SFE blog Consectatio posts on whether it’s hypocritical or inconsistent for those advocating small government to want to be a part of government.  That’s a topic we discussed at our conference on Saturday as well, and some differing and interesting ideas were shared.

As I’ve shared before, I don’t think politicians are the most important element, or even very important at all, in bringing about change.  That said, everyone has different talents and abilities, and as former state lawmaker and current county commissioner Leon Drolet said at the conference , “some of us don’t have any skills at all, so we have to be politicians”.

I’d rather have politicians who love liberty than those who don’t, but I don’t put much hope in politicians, even “good” ones, to change the world for freedom or to get very far in politics.  Public Choice Economics predicts that being good at politics will nearly always mean favoring more government and less liberty.  And as F.A. Hayek noted in The Road to Serfdom, the system is stacked in such a way that the worst get to the top more often than not.

So, if you want to advance liberty, should you avoid government, or engage in it?

Encouragement to those who want to spread the message

Most people value liberty. At their core, most people prefer freedom to coercion, choice to mandates, and peace to violence. Many people just don’t know it.

Libertarians often lament the difficulty of convincing the world that freedom is the most moral and practical choice. But understanding the nature of the struggle is key to overcoming it. As tough as it seems, convincing people of libertarian ideas is seldom like pulling teeth. It’s more like introducing someone to alcohol for the first time.

It’s unfamiliar, a bit too strong and kind of weird. The first taste doesn’t sit well. The second isn’t much better. A little more time and a few more tries and it’s tolerable, but certainly nothing to write home about. Before long life is enhanced by it’s frequent enjoyment and the initiated find that they do things under its influence they couldn’t have imagined before. (Inevitably, some pictures of those things end up on Facebook, but before long they go from embarrassing to brag-worthy.)

With drink and liberty, you must start sweet, without much potency. Starting with Ludwig von Mises’s Human Action is like introducing an abstainer to alcohol with a keg-stand. The uninitiated typically respond to “foo foo” very well. At first they’ll tell you it’s the sweetness they like, and that they could do without the potent ingredients. Keep serving them. Soon, the sweetness will be an unnecessary afterthought, and they will imbibe to get the good stuff and get it fast.

There’s something in human beings that almost universally reacts to alcohol. It’s nearly always an acquired taste, yet throughout history the peoples and societies that have tried it have fallen in love with it, created new versions of it and even invented elaborate games and festivities around it. It is enjoyed by people of every race, religion, language and custom. So it is with liberty.

If someone coughs and winces a bit when you offer them their first taste of liberty, don’t be discouraged. Sweeten it up, serve it again and wait for the results. Soon they’ll be a “social” libertarian; next they’ll brag about how much liberty they can handle, and finally, if the substance works its magic, they’ll be consuming Human Action even when alone.

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Note: Don’t get carried away. Like all analogies, it obviously breaks down at some point. Too much alcohol is very, very bad.  Freedom on the other hand, like truth and justice, is not something that can be had in excess, as it is itself the mean between vices.  If you’re in a huff about this claim, read this.

Find more videos like this on Bureaucrash Social

Joe is a hero because he’s an outlaw.  He is (horror!) practicing his personal liberty to offer plumbing services without groveling at the feet of some state board of plumbing.  I also heard that he’s not registered to vote, to which some radio commentator acted offended that he dare to question a candidate if he’s not interested in politics enough to vote.  I think Joe has good reason to ignore politics.  No politicians from any party is going to help Joe achieve his dreams; he’s gotta do that on his own, hoping governments at all levels will simply leave him alone.  Oh that he were as fortunate.

(Here’s an article about how dumb non-voluntary professional licensing is, and who it’s really for).

The 2008 Students for Freedom Conference is less than a month away.  This event, a one-day deal with all meals provided as well as some great materials, will be a one-of-a-kind experience featuring some truly great minds in the battle for liberty.  The 12 speakers will be presenting on how to effectively spread the ideas of liberty through writing, blogging, video, events in the political, academic and cultural spheres and more.

