In a previous video we defined classical liberalism as a belief in Free Markets, limited government, and Individualism. Now, those values are very similar to Libertarianism, right? Well, yes, they are, but classical liberalism and modern libertarianism are different in one very important aspect, and that is trust in government institutions. Classical Liberals have more faith in the rule of law than libertarians, who tend to be fine with violations of law or the constitution so long as it pushes their values. So what created this difference? To answer that, we need to go back to the origins of liberalism, John Locke.
So, on top of a belief in Free Markets, Individualism, and limited government, John Locke believed that government had a specific purpose, which was to protect individual rights, such as Life, Liberty, and Property. This idea comes from the assumption that in a world without governments the only thing guaranteeing an individual’s claim to property was physical force. But with a government there could be someone to protect everyone’s property and serve as a third-party arbitrator in property disputes. With governments in place, you didn’t have to spend all your time and resources protecting your property from those who want to take it from you.
So Liberalism is not just a set of positive values, but also a worldview of public institutions. When one of these institutions violates their values, they see the need to reform said institution. These are the beliefs that girded liberalism in the 18th and 19th centuries. To understand how libertarianism split from liberalism we need to look at the Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution changed the lives of humans dramatically. One of these dramatic changes was the loss of available livelihoods that could be accrued from nature. You can’t just live off the land if there isn’t freely available land to live on. By the 19th century this wasn’t an option in Europe. This forced more and more people to live in the cities, where the only jobs available were in manufacturing. Industrialization came with a litany of problems. These problems led to the rise of early Socialist and Communist thinkers such as Karl Marx.
Karl Marx and the early communists were intellectual descendants of John Locke. They were in agreement with Locke in their belief that government was created to protect property rights. However, where Marxists differed is that they believed that governments were created not to protect property rights in general, but to protect the propertied classes in particular, to make sure that those who had property would always have it, and make sure that those who didn’t have property would never get any.
The Communists wanted to equalize access to material wealth, but because they saw government as inhibiting their goal, orthodox communists became anarchists because the only way to abolish property rights was to abolish the institution that protected them. Government. So in the 19th century Communists became associated with anarchy and mob violence, while liberalism became associated with Individual Rights, and the rule of law.
So here we have free market, limited government, individualists siding with the power of government, while the Communists are siding with anarchy. Today communists are most often associated giant totalitarian government, while libertarians are thought of as borderline anarchists, so how did this switch happen? We need to look at the 20th century and the Russian Revolution.
The Russian Revolution established the first modern communist state, where the government came to control the entirety of society. All industries, and their means of production are owned by the government. That’s kind of the opposite of anarchism. So how did communists justify this?
Marxists believe that the idea of private ownership is unnatural, but society has had this idea forced on it for so long that we have been conditioned to accept inequality. So Marxists believe that society needs to be reconditioned back to what they believe is the natural state of man, living communally. This conditioning can’t happen so long as property is held privately, and you can’t abolish government until society has been reconditioned, and the only institution powerful enough to force this reconditioning is government.
So Marxists developed the concept of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. An iron willed and principled communist would be made dictator of the government, and given the power to confiscate property, redistribute wealth, and do whatever else was deemed necessary to condition society for true communism. In theory, the dictatorship would eventually cease once society had progressed to the ideals of true communism, at which point the dictatorship would no longer be needed. This is how Marxists have justified embracing totalitarianism. Essentially it’s an ends justify the means kind of deal.
The twentieth century saw communism take hold of governments around the world, and in every-one they embraced totalitarianism to one extent or another. They saw themselves as using the tools of oppression to create freedom and material equality. Well, these attempts at communism were failures in their entirety if you ask someone who isn’t an apologist for totalitarian regimes, or who bases their judgement of a system on what it’s stated goals are rather than the results.
It was in the 1960s that Libertarianism became a distinct philosophy, separate from Classical Liberalism. Essentially, Libertarianism is Liberalism in light of Communist atrocities. In the twentieth century government transformed from being a tool to protect property rights, to its most frequent violator. Libertarianism, in my opinion, could only have come into existence in a world where socialism became a dominant philosophy of governments.
So there you have it. This is why Libertarianism doesn’t trust government, while Liberals do, so long as it’s operating properly.
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