“To know what actions are virtuous, and what vicious — in other words, to know what actions tend, on the whole, to happiness, and what to unhappiness — in the case of each and every man, in each and all the conditions in which they may severally be placed, is the profoundest and most complex study to which the greatest human mind ever has been, or ever can be, directed. It is, nevertheless, the constant study to which each and every man — the humblest in intellect as well as the greatest — is necessarily driven by the desires and necessities of his own existence. It is also the study in which each and every person, from his cradle to his grave, must necessarily form his own conclusions; because no one else knows or feels, or can know or feel, as he knows and feels, the desires and necessities, the hopes, and fears, and impulses of his own nature, or the pressure of his own circumstances.”

- Lysander Spooner in Vices are Not Crimes

I reluctantly call myself a libertarian. I say reluctantly because I hate to be associated with those on the mainstream right who only opportunistically use the rhetoric of libertarianism when it suits them and also hate to be associated with the anti-authority for the sake of being anti-authoritarian anarchists. I’ve recently been finding solace in what some are calling left libertarianism (note that these aren’t the left libertarians referenced in the first part of the wikipedia article but rather  what is described in this article).

Anyhow, I came across this quote from a leading figure in this field Roderick Long that succinctly explained why I have a hard time ever speaking to anyone about mainstream politics:

“I see today’s political landscape as dominated by two closely related myths: first, that big business and big government are natural enemies, and second, that the economic system that prevails in most industrialised countries, including the u.s., is an approximation to a free market (rather than, as I see it, a long-established and ongoing system of massive government intervention on behalf of the corporate elite). These myths not only mask the corporatist reality of government/business partnership but tend to strengthen that reality; on the right (including, alas, large sections of libertarianism), the case for free markets is distorted into a defense of existing corporate privilege, while on the left, the case against existing corporate privilege is distorted into a case against free markets – so that each wing of the ruling class offers itself as an antidote to the other, and alternatives to both are rendered invisible.”

- Roderick Long