Professor John Hasnas asserts in his intriguing January 2009 blog post "What It Feels Like to Be a Libertarian" that life as a libertarian entails "living with an almost unendurable level of frustration." Maybe. I think it depends on the worldview of the libertarian.
Libertarians can broadly be divided into the two following groups: activists and non-activists. Activist libertarians generally believe the state can be changed from within, liberty can be achieved in their lifetime, and non-libertarians can be easily persuaded of the merits of liberty if they are only exposed to the basic libertarian arguments. Non-activist libertarians generally believe the state cannot be changed from within, liberty will not be achieved in their lifetime, and non-libertarians are rarely persuaded of the merits of liberty even when they are exposed to the basic libertarian arguments.
It is simple to intuit from my description of the world-views of the 2 main groups of libertarians that each group typically experiences different levels of frustration. Activist libertarians generally experience a high level of frustration because their world-view is false. Non-activist libertarians experience a low level of frustration because their world-view is true.
Until recently I was an activist libertarian and EXTREMELY frustrated. Now that I have accepted reality and become a non-activist libertarian my frustration level has minimized and I am much happier and much more productive as a libertarian. I recommend a similar conversion for all activist libertarians.
Libertarians can broadly be divided into the two following groups: activists and non-activists. Activist libertarians generally believe the state can be changed from within, liberty can be achieved in their lifetime, and non-libertarians can be easily persuaded of the merits of liberty if they are only exposed to the basic libertarian arguments. Non-activist libertarians generally believe the state cannot be changed from within, liberty will not be achieved in their lifetime, and non-libertarians are rarely persuaded of the merits of liberty even when they are exposed to the basic libertarian arguments.
It is simple to intuit from my description of the world-views of the 2 main groups of libertarians that each group typically experiences different levels of frustration. Activist libertarians generally experience a high level of frustration because their world-view is false. Non-activist libertarians experience a low level of frustration because their world-view is true.
Until recently I was an activist libertarian and EXTREMELY frustrated. Now that I have accepted reality and become a non-activist libertarian my frustration level has minimized and I am much happier and much more productive as a libertarian. I recommend a similar conversion for all activist libertarians.
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