Moral Libertarian

To heal Western society, and restore it to being balanced and stable, while being inclusive of diversity in both ideas and culture, a revival and expansion of liberal values across society needs to happen. Let me explain.




Basics

Liberalism is the ideology that is primarily concerned with liberty, above all else. Putting liberty first is the defining feature of liberalism, therefore. However, this cannot be liberalism’s only feature, for liberty is also found in various forms in other ideologies. For example, in traditional feudal societies with absolute monarchies, the King had almost unlimited liberty. The lords also had an amount of liberty much greater than any citizen in a modern liberal democracy: for example, they had the ‘liberty’ to own and trade slaves. The unique thing about liberalism is that it aims to distribute as equally as possible the liberty of each person in society. Therefore, while nobody can have the liberties of kings and nobles past, everyone can have their fair share of liberty. While liberals disagree on how liberty can be distributed most equally, with some arguing for NAP-based libertarianism and others arguing for a strong welfare state, this often unspoken shared principle is what we have in common.

In particular, liberalism (of some kind, including libertarianism*) is a much needed force in the Western political landscape. Western democracies are based on political campaigns for the popular vote, which could encourage the rise of authoritarian populism. Liberalism provides an important check against this danger. The recent collapse of libertarianism has enabled the rise of two forms of populist authoritarianism across many Western countries: the oppressor vs oppressed postmodern-critical far-left, and the culture war plus conspiracy theory far-right.

How does liberalism’s dedication to distributing liberty equally make it a moral ideology? To answer this question, we need to first look at what liberty is. Liberty is the power an individual has over their own actions, their ability to put their ideas into action. Therefore, looking at it from a moral perspective, liberty is moral agency, i.e. the ability to act in accordance with one’s moral compass. An equitable distribution of liberty therefore ensures an equitable distribution of moral agency. In this way, liberalism ensures that every individual in society has an equal share of moral agency. At this point, we need to turn to the fact that liberty (and hence moral agency) are also finite resources: if some have more, others must have less. If lords can command slaves (therefore having more liberty), slaves will not be able to act according to their own moral compass, and thus have no moral agency. Therefore, in an equal distribution of liberty (and hence moral agency), everyone can have full moral agency over their own beliefs and actions, but nobody can have moral agency over another. This, I would argue, makes liberalism the ONLY morally valid ideology in the context of the Western liberal-democratic system, where we have an individualistic, non-consensus-based way of thinking about what's right and wrong. (I believe we should not generalize our Western experience and/or impose it on other cultures, or otherwise disrespect people living in other cultures and contexts).

I believe that the principle of equality of moral agency is the most important principle in Western political morality, because it is the only way of distributing liberty (which is one and the same as moral agency, liberty being from a political rights perspective and moral agency from a moralistic perspective) in a Western democratic system that is consistent with the fact that every human being has equal moral standing from birth, and the fact that all human beings are flawed in some ways (i.e. not perfect and not capable of knowing the absolute truth in every sense).


For more about Moral Liberalism, read TaraElla's book.

Where to read
Paperback and Kindle at Amazon
Smashwords (multiple formats)
eBooks at Open Library (Multiple Formats) 

Further Points

In our moral system, the post-Enlightenment Western moral system, it is generally held that people should be entirely responsible for their own actions. Indeed, I would argue that, if this principle does not hold, our whole moral system would collapse. Hence, to be moral, in the context of our code of morality, is to be fully responsible for our own choices, our own decisions, and our own actions, and to make sure that these don’t result in negative outcomes, especially on other people. Our moral system places a particular emphasis on individual accountability and responsibility, and for our moral system to work, our culture and politics must support these notions clearly, and to the fullest extent possible. The Moral Libertarian principle of Equal Moral Agency for every individual is a principle derived from the individual accountability requirements of the Western moral system, and seeks to prevent lack of moral accountability. It ensures, as much as possible, that nobody has moral agency over another person’s actions, and that every person can act according to their own moral agency. This is where I believe the true heart of liberalism lies, and it is why I say that liberalism is the best expression of morality, as it is commonly agreed upon in our shared moral system. Given our individualistic moral code, I believe this is the only way to ensure morality is upheld. Anything else would violate the basic assumptions of our moral code, which would lead to deep confusion about what constitutes morality, as interwar Europe under fascism had shown, in a very disastrous way.

Furthermore, the individualistic, non-consensus-based nature of Western morality means that, whenever power is concentrated in a few hands, those few people will exercise their power solely according to their own sense of morality, not because it’s their fault, not because it’s the system’s fault, but because it’s what Western morality actually expects people to do. In this situation, there will inevitably be a lack of moral accountability, which means a lack of moral responsibility.

In particular, all my political and social commentary assumes the context of a Western liberal democratic system, where there is approximately one person one vote to elect our governments, where interest groups and ideological factions aim to sway the decisions of voters, and where a government of almost any ideology could be elected, potentially beholden to one or more interest groups. In such a system, if voters receive biased information due to interference with free speech, they could get their decision totally wrong. If they elect a culturally authoritarian government that, for example, treats people differently based on identity or opinion, this would have severe moral consequences. It is this situation that Moral Libertarianism was specifically developed to guard against.

This is why, compared to all other available options (e.g. postmodern critical theory, identity politics, postliberal 'conservatism', and authoritarian religious movements like Catholic integralism etc.), liberalism is still the most morally sound path for Western democratic societies going forward, and most likely to get us to the best resolution for the controversial social issues we face. 
 
* The difference in the way I use the terms 'libertarian' and 'classical liberal' is that I see 'libertarian' as an ideal, an ideal that is very necessary as an inspiration and a moral reference point for us, but also an ideal that is not practical to implement in reality, at least in the immediate present. This is why I prefer a politics of libertarian-inspired reformism instead. I define reformism as a politics of aiming to gradually make things better, informed by both the Enlightenment belief in the ability of rationality to improve things, and the Burkean conservative belief that change should be based on practical circumstances rather than abstract ideas, and should be rooted in a given society's traditions as much as possible. My aim is to reconcile libertarian ideals with a reformist politics, so that we gradually and practically reform society towards a more liberal state over time. This, I think, is most consistent with the original ideals of classical liberalism. Having said all this, I still believe that the maintenance of the libertarian ideal, if only as a philosophical ideal, is very important, if liberty is to survive the onslaught of illiberalism coming from all directions at the moment.


Popular posts from this blog

The TaraElla Story

TaraElla Original 2014 - Not That Kind of Retro

The Progressive Side of Woke Skepticism Must Be Heard