For me, trying to discover how to fight against the overwhelming tendency to let “liberty yield” is a consuming passion.  Every time I see news stories, movies, books, advertisements, etc. that elevate the government and, often unknowingly, denigrate liberty I wonder how we can fight it.  How can liberty overcome the forces of big government, special interests, apathy, and the desires of silver-tongued and power-hungry politicians?  There is a way.

In fact, if you look back on the history of the world you can see a general movement toward liberty.  Even something as reprehensible as slavery was around in this country not 200 years ago.  But the movement towards liberty did not happen overnight, or inevitably.  It took relentless effort by intellectual and cultural movers and shakers to awaken people from the slumber of servitude to the pure air of freedom.  From thinkers like John Locke to pamphleteers like Thomas Paine to novelists like Ayn Rand to economists like Milton Friedman to reporters like John Stossel; the defense and advance of liberty is forged by the efforts of those who have not only dedication, but insight into the most effective means of reaching their fellow man.  The beauty is, there isn’t just one way.  The individuals listed found their unique talent and passion and applied it in a way that only they could.

I want to be one of those voices for freedom.  So do you.  The Students for Freedom Conference is a phenomenal way to start honing your ability to advance the precious idea of liberty in whatever sphere you are most capable.  The speakers are wholeheartedly advancing liberty, each in their own sphere, and they are taking an entire day to share with us what they’ve learned.  I do not want to miss it, and neither do you.

Register online here.

SFE is joining with Students for Liberty to host a conference for liberty-minded students in the Midwest.  A dozen of the best speakers and activists in the movement will be sharing best practices for promoting liberty on campus.  Panels will covers how to effectively market the ideas of liberty through writing, blogging, video, events in the political, academic and cultural spheres and more.  With Keynote Speaker Larry Reed, former President of the Mackinac Center and current President of the Foundation for Economic Education, and a slew of other speakers from the Midwest, this will be a rallying event for the cause of liberty in the region.

Space is limited, so register online today!

Here’s a list of speakers:

Larry Reed, Foundation for Economic Education

Nigel Ahsford, Institute for Humane Studies

Jason Talley, Atlas Economic Research Center

John Tillman, Illinois Policy Institute

Gerry Nicholls, Political Strategist

Joe Lehman, Mackinac Center

Leon Drolet, Michigan Taxpayers Alliance

Professor Harry C. Veryser, Jr., University of Detroit Mercy

Nick De Leeuw, RightMichigan.com

Leslie Graves, Lucy Burns Institute

Michael Jahr, Mackinac Center

Tom Shull, Mackinac Center

An article I wrote over at Mises.org:

As the presidential election nears, I hear more people voicing their fear over the prospect of the other candidate winning. People from both major parties express genuine trepidation at the thought of a world without their candidate as commander in chief. Both sides believe we will lose our freedom if the wrong party wins.

Perhaps surprisingly, I think there’s a lesson to be learned in all this from Hollywood.

The 1994 movie Shawshank Redemption is the fictional story of Andy Dufresne, a prisoner at the infamous Shawshank Penitentiary. One of Dufresne’s fellow inmates, Brooks Hatlen, has spent nearly his entire life in Shawshank, and has settled in to the routine and become the prison’s bookkeeper. After a lifetime in prison, Hatlen is finally freed as an old man. Once on the outside, Hatlen finds life beyond bars too complicated and confusing, too new, too risky. He cannot cope with this newfound freedom after a life of bondage and, tragically, he commits suicide.

Brooks Hatlen forgot how to be free. He became accustomed to bondage and let the yearning for freedom die within him over his long stay in the penitentiary.

Andy Dufresne, on the other hand, never let his freedom die. While locked in Shawshank, despite oppressive and often gruesome circumstances, Dufresne’s spirit was unshakable. He constantly cultivated the seeds of freedom in the least free setting imaginable. When Dufresne escaped, unlike Hatlen, he embraced life in the free air and pursued his dreams.

