Hello everyone.
I wanted to share this one thought with you that I really became aware of just recently. Libertarianism, at its core, is all about personal freedom. It is therefore the highest good worth protecting. But how exactly should it be protected and by whom?
It is obvious that a society writes its core values into its constitution and affirm them by law, but it becomes more complicated when it comes to adhering to these common values. Who ensures that these rules are followed? Who punishes violations?
Whether it is the state or a private company, in all cases you are dependent on the reliability of a third party. How this third party deals with the task it has been entrusted with is, however, its responsibility. As long as this third party is not controlled by another third party, it can act with the trust as it sees fit, not always to the benefit of the client.
That bings up the question why we should ever rely on the state or any private company to protect our values. In the end, we are all on our own. Whether freedom, privacy or security, we cannot afford to become dependent on others. We have to find ways to do it ourselves and these ways exist. I don’t want to rule out that third parties may be given the task of protectiing them but I think that we need a technically independent safeguard. Encryption, privacy tools or self-defense devices are just few examples of this.
I’m reminded of the old saying: When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
The same would hold true for any third party who isn’t physically in your presence at the time of need. You are your primary means of defense, with third parties as a backup…
Exactly. And who guarantees that if they arrive they will actually want to risk their lives to save me? What if they are like, nah I’m not payed well enough for this job?
I don’t know if you intended this to come off as bleak as it does. Maybe we’re on opposite sides of the whole “can I rely on literally anything other than me” question. It doesn’t have to be crabs in a bucket unless that’s what you really want.
No, it probably wasn’t ;) I just wanted to initiate a thought-provoking discussion. Also, I wouldn’t compare it to the crab in a bucket mentality as I don’t want to make anyone worse off or drag them down in any way. I would rather ask myself who we should put in charge/who we should trust with such critical issues. I don’t rule out that we should delegate this responsibility, but I think we need an emergency solution in case things go south.
