, knowing what I know now. I was originally a Mechanical Engineering student, but then I decided to join the U.S. Army. I only completed infantry one stop unit training (BT + AIT). I suffer from kyphosis (spine problems), and as the weeks went by I also thought that the five years I had promised to do would go to waste (since it’s pretty difficult to get a degree when you’re deployed, unless you’re really motivated and put aside all your free time), and the Army refused to change my MOS (MOS is pretty much a job). The day of my graduation I was supposed to take a bus to airborne school, and instead I took a taxi to the international airport in Atlanta and flew to San Diego, where my mother bought me a ticket to Spain.

In Spain I was subjected to a number of business students and there are plenty of economic problems in Spain. I have always been interested in Spain’s “economic miracle” which ocurred during the Franco administration. After spending a year in Spain, I decided to return to the U.S. to complete my degree in economics (I turned myself in and they discharged me, first). During that time I was exposed to Austrian economics, to a degree. I decided to pick up a copy of Meltdown, which I loved. And, since then, I have been absolutely obsessed with Austrian economics.

I would say that so far the most influential book I have read is Jesús Huerta de Soto’s Money, Bank Credit and Economic Cycles, although what led me to read that book (not for any specific reason) was Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression. I originally bought the latter book (in conjunction with Burton Folsom Jr.'s New Deal or Raw Deal? in order to prove my macroeconomic professor wrong on the Great Depression [he said that FDR was laissez-faire]).

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When I admitted to myself that limited government has not and will never work. The old saying that Rothbard hated, “you can’t turn back the clock” seems rather true. Federalism and Confederations are a useless check - just look at the US Civil War and Switzerland’s Sonderbund War. Former American conservatives like myself kept wanting to move up the date of which the level of government power was ‘just right’.

While I did not wake up one morning and say to myself ‘Tax is theft’ but rather via utilitarian means, I nevertheless arrived at nearly the same conclusions.

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I discovered Ron Paul in 2007, before he was labeled as a kook by the MSM. From there, I discovered LRC and LvMI. I went from not caring to constitutionalist to an-cap.

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Well, first became aware of libertarianism when I heard about Ron Paul. Before learning about economics, I was pretty much a socialist or close to it. Then after learning about economics I would be called a moderate conservative I guess cus I believed in fiscal conservatism but didn’t care about social issues (in my personal life I’m pretty much a social conservative, but i don’t believe that people should be put in jail just for having a different lifestyle). Either through the Ron Paul meetup group I’m in, or one of Ron Paul’s books, or some vids on Youtube(which I watch a lot) I heard “mises” mentioned and ran a search on yahoo…

well anyways, I wanted to start learning about economics in my spare time cus I like it a lot but I ain’t an economics major. I took a class in agricultural econoimcs here in college last year (it was basically an intro economics course…except one chapter desperately tried to justify farm price support programs, lol). However, i found mises.org before taking that class and also came across the misesmedia Youtube channel and learned a lot there. I also started learning about libertarianism from mises.org as well and found out I was a libertarian because a lotta stuff was just what I had a natural tendency to believe in…however before I would always go with utilitarian arguments that “well things don’t work that way or wouldn’t work that way” …and the more I learned, the more I learned that libertarianism IS usually supported by utilitarian arguments and pragmatism, but of course also has the moral arguments, so i figure that’s a double-whammy and I was won over.

I remember watching Free to Choose with Milton Friedman and lots of vids with Friedman in them and found myself agreeing with pretty much everything he said. I also saw a vid where this guy named Brian Doherty was talking about his book “Radicals for Capitalism” and liked that vid and either in that vid or in another one he mentioned how libertarians usually tend to get more radical over time and i was like “man, i seriously gotta prevent that from happening to me” because I just saw the anarcho-capitalists as crazy people, lol.