The difference between these two men had nothing to do with their physical circumstances; both were in prison. Yet Andy Dufresne, even while imprisoned, was still free. No bars or guards or hardships could take away his freedom. Hatlen had lost his freedom, and even in the absence of physical oppression, he was still a prisoner. An individual who wants to be free can be, no matter what the world brings. An individual who has let the spirit of freedom die will never be free, no matter what the world brings.

The idea that freedom is simply a state of mind may sound trifling, especially when considering some of the unimaginable horrors faced by unfree peoples across the globe. But even political freedom cannot be had without a people who keep the spirit of freedom alive within themselves; and if they do, political freedom is often not far behind.

Lawrence Reed, president of the Foundation for Economic Education, tells an inspiring story of an underground band of freedom fighters in formerly communist Poland. Their spirit of freedom was kept alive despite a tyrannical Communist regime. Indeed, they not only held onto their belief in freedom, but they spread it, often at great risk to their lives. When the Communist authorities finally announced that they were relinquishing their power the reason they gave was that the Polish people had become “ungovernable.” No regulations, no prisons, no secret police, no propaganda, no physical or political suppression could take away the people’s freedom. They were free, whether the government liked it or not.

Keep this in mind as America’s government changes with each election. Remember this when you see government expanding its reach into your life. Rather than looking to political leaders to protect or expand our freedom we should cultivate the seeds of freedom in our own spirits, and inspire others to do the same. Nothing government can do can take away our freedom; and if we are a people who are truly free, the government will have to follow.

By Don Boudreaux from Cafehayek :

Today is Constitution Day in the United States. On this date in 1787, 39 delegates to the constitutional convention in Philadelphia signed the document that was soon to be ratified by the states as the U.S. Constitution. (It replaced, of course, the Articles of Confederation.)

It’s impossible, I suspect, to find anyone who regards the Constitution as perfect, either in what it says and doesn’t say, or in the ways it’s been interpreted and applied through the years. But this much I am confident of: the 1787 Constitution succeeded in the framers’ goal of creating a huge free-trade zone. For all of the courts’ (and the Court’s) questionable interpretations of this document, and for all of its abuse at the hands of Congresses and Presidents, efforts by state and local governments to protect producers from competition outside of their jurisdictions have largely failed. Sure there are exceptions. But the fact that Floridians can buy oranges from California, Californians can buy wine from Washington state, residents of Washington state can buy apples from North Carolina, North Carolinians can buy seafood from Louisiana, and on and on, is a happy testament to the success of the Constitution’s commerce clause in creating a huge duty-free (and now transcontinental) market that encouraged the division of labor to deepen and, hence, promoted incredible, widespread prosperity.

It is with great pleasure that we invite you to participate in the first Midwest Students For Freedom Conference at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, on Saturday, November 8th. This conference is a collaborative project of Students For Liberty (SFL) and SFE, hosted by the University of Michigan College Libertarians. SFL is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide a student-driven forum of support for students and student organizations dedicated to liberty.

In February, 2008, SFL hosted an international conference with significant SFE participation and collaboration that spurred student interest in the cause of liberty. Following in the footsteps of this international conference, the Midwest Students For Freedom Conference will bring the most dedicated students and leaders of liberty in the area together to discuss liberty and best practices for promoting liberty on campus. With Keynote Speaker Larry Reed, former President of the Mackinac Center and current President of the Foundation for Economic Education, and a slew of other speakers from the Midwest, we are certain that this will be a rallying event for the cause of liberty in the region.

Visit the conference webpage to register and to find more information here .

There is no application process for this conference. The first 50 students to register for the Conference will be accepted to participate. Changes to acceptances will not occur barring extreme circumstances. To register for the Conference, please visit the conference webpage .

Facebook event here .