Honestly, as I become more disgusted with some of the students in my class and the quality/ knowledge of the professors, I’m beginning to wonder if it’s even possible with the amount of indoctrination/ fear tactics in this country to see a signficant scaling back of government here in the US. I’m a libertarian in the ultimate sense of the word, but the amount of sophisms put forth not only in the classroom, but also in the mainstream media leaves me feeling discouraged and somewhat hopeless. Looking at the various aspects armed with the knowledge of AE and with the combination of libertarian philosophy causes me to worry greatly not only about my future, but about my family’s future as well. I also wonder from time to time, if this country would be the most optimal environment to bring my children up in, once I get married and have them, just considering how nationalistic this country has become within just the past 9 years. If anything the only benefit that AE combined with a powerful libertarian philosophy has brought me is to abandon my pursuit of a political science degree in favor of something more useful and become an autodidact in the process as well.
(sorry If I am despairing way too much guys, but I think this is a fairly legitimate question)
So the scales have fallen, hey? Yep, it’s pretty depressing.
But there are a few rays of hope.
1] Your studies should have shown you by now that whatever these guys try their hands at, they will fail at sooner or later. So they are doomed.
2] You managed to get smart. So did many other people. So you are not alone.
3] They are imprisoned in a false science. They truly believe Keynsian baloney is true. Trust me, Obama would LOVE to create a few million jobs rigth now. But he has no clue whatsoever.
4] We have Ron Paul, we have Peter Schiff. Their popularity is on the rise. Sure they may be assasinated, but give em a chance .
5] Even so cruel a despot and lover of force as Adolph Hitler acknowledged that his ultimate power is public approval. If the soldiers get sick to death of the way these guys are trashing the country, they will support someone who knows what’s what. At least there is a chance of that.
6] For now there is the Internet. Even if it has to underground somehow, like in China, maybe there will be a way.
Where are you looking because all I see is nothing but a massive expansion of government.
If you are talking about events that lead you to believe that a collapse is inevitable, then that is different, but as for now, government is massively expanding.
However…Beware of the possibility that the State buys more time by a massive Fascist transformation of the economy that most people will wrongly perceive as a massive reform of privatizations. This is my biggest fear.
Sure, they’ll privatize roads because they are desperate for cash, but those roads will still be heavily regulated and licensed.
Austrian Economics is like a blessing and a curse at the same time. It’s a blessing because it helps you to see the truth, but it is a curse because… just imagine how much more fun it is to socialize with your friends and rant about the Evil capitalists. Or you can enjoy programs like Keith Olbermann or even Hannity.
Men must choose between capitalism and socialism. They cannot avoid this dilemma by resorting to a capitalist system without entrepreneurial profit. Every step toward the elimination of profit is progress on the way toward social disintegration. [Mises, Profit & Loss]
I’ve lost hope for a bottom-up revolution. Statism is too engraved in the culture. I think the only hope we have is something that involves the gathering of libertarians like free state projects or Seasteading. That is, not just for their own sake, but to show the world that capitalism is by far the best system and may be even that ancap could work.
I tend to agree, especially when every time I look around and see yet another shining example of how ignorant the average person is about such matters as politics, economics or even philosophy. People don’t care about these things, how they work, or what comes of them; and until they start to care, nothing is ever going to change for the better. It’s fucking sad, depressing and rather pitiful.
And good luck trying to reason with these fools. No matter how many hypocrisies, contradictions, double-standards or fallacies you highlight in their thinking about such things… such revelations only seem to make them cling to their statist ideology even more than before. It’s willful ignorance, and there’s really no excuse for it.
But this is also the only reason why our vision is attainable. Imagine everyone was extremely interested in politics and had therefore already made up his mind to be a determined Communist, National-Socialist, Islamist, Crusader, Satanist etc…
How could anarchy ever work then? It only can ever work because most people aren’t really interested in a global crusade to spread democracy and UN charter of human rights but really just wanna barbecue.