Well…low-and-behold after a lot of evidence and moral arguments I eventually became an anarcho-capitalist, lol…at least in principle. I still dunno if I would actively support and promote such a system because i still don’t see how we could have a military, but I do acknowledge that it’s the morally superior system. In terms of practicality, I’m not one of the “give me liberty or give me death” type of people. I want the most liberty I can get without the death part. [:D] , but i always cheer for any time I see voluntary interactions being suggested and working (which they usually do). As for what I promote in terms of policy and stuff, I’m generally for scaling back the state even if it means something that isn’t really a free market cus the way I see it, such policies would be a short-term solution and serve as a transition where it would at least be an improvement over the current policies and people could see that markets actually work. then, afterwards we could convince people of going even further.

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I went from being the family socialist [ in a NeoCon family] to being a NeoCon after 9/11. After that I became I guess you can say ‘moderate’ in terms of Conservatism [ thinking Reagan was such a swell guy ] then I got into the Ron Paul movement and became a libertarian. One day I was given a audio reading of Lysander Spooner’s No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority [ I was big into the Constitution then but I wouldn’t say I was a Constitutionalist ] and after listening to that one book I was instantly convinced that the Constitution cannot work and is a horrible ‘social contract’. I was converted to anarchism in a single hour. So I wikipediaed Spooner and found that he was an ‘individual anarchist’ and upon learning more I heard of Murray Rothbard. I was brought into this movement by a man who passed away more then a decade from when I heard about him. Truly that is the power of Rothbard. The fact that he is still being people into anarcho-capitalism even after his passing.

So it went from:

Socialist — NeoConservative----Conservative----Libertarian----Anarchist

I still like to talk about Marxism though, such a fascinating ideology.

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confused liberal democrat → constitutionalist (thanks to Dr. Paul) → libertarian → An-cap (thanks to Rothbard and Stef Molyneux.)

Moving from a liberal Democrat to an an-cap took me 2-3 years, give or take.

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I was always a “fiscal conservative” supporting pro capitalist, free market views and opposed to big government, the welfare state and taxes. This has never changed, I never remotely even entertained idealistic and naive socialist policies. My initial economic views were shaped by Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell and in many ways still are today. So I naturally took to the Republican party and Ronald Reagan though supply side economics never made any sense to me, I at the time just assumed I did not understand it. The more I spent time with members of the Republican party, the more frustrated I got with economic issues, arguing against idiots who believed that if Bush did big government, it was ok. The reason was that the Republican party is being taken over by social conservatives who only care about Abortion, Judeo-Christian values and Gay Marriage and don’t understand anything about economics. They support protectionist policies and using government to “help” people with idiotic “compassionate conservatism”. That was the final straw that pushed me to stop calling myself a “conservative”.

Researching on the Internet is what allowed me to properly define myself as a limited government libertarian.

Milton Friedman’s “Free to Choose” series and John Stossel’s various Economic Series on 20/20 have been very influential.

What concerns me is all the initial socialists, I don’t even understand how you use emotion over logic.

Financial Conservative (From Birth) → Limited Government Libertarian (Internet)

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I always hated being told what to do.

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Well for me it started last year with a game called bioshockthat was loosley based off of the works of rand and then i became interested in her writings and read Atlas Shrugged and other works of hers. This alone caused me to think of myself as a moderate liberitarian but still empathised with the big parties. From there i began watching and listening to certian anarchists and libertarians over some internet mediums which alone caused me to become more radical. At the same time I became interested in economics, began informal intro study, read the wealth of nations, performed a brief overview of the major economic schools, canme to the conclusion that the austrians had it right, became a full libertarian, and here I am

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Poor explanations of busts in the economy. Credit bubble → Peter Schiff → Ron Paul → Mises → making me at least minarchist, if not full out anarchist. (Need to read up on defence, transit and law in an anarcho-capitalist system and then i’d wager that i’d be convinced)

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I’ve always wanted to jot down my growth into the philosophy of an Anarcho-Capitalist. It’s actually a short time in my life.. I grew into it rather quickly.

My only stints into the political arena were in 2000, when I let my parents vote George W. Bush on my mail-in ballot for me. I didn’t even research who was who and which I would actually support. I didn’t even regret this until Bush’s 2nd term, because I was really indifferent to the whole process. I had always known one thing about myself: I had an uneasy distrust for the police and politicians, with no real thought to back it up.

