The Ground Campaign in the Culture War

Is it worth it to try and make libertarianism cool? If it is, then how do we go about it?

B-Ran wrote:Is it worth it to try and make libertarianism cool? If it is, then how do we go about it?

There are already a lot of things that are traditionally "cool" that are characteristics of the lib movement. Things that are artificial never seem as cool as the organic real deal.

#1. It isn't inside the typical cultural box.
#2. It doesn't rely on the government being cool. The government and all of its arms are very easy to look cool in comparison to.
#3. It is the real peace movement. Peace is very cool.
#4. The Austrian Economists accurately foretell macroeconomic trends. If telling people what is going to happen before it happens isn't cool, I don't know what is.
#5. Everyone loves someone who rebels against the state. V for Vendetta, The Matrix Trilogy, The South (which still maintains its awesomeness from the Civil War), Luke Skywalker, The Beatles, our Founding Fathers, Ron Paul, The Grateful Dead and many more have found their coolness rooted in their objection to the ruling power of their time. This is a good thing.

No one likes the sidekick to the bully in the neighborhood. The bully might get some sort of respect, simply for his might. No one likes the little turds that follow him around.

"The libertarian tradition stretches from the ancient world through the Middle Ages to our own day. But I do think we are living through a high point in intellectual development and recruitment. The body of theoretical work is vast and the intellectuals are hardened and ready for battle. The web and blogosphere give us the means to compete in the world of ideas as never before.

There is no sure blueprint for success other than for libertarians to do what each individually does best, whether that means teaching students, organizing anti-war rallies, writing large books on technical economic topics, or tirelessly managing a compelling blog.

I’m wary of all formal alliances but I do think libertarians need to be strategically flexible and entrepreneurial in finding intellectual allies, even if it means admitting that far better arguments are being made by CounterPunch than by National Review.

What desperately needs to be rethought is this tendency of libertarians to avert their eyes from the reality of what’s going on at places like National Review. Their main dishes consist of calling for ever more war, approving the killing of civilians, backing the surveillance state, and even torture. Libertarians have traditionally provided the side dishes that call for petty deregulatory measures and tax cuts. This really must stop.

The libertarian revolution will come when we least expect it, and it will unfold in a way we cannot fully anticipate. In the mid 1980s, everyone assumed that the Soviet empire would last forever. Five years later, it was gone without a trace. So too, the expectation of eternal world rule by Washington, DC, could evaporate very quickly." -Lew Rockwell

In my way of thinking, there are three major groups holding up the Statist cause:

The media, the educational system, and the government themselves in the form of self-promotional entitlement systems. I don't think that it's unreasonable to assume that until their credibility is dealt a blow, the Big 3 will continue to promote the Statist cause with unfettered exuberance. Now, what to do about them? These are, after all, the major culture-forming organs in our country. The value systems that they espouse are typically antithetical to personal responsibility, personal aspiration, and personal ethics. Winning the ground campaign in the culture wars means mounting a concerted attack on the Big 3.

Luckily, since they are all demonstrably wrong, they have managed to do a great deal of the work for us. Still, we can't just sit back and hope that they implode. What about alternatives to the programs that they use to promulgate their message?

Private schools founded and managed by Libertarians with a Libertarian outlook? An independent Libertarian news source? A formidable and well-organized Libertarian movement? The RPR has already opened some doors, but we need to tear down these walls. I feel like, as of January 20, it'll be time to put all our resources into play and foment a counterculture. Since the 60s, the Left in this country has used the countercultural leanings of the American people as their stepping-stone to power: now they are the Man, and we cannot let that sin go unpunished.

Agreed.