What is it about libertarianism that so appeals young college students? Is it the subversive appeal of identifying with a third party? Or could it be the feeling of ideological satisfaction that comes from basing every political belief on a pure philosophical system, without regard to the messy realities, necessary compromises, and pragmatic concerns of real-world politics?
They say if you’re not a liberal at age 20, you have no heart. And if you’re not a conservative by age 40, you have no head. Maybe we should add that if you are not a libertarian at age 25, you may be on your way to being headless in middle age.
We’ve all had our libertarian phase, haven’t we?
In today’s feature story at The College Fix, recent Bryn Mawr College graduate Julie Ershadi reports on this year’s Students for Liberty conference in Washington, D.C. Among the facts in her article is this little nugget:
No doubt due to the heightened tenor of the tortuous American election season, political discussion dominated some of the formal and many of the informal conversations at ISFLC. Presidential candidate Representative Ron Paul won 71% of the vote in the straw poll. This fact, announced during the closing remarks, was met with resounding cheers and applause from the audience.
Only 71 percent at a libertarian students conference? Looks like Paul needs to shore up his base!
Anecdote: In the 1960s I was awarded an NSF undergraduate summer research grant in a STEM field. They paid me $600 to go to Kansas. Nowadays, if one's field happens to be astrophysics, the NSF might pay you $8000 to go to Hawaii. Sigh.
Anyhow, it was held on the campus of KU. My roomate was of the Ayn Rand disposition. At that time, I had never heard of Atlas Shrugged or the like. He was hard core. As phrased above, I thought then (and think now) that is was based on "the feeling of ideological satisfaction that comes from basing every political belief on a pure philosophical system, without regard to the messy realities, necessary compromises, and pragmatic concerns of real-world politics." Understand that all participants, except myself, came from relatively privileged backgrounds. Even at that point in my life, I understood that you can't always get what you want, and that merit is a myth in many cases.
The roomate was so determined to identify with Objectivism that I decided to give him a hard time. Despite the fact that I am not a hippie and don't do drugs, I started to see a "cosmic aura" around things (including him). I recommended Beethoven's Ninth Symphony as the height of German race-based philosophy, and he enjoyed listening to it, at my suggestion, right up to the point where he read the translation.
Om.
The upside is that many years later, when I was teaching at a community college (and after I had worked in industry and run my own small business), I took Economics in my spare time. Luckily, the instructor (part-timer, of course) was somewhat of the Objectivist type, rather than the socialist type. I say "somewhat" because the guy was old enough to know that the Ayn Rand thing is a credo in itself, not necessarily real world.
Even in the ultra-leftist university town from which I send this message, many know Ron Paul and libertarianism. It's like single-malt scotch.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIndeed, I have had my libertarian phase. From about the junior year in HS until sophmore year in college (missed voting for Goldwater by one year! - bummer!), until I met and chatted with Wm F Buckley at a conservative student get-together of some sort. Quite an eye-opening experience. Been a "practical" conservative ever since.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe subject of increasing libertarianism among colllege students is the subject of an exchange I've had with Georgetown professor Patrick Deneen. Deneen wrote a Minding the Campus piece lamenting it and I replied here:
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I used to be a conservative, but as I aged and learned more about the way government really works, I've become an anarcho-capitalist libertarian.
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