 By Chris Rossini Our lives are ruled by the ideas that dominate them. If the ideas of liberty, peace and prosperity excite you, and you want to do something about it, it's probably time to find out what you're up against. The opponents of liberty are many. Liberty advocates are outmanned, but not outgunned. Nothing is more powerful than the truth. It's always a good idea to know your opponents. Understand them inside and out. How do they think? What do they believe? What do they say? Read their books and articles. Don't just surround yourself in a bubble of libertarian writing and videos. This is the exact opposite of what most of liberty's opponents do. They don't understand liberty and often have no intentions of ever understanding it. They don't read libertarian books or articles, but surround themselves with those who only agree with them. Their tactics are all the same: smear, name-call, distort, and hide the truth. So let's start looking at the ideas that dominate so many minds today, and thus create the unfree world that we see around us. I've grouped the ideas into three broad categories: The Dead, The Dying, and The Alive & Kicking. This is not a comprehensive study of our opponents, but a launching pad for those who are hungry for some direction. If you're hungry, you'll dive in and put the pieces together by using the resources given at the end of this article. The Dead Communism & Socialism Communism and socialism carry the torch on how bad ideas can lead to complete disaster. No private individual, group of individuals, or corporation can generate the amount of destruction that governments can create under a communistic/socialistic regime. The 19th century acts as a great educational example on how government can literally kill hundreds of millions of its own people, all for an impossible and utopian idea. While authoritarians surely still exist in our world, they've at least ditched communism and socialism as their dominating ideologies. Can these ideas be revived again someday? Of course. People are always capable of repeating their mistakes. But as of today, there are only a couple of communist/socialist countries left in the world (Cuba, North Korea, etc.) and no one is looking to emulate them. The authoritarians of the world have ditched socialism in favor of the ideas of fascism, which we'll cover in more detail below. We can thank the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises for driving the final intellectual nail into the coffin of socialism. For he was the one to show that socialist leaders are unable to calculate without market prices. In other words, without market prices, there's no way to rationally know where resources should be added to, and where they should be withdrawn from. Socialism, (i.e., where government owns all the means of production) must always be an irrational basket-case. So while there are surely so-called "socialists" in our midst (much like there are people who still believe that the Earth is flat) there are other more menacing ideas that need to be tackled by the advocate of Liberty. The Dying Keynesianism These are the ideas that fall under the works of the late John Maynard Keynes. They are the antithesis of sound money, free markets, and the sanctity of private property. They are also the ideas that power the largely fascist-dominated economies of the world (which includes the U.S.) today. The good news is that the ideas of Keynesianism are running on fumes. Ever since the 1970's, the walls have been closing in on them. Ultimately they're going to find themselves in a box and they won't be able to get out. Time is not on their side. Until then, the liberty advocate must continue to pound away at all of their errors, and point the way to economic sanity. What Keynesians say: - "Do you think the Fed Chairman will raise rates at the next meeting?" - "The Fed needs to stimulate the economy." - "If people don't start spending soon, we're headed for another recession." Neoconservatism Neoconservative ideas power the U.S. military empire and the never-ending string of wars that have existed most (if not all of) your life. The neocons are behind them. Their goal is for the U.S. to be the world's sole superpower. If neocon ideas power the U.S. empire, and the empire is the biggest that the world has ever seen, why are their ideas in "The Dying" category? Well, things are not always as they seem. Neocon wars have been spectacular failures...unbelievable failures...and the ramifications continue to pile up with each passing day. Neoconservative war making has nothing but Keynesian money-printing to give them a few more puffs of oxygen. After that, they are toast. Liberty advocates must continue to state the obvious and push for a foreign policy of non-intervention and peace. What Neocons say: - "What should the president do about Syria?" - "Do you think the president will go to war over XYZ?" - "We need to beat them over there, rather than over here." - "America is an exceptional nation bringing freedom and democracy to the rest of the world." The Alive & Kicking Now it's time to get to the menacing ideas that deserve constant rebuke from liberty advocates. Fascism The notorious fascist Benito Mussolini described Fascism as such: "Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." This is the idea that authoritarians around the world have latched onto: the marriage of government and corporations. In other words, the outward appearance of a marketplace that is guided by government force. While countries under socialism quickly reach the point of disaster, fascism is a process of slowly bleeding civilization to death. It is for this reason that the fascist economy is also known as a "vampire" economy. The solution, of course, is a free market with sound money instead of government central planners printing up counterfeit money by the trillions. This is the big economic battle of our day. What Fascists say: - "We need government and business to work together to solve the XYZ problem." - "The free market can't fix this problem alone." - "We need 'common sense regulations' to confront the XYZ problem." Cultural Marxism While economic communism/socialism may be dead as a doornail, the Marxists did not leave the scene without unleashing a bunch of zombie ideas on the rest of us. The goal is to destroy western culture. The best way to sum up their tactics are "create the problem" and "divide & conquer". We see Cultural Marxist propaganda everywhere. These are the thought police and political correctness bullies. In their utopian fantasy, when western culture is finally destroyed, they will raise up people who can finally understand and appreciate economic Marxism. What Cultural Marxists say: -Bigotry, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, fat shaming, ageism, trans-, bi-, eco-, pan-, whiteness, privilege .... All to be regulated, monitored, and controlled by violent government force. A mental prison for everyone, if everyone is foolish enough to allow it. Resources This was just a very broad overview of the major opponents of liberty. You can become a master at understanding liberty's opponents by visiting the following sites: - Ron Paul Liberty Report - The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity - LewRockwell.com - The Mises Institute - EconomicPolicyJournal.com - TargetLiberty.com - TomWoods.com - Future of Freedom Foundation - Sovereign Man - International Man - ZeroHedge Where does Ron Paul buy his gold? Call Monday-Friday 7:00 AM - 5:00 PM (PST)
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