I completely agree. Here’s my reasoning. Socialists have rejected the status quo. They accept that the current system is riddled with problems. In fact, I’ve been to a few socialist meetings and I’ve found that their critique of the current system is almost totally spot-on. (It’s when they start suggesting solutions that they stop making sense!) Moreover, in rejecting the status quo they’ve abandoned faith in the explanations and suggestions of those at the top. It seems to me that convincing people to dispense with the propaganda dished out in public schools and via government officials is one of the hardest parts of getting somebody to embrace libertarianism (or anything outside the political norms).
I know that speaking from my own experience, I was led into libertarianism through socialism. Howard Zinn’s leftist revisions history text “A People’s History of the United States” destroyed my loyalty to the state. That was a necessary step in my progression to look for alternative options. Plus, conversion from leftism seems surprisingly common - this observation is based on discussions of how people came to embrace libertarianism ongoing in this forum as well as on the Mises Facebook discussion tab. That should make all of us hopeful!
That said, I know my transition from apathy to libertarianism took ~5 years. My transition from socialism to libertarianism took ~1.5 years. Along the way, there were several short discussions that steered me in that direction. The first time I learned about Ron Paul was from a message posted by a friend on Facebook. Prior to that, I accidentally stumbled onto Ayn Rand through an X-box game based on Objectivism. My conclusion is that introducing people to libertarianism is definitely possible, but we should not expect instant gratification as self-guided transitions take a lot of time. I definitely encourage you and others to directly engage with self-proclaimed socialists/communists, but do so politely and with relatively low expectations. Try to find areas of agreement and make arguments that they can identify with. Try to demonstrate that the problems they are concerned about can actually be explained by state intervention, so even from a utility point of view one might embrace libertarianism.
I’ve been attending some local ISO meetings (International Socialist Organization). They all know I’m an anarchocapitalist. You would be shocked at their reception of me. They are absolutely fascinated by my views. In fact, they quite enjoyed the fact that I described myself as an anarchist and suggested that I use this term instead of libertarianism. Somehow that seemed to bridge the gap between us a little better. I’m learning that this surprise is generated by their lack of understanding as to what “libertarianism” really is.
Some of the arguments I found they were most receptive to: Capitalism channels greed into productive uses, since the only way to obtain more for oneself is by serving one’s fellow man. Central banks hurt the poor by devaluing the value of their money. War is not a symptom of the free market, but its antithesis because it violates respect for individuals lives and property. It’s also useful to appeal to any personal morals which might be well aligned to their coercive causes - in my case, this includes a personal desire to preserve parts of the environment, anti-discriminatory, anti-war, empathy for the sick, etc. I try to show that libertarians are peaceful and compassionate people, which catches them off guard.
At one meeting this year, after I was describing the privatization of the court system, one guy put his arm around me and said consolingly, “You know, as much as I’d like to see socialism established here in my lifetime, I accept that probability is close to nil. But I feel like your system is even less likely.” I’m not sure whether this is correct or not, but I had a good laugh. To some extent, I was pleased by that comment because it was an admission that anarchocapitalism is just as radical, or more so, as communism. A point that Murray Rothbard makes in “For A New Liberty”.
Anyway, keep those discussions going, but remember to be polite and non-aggressive. Even if you don’t concert anybody to libertarianism straight away, you might plant a seed that encourages somebody to “look into it” and he just might find, like I did, that he agrees.
-Michael
