Divided

I am a very recent convert to libertarianism. Around April 2016 I did the political compass test, after already doing it many years ago and the results piqued my interest. I then had a brief look at the website and was especially curious of the books section where it was advised that people in my area of the political compass read these certain books or authors, I had heard of Milton Friedman before, so being vaguely familiar with him I decided to purchase his book "Capitalism and Freedom" from the kindle store and here I am now.

Everything just made sense, it was so simple and now I had a better understanding of what free markets were and how they worked, it made my political convictions more cogent by helping me bind together what I already believed with pure capitalism. I decided that I was a Libertarian, or more specifically a Minarchist.

It sat pretty well with my Christianity and I couldn't fault the idea of leaving people to do what they want with minimal state interference as well as a Non Aggression Principle, which some may find odd from a former infantry soldier but the reality is we very rarely engage the enemy first, (that's because they're usually hiding the sneaky sods) it's usually the other way around in my experience. Either way, this was it, this is where I was going.

I had no idea of the cacophony of negativity I was about to enter into..

Immediately I set out to find a political party with a like mind or something close to what I had discovered I agreed with in principle. A brief search of "Libertarian" and "UK" led me to the Libertarian Party UK website and after downloading the manifesto, having a good look through and familiarizing myself with it I decided that this would do so I purchased a membership and tried to find anything going on in my area.
Funnily enough there were no publicly libertarian fellows within Shropshire at all, not on FB or the rest of social media and so I resigned myself to Facebook groups and pages and what I found astounded me.
Lots and lots of unceasing bickering, not even debating, between people who all claimed to be "logical" and more "Libertarian" than those they were condemning as being "statists" or "authoritarian".

This was of course when they weren't talking about weed...(what Jesus is to Christianity, Marijuana seems to be to Libertarians)

Never did I see a voice appealing for some kind of unity, I just got the impression it was a bunch of very lonely people claiming to be more "libertarian-than-thou" and as far as I could see living in a fantasy where it was their way or no way. The party I joined came in for some digs as well but as far as I could tell not many who criticised had actually ever been involved with them. I was perplexed to say the least and the whole time I was wondering why these people, who clearly shared the basic fundamentals that Liberty is founded on, couldn't just find a common thread and get along?

It occurs to me that all libertarians share a common goal, more liberty, and they will never get it sat behind their computers on their thrones proselytizing and berating other churches in the faith. You're never going to achieve your ancap dreams by yourselves at your computer's, you're never going to chip away at that ever growing state if you're arguing over whether owning land or even defending yourself violates the NAP blah blah blah. All white noise and completely missing the essence of what I believed about Libertarianism, which was getting off your backside and actually going to DO something. Why should we leave it to the Corbynistas, the Communists and the idiots?

I was tired of being a "slacktavist", firing wasted rounds at what I saw as wrong in the world and the people who perpetuated it, I wanted to get off my kindle and do something, with people of a like mind around me and I honestly don't mind sacrificing a little time to achieve something. I'm struggling to find this desire from many of this small group.

After going to the Libertarian Party UK conference in Bloomsbury the other day I felt a glimmer of hope. As we conducted party business in the morning and discussion began in earnest it occurred to me that here are some people who really want to get things done and although I may disagree with some of their ideas, it was plainly obvious that we were all far more excited to get this movement started and come to an agreement than we were discuss property rights and Pinochet memes. I sat there wondering why other lovers of the ideas of liberty couldn't bother their backsides to make a trip or contribute to this group of people who clearly wanted to achieve?

"I'll never have anything to do with the LPUK" they puff "just a bunch of social authoritarians"

Yes mate, but you'll be all by yourself, sharing Rothbard and Rand quotes on Facebook and looking down your nose at people when you could be with an organization who might well listen to your suggestions or that you can even compromise with and that is when you can evangelize people through activism, share your ideas and even have your own challenged. It's no good being at home when you could be working with others making a concerted effort to take on the state and talk to people.

Are we all so afraid of that?

In the UK, to be a Libertarian is contrarian in itself, we will be a minority but only if we choose to take a comfy chair rather than beat the streets with a message to bring. Christ started with twelve and now there are billions of us, (that probably triggered some anarcho-atheist-veganist so I'll try a different tack in future) UKIP started as a tiny enclave of Conservative party members and now they are a powerful pressure group headed by arguably the most recognizable face in politics.

My politics are by no means set in stone at present and I'm not perfect but I would love for more Libertarians to make an effort and try to make some headway. Some might say that it can't be done through the LPUK but I would simply retort: "what are YOU doing?"

So come on, give it a whirl, it can't hurt to contribute. We should be supporting our very small Libertarian movement, not cutting off our nose to spite our face.