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Post by Justin Dixon Follow me on Twitter Photo courtesy of Photomish Dan

First let me start by telling you what this article is not. This is not about telling you to become a libertarian. This is not about what political party you vote for. This is not about condemning the evils of communism. What this is about is a group of people and a philosophy that have had a positive impact on my life, and that I wanted to share a little bit with you.

Libertarianism gets a bad reputation in the media, partially because libertarians have controversial ideas, partially because there are few points that all libertarians agree on, but mostly because there are some strange apples in this bunch. In all the craziness and weirdness that can be found in a group of libertarians though there is an underlying philosophy that everyone no matter their political beliefs can benefit from.

Everyone has the right to seek happiness in their own way. Libertarians come from all different backgrounds and don’t always agree with each other. There is however a code of conduct that brings even the most different people together in these groups. That code is tolerance. One of the main points in libertarian philosophy is that so long as you are not hurting others or committing fraud, than your life and your actions are your business. We can speak out against ideas that we don’t agree with, and we most certainly should not live an idea that we don’t agree with, but even with these disagreements libertarians know that they can get along with each other. They know that we all want the right to seek happiness in our own way, and so they let others do the same.

You and I ARE the answer. We can solve problems on our own and together. Libertarians are extremely weary of anything that government (and in some cases any leader) promises beyond providing basic defense. So how is it proposed that we feed the poor, get through school, or retire well? The answer is you and me. We have the ability to feed the hungry, we have the ability to take care of the sick. The thing is that if you think there is a solution that will help, than don’t wait to pass a law to do it for you. Just go out and do it. You want a more sustainable country? Start a garden. You want a safer neighborhood, get to know your neighbors and form a neighborhood watch. Which brings me to my next point.

Responsibility = Freedom. You even look at the word libertarian and it is clear that there is a priority on liberty and on freedom here. At the same time though libertarians believe that the only way to have personal freedom is to take personal responsibility. We are free to do anything that we will take responsibility for. We are free to have a better world, but we have to take responsibility for it. Not just company leaders, not just elected officials, us; we need to take that responsibility.

Always have a reason for believing as you do. No matter how misguided or off balance some libertarians may seem every one of them prides themselves on having a reason for believing as they do. Sometimes the reason is that they are trying an experiment, sometimes the reason is that they have done tons of research (quite common since libertarians believe we can find the answers ourselves if we are willing to search) A good exercise for everyone is to regularly question why you believe as you do. Its easy to be wrong, and there is nothing wrong with that. When we find out that we were misguided than we get a new chance to do things right.

You can not perform good by doing evil. As obvious as this would seem there are a good deal of people that believe that the end justifies the means. If you have to beat some one up to make some one else feel better, than no matter how good you make the other person feel, you still didn’t do right. The idea that some people should be sacrificed to a cause without their consent is a form of human sacrifice and it is barbaric. If you really believe that a sacrifice should be made, than ring out a call for it, and show others an example of sacrifices they can make voluntarily, but be careful not to ever force someone to give up what they have earned just because you believe someone else should have it. Stealing from the rich is still stealing. New rule: lets not steal from anybody.

Don’t be afraid to go against the crowd. Libertarians are usually independents. They don’t wait for the crowd, but rather double check everything the crowd says, and everything that each other say for that matter. The thing is that crowds are wrong all  the time. Just because the majority of people believe in something does not make it true. If you don’t believe me ask yourself what shape the planet is, and what the majority of people once believed. Did the planet change shape when the majority changed what they saw? The fact is that if everyone does the exact same thing everyone will end up in the exact same place. If you want to be extraordinary in your life, than you have to do something different from what is ordinarily done.

So love them or hate them, libertarians are still here, and there really are some great points, that every one of us can benefit from here. This philosophy of good will towards others, of belief in ourselves and in one another, of double checking our ideas, and of choosing to take responsibility for ourselves is designed so that we can live in a peaceful world with a maximum amount of personal freedom. What do you think of each of these points? What are you going to do with them? Do you have counters for what I’ve said? Do you have points that you would like to add yourself? I look forward to reading your responses.

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