Is Libertarianism Utopian? - Zerowedgie essay

[Zenaan Harkness]

Is Libertarianism Utopian?
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-08/libertarianism-utopian

 Authored by Duncan Whitmore via The Mises Institute,

 Libertarianism – and any political position that leans towards a
 greater degree of freedom from