Covid and the Libertarian nightmare

Nothing illustrates the libertarian dream better than the barn-raising: word gets out in a community that a neighbor needs help building a barn. Maybe a pastor announces it in church. Maybe a shop owner posts a flier. People show up at the announced time with the necessary tools and muscles. They’re eager to help, joyful. It’s a day of sweat and celebration.

Young Tina is home for the summer from engineering school. She has ideas, based on the latest science, about how to make the barn more earthquake-safe. You’re tempted to ignore the more expensive approach, but what if something bad happens later? What if your neighbors remember that you ignored good advice, and so find other things to do when you need them? You weigh the risks and benefits—and decide to build it right.

Everyone works hard all day, and, in the end, everyone feels accomplished, free, happy. They enjoy the voluntary work, without government interference. Community spirit and self-interest worked together for a good result.

The libertarian philosophy is rooted in a profound truth: We are “governed” by more than just “government.” “Governance” is not the same thing as “government.” Governance can also be found in the free market, and in the civic organizations that shape our communities. Your church is a civic organization. The tea party is a civic organization. So is Black Lives Matter. To the Libertarian, freedom is greater when we rely on these civic organizations for our mutual aide, our health, our welfare. On the other hand, freedom is diminished when we turn to government.

But this is where theory and reality get divorced. People who think of themselves as freedom-loving libertarians have a really hard time with any governance at all.

Nothing illustrates the limits of the libertarian dream like the pandemic. If libertarianism worked, freedom-loving individuals would be turning to their civic organizations to try and address the crisis in our over-stressed hospitals. They would be organizing car-pools to help their neighbors get vaccinated. They would be wearing masks, and they would be encouraging their neighbors to do so. In other words, they would have taken a problem-solving approach, building a firewall against “government interference” by doing the right thing themselves. They wouldn’t waste their time inventing bizarre, unscientific cures. Businesses would mandate vaccinations and/or masks—not because of government mandates, they would argue, but because protecting their customers and employees is the rational free-market response to the crisis.

But what have the freedom-loving libertarians done? None of that. Instead, they’ve concocted wild, elaborate fantasies about vaccines and masks—stories that are so discombobulated that they make the actual science seem almost easy in comparison. They show up screaming threats at school board meetings and city council meetings. They insult their neighbors who happen to be doctors and nurses.

The results are clear to anyone willing to open their eyes: Our hospitals are in a crisis. We have the lowest vaccination in the country, and our health care workers are being intimidated. They are afraid to even ask a patient about vaccinations, for fear of being spat upon—or worse. All this, because people are more afraid of confronting the truth than they are of confronting a disease. The libertarian dream has turned into a nightmare.