I have been advised to use understanding instead of judgment, and I have been doing that. One population to which I’ve extended this understanding is one for which I had complete contempt in the past – the so-called rednecks. I have come to the conclusion that they come from an understandable place. They want to live according to their beliefs, and they want the government to leave them alone. All totally understandable.
The problem is this. These people are going to have children; who, when they grow up, may or may not want to live in the same way as had their parents. Many of them may want to live like they do in California or New York. If their parents place strong obstacles in the place of them leaving, then they become the hindrance to freedom. What gets perpetrated that way is a hidden tyranny, one that is worse than anything that is thought up by the government.
I knew a man from Texas who, when he was a child, had every bone in his body broken by his stepfather and stepbrother. When his stepbrother asked him if he believed in God and he said no, his stepbrother crucified him on a tree. The government did not perpetrate this act of tyranny and corruption. Private citizens did. And it was worse than anything of which American government has ever been guilty.
When libertarians decide that the government is the universal organ of tyranny and corruption, they are wrong. There are many things besides the government that do very wrong things. Is the government capable of tyranny and corruption? Of course it is. But so are any number of things that are not the government.
So we have a number of idealistic types who are against tyranny and corruption, who saw such things done by families and communities. They decided that they were going to address the problem through government action. The libertarians then decided to fight these people, claiming that they are perpetrating tyranny by being part of the government. What they have done is enable the tyranny and corruption by private entities under the claim that they were fighting corruption and tyranny potentials in the government.
Now to be fair, the social services people there have done many things that were wrong. They tore families apart. They claimed that some people – “sociopaths” and “narcissists” – were evil and could only be evil whatever they did. But do take the effort to extend to these people the same understanding that I am extending the “rednecks.” They saw wrong things that were done by private entities, and they thought that they were going to rectify them by government action. This is not tyranny. This is good values going wrong.
Of course these people will see the government – especially social services – as a form of tyranny and oppression. It is however not the only one. The people who would crucify a child off a tree are guilty of greater abuses than anything of which American government has ever been guilty. And a true defender of liberty will confront such things as readily as he would confront abuses by the government.
A true libertarian will thus confront abuse potentials in all entities, whether or not they are government-related. And a person who scrutinizes merely the government is a hypocrite and a coward. He attacks an entity that is easy to attack while failing to confront real wrongs. All people are capable of wrongdoing, whether or not they are in the government. And a true defender of life and liberty will confront these potential, whether they be public or private.