Somebody wants to know what I think of Libertarianism

Somebody wants to know what I think of Libertarianism: "A reader asks

Hey Mark, you often say that libertarianism is for people without children. Could you elaborate on that a little bit (either on the blog or in an email)? I'm really feeling drawn to small-l libertarianism, if not to formal Libertarian Party membership. I'd like to hear your perspective on it. Thanks!

Basically, libertarianism is a reaction to statism. Statism tends to emphasize the power of the state under the claim of pursuing solidarity or the common good. Libertarianism tends to emphasize individualism under the claim of pursuing subsidiarity and human liberty. Both are distortions of Catholic teaching. In the case of libertarianism, it tends to emphasize human freedom as the highest good, including over the good of legitimate social obligations (such as those owed to the generation to come after ours). It has, what the Prophet Chesterton observes as the mark which characterizes most modern political movements: the ability to critique what is wrong with the thing it is rebelling against while maintaining a singular weakness in really being able to articulate what a sane and good human culture should be. It gives voice to the human cry to be let alone, which is fine when you are addressing a nanny state, but not much good when you are talking to your wife and kids, the poor, the orphan or the widow. In small doses it can be a medicine. But in large doses and as an All-Explaining Theory of Everything it is merely an addiction that is taken for a drug in place of the food called love.

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