Anyway, during the 2008 Presidential debates, I was swept into this sea of “change” that Obama kept blabbering on about. I didn’t even pay attention to the Republic side, much. Was just fascinated by Obama’s charisma. So when it came to time to vote in November, I put my stamp on Obama. Around Janauary I came to regret that decision. I stumped into this “Ron Paul Revolution”, something I hadn’t bothered to learn about until after Obama’s nomination.

It seemed pretty fantastic, and for one month or so, I actually tried to involve myself into the Libertarian Party and learning about Ron Paul as much as possible. And then I saw his hypocrisies. His view on immigration, abortion, and taxes seemed a bit off to me. And for a short while, I didn’t like his stance on School Vouchers (I don’t support that idea anymore, tbh). Now I simply do not like the guy, no matter how much he harps on the Federal Reserve (and make no neverminds, I don’t like the Fed, either). He’s a politician, after all.

So, confused for awhile, I stumbled around seeking out new books and resource materials and I stumbled upon a fellow by the name of Stefan Molyneux on youtube, talking about Ron Paul and the “Truth About Voting”. I enjoy his political philosophy much, tho’ some of what he says in other areas of life kind of disturb me. Anyway, I just kept eating away at more knowledge, i.e., Rothbard’s “For a New Liberty” and Block’s “Defending the Undefendable”. From there, I fit myself snugly into the ‘Anarcho-Capitalist’ mindset. And here I have been for a little over two months now.

A lot of this knowledge seeking of mine made me depressed, quite often. And I still feel bitter about how things currently are. I don’t believe I will ever see Anarcho-Capitalism being practiced anytime before my death. Maybe I’ll crawl out of this pit of stink soon. :confused:

When I first learned about an-cap, I tried to explain some of it to a couple of friends of me, and they put a stop to it by calling me ‘unrealistic’. I havent’ spoken to them about it ever since. That conversation lasted all of 5 minutes, when I tried to tell them I am now an anarchist. Maybe I’ll get by this someday, as well, and explain it better now that I have better knowledge of my beliefs.

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Thanks for the biography. lol

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I’ll have to try that Bioshock game when I get a decent PC.

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I always liked this Andrew Ryan quote:

“Whenever anyone wants others to do their work they call upon their Altruism. ‘Never mind your own needs,’ they say, ‘Think of the needs of… of whoever. Of the state. Of the poor. Of the Army, of the King. Of God.’ The list goes on and on. How many catastrophes were launched with the words ‘Think of yourself?’ It’s the king and country crowd who light the torch of destruction.”

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Considering I’m fairly young, I don’t have a long, drawn-out time line of how I became a libertarian. In fact, compared to some of you, it was very recent.

Before late 2007 I was pretty apathetic toward politics, but whenever an election came around I would support (like I said, fairly young. Can’t vote yet.) the democratic candidate. I think it was due to some subconscious belief that the old, white-haired guy (the republican) would kill us all. I now realize that is true for both parties. Also, my mom always voted Democrat and I was a total momma’s-boy so that had some influence on me.

Then in late 2007 I started hearing all about Ron Paul on the internet, through various forums I visited and such. That, and I had began to enter my late teens so the thought of some big government telling me what to do wasn’t exactly appealing. Come early 2008, I started actually researching Ron Paul, and I guess you could say I fell in love with his ideas. That led me to lewrockwell.com by a former libertarian friend of mine (who jumped ship and is some kind of Marxist now) which led me here. I’ve downloaded audio books and read many many articles and hope to someday be as well-educated as the rest of you.

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Wow, that’s TWO votes for Bioshock!

I was so amused to hear that somebody else was influenced by this game. Apparently, the game creator is a fan of Ayn Rand. While he claims to be a fan of objectivism, the world of Bioshock (“Rapture”) was an alternative reality of Galt’s Gulch. :slight_smile:

I wonder what the net effect of this game has been. Anyway, I highly recommend it to those that enjoy this type of entertainment. :wink: