Wednesday, February 2, 2022

The Utopian Failings of Libertarianism

I have never been a big proponent of Utopian movements.  Well, I was a libertarian for a long time, but now I see it for what it truly is: a Utopian pipedream.  Like the communists and other assorted Utopians, they assume that human beings are basically good at their core, contrary to what Jesus said 2000 years ago.

So long as Jesus is in Heaven and we are waiting for His return, this world will always be a fallen world, and no ideology or religion, even organized Christianity, can fix it.  The best we can do is fight evil and strive to be perfect.

That being said, I was reminded today of a case in China where a mother watched in horror as a driver repeatedly ran over her child after he accidentally hit him.  This was because in China, at the time, if you struck someone with your car, you would have to pay for the medical expenses or the funeral expenses.

Guess which expenses were cheaper?

I pointed out that this was merely the libertarian or Anarcho-Capitalist principle on full display in China.

Naturally, the response I got was that China was a communist dictatorship and they don't have a free market and that I was wrong.

And that's a fair criticism, if you discount the no-true Scotsman fallacy.  But I wasn't talking about the nature of the government of China so much as highlighting the fact that the policy which brought about such a terrible tragedy comes from libertarian principles and not necessarily communist ones.

In the libertarian Utopia, you see, human beings are reduced to resources when it comes to justice and arbitration.

I suppose this is largely true of most Utopian visions for humanity.  Human beings are no longer created in the image of God but instead are just cogs in some greater machine.  Much like we are now, but with more "divine" justification behind it.

The difference is, in the libertarian model, everything has some sort of monetary value, even human life.  And if you look at how they model society based on this premise, it's actually quite scary and sickening.  And you end up with dead children because the funeral was cheaper than the medical bills.

Now, I'm very much in favor of a freer market, I oppose welfare in all forms, and I think many of the functions that government provides should be localized or abolished entirely.

But at the same time, I do not subscribe to the belief that government is responsible for all the evils inflicted on mankind.  Government is merely a reflection of the evil of mankind.