Book Burnings & Social Media "Feeds"

By Chris Rossini

Those who advocate government power view people very differently from those who champion the ideas of liberty.

Advocates of government power seek to shield you from opposing ideas. You're not supposed to even know that they exist. The names Hayek, von Mises, or Rothbard are never to come across your stream of thoughts.

If, in modern times, your thought stream is increasingly tied to a social media "feed," then those names are to be tweaked out of the algorithm.

Your "feed" will be scrubbed nice and clean of any unapproved thoughts. Think of it as the modern version of book burning.

Advocates of liberty, on the other hand, are not afraid of opposing ideas. Go ahead and pick up a book by Marx, or Keynes, or Bernie Sanders, or anyone else.

Read all of them!

It's not a threat to Liberty, but rather a part of it.

You have the natural liberty to read whatever and whoever you want, even if it means reading authors who despise individuality and freedom.

You're 100% responsible for your life.

Your thoughts...Your beliefs....Your convictions....They're all yours!

Of course, the advocate of Liberty will try to persuade you to see the folly in Marxism, Keynesianism, and "Democratic Socialism," but you're the judge as to which side you come down on.

You're not the property of the libertarian. The libertarian is not your shepherd, making sure that you stay within the wired fence.

You belong to you.

Advocates of government power don't see it this way. In their eyes, you're 100% their responsibility. They have fashioned themselves as masters of your domain. They'll set up the wired fence (or electronic fence, or "feed") and your job is to stay within it. They'll watch over you from birth until death and will make sure that you're safe and secure.

Of course, the ideas of Liberty are like kryptonite to them. If you were to discover that you're the master of your own fate, that throws a monkey wrench into the whole operation.

You're free to obey, in their eyes.

That's it.

And so, they must protect you from the reality that is yourself.

In their reality is where you belong. 

Now get back to your approved "feed".

Or, as the libertarian would offer as an alternative suggestion:

​Don't.