“Civilization,” H.L. Mencken wrote in 1918, “grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”
The more things change, the more they stay the same. A century later, American politics seems almost entirely centered around such hobgoblins.
Immigrants (especially “unvetted” immigrants).
Drugs (especially fentanyl, but pretty much anything purchased without a prescription).
Sex trafficking (which seems to consist of pretty much anyone buying, or selling, sex, known as “the world’s oldest profession” for a reason).
Moral panic — defined on Wikipedia as “a widespread feeling of fear that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society” — has become our chief political currency.
It’s in the driver’s seat.
It has the wheel.
And it manifests as a form of puritanism, also conveniently defined by Mencken: “The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”
We can’t have that! Something must be done! There oughtta be a law! And the laws always come down less to prohibition than to permission.
You can cross an imaginary line on the ground if you’ve been “vetted” and received a “visa.”
You can get high if you have permission from a doctor (who got permission from someone else to be a doctor).
You can have some fun in the sack if you pay for a marriage license or buy someone dinner and drinks, but not if you cut out the middlemen.
As a long-time libertarian, I naturally oppose any laws that forbid or regulate voluntary, peaceful actions undertaken by and between consenting adults.
I’ve come across many complex arguments for that position. I’ve made quite a few of those arguments myself. But more and more, I see it as a simple matter in both its both moral and practical aspects.
We don’t live in anything resembling a free society. Most of us don’t want to. We’ve let politicians use our irrational fear of Mencken’s hobgoblins turn us into, for all practical purposes, Mencken’s puritans — and that puritanism, in turn, generates new hobgoblins on demand to keep the merry-go-round turning.
The cycle is an ongoing and recurring feature of history. It has its ebbs and flows. It never goes away completely, but it comes on more strongly at some times than others.
At the moment, it’s at the worst I’ve seen it in my five decades or so of being old enough to observe it. The 1970s and 1980s had their down sides, but they were far more free (and far less irrational) than the 2020s.
How to we turn the tide and get things flowing in the other direction?
Instead of regaling you with schemes for panarchy, pleas for repealing this or that law, etc., let me propose a four-word position (which I got from “dL,” a pseudonymous commenter on my blog, years ago) that, if widely adopted, would make America a much better place to live.
The four words are: “Don’t need your permission.”
If an action doesn’t violate the rights of others, you shouldn’t need anyone else’s permission to do it.
If an action does violate the rights of others, no one can rightfully give you permission to do it anyway.
Everything else, including the entire body of libertarian political theory, is just details.
Anything else, including the entirety of political theory justifying the rule of some by others, is just excuses.
Act accordingly.
Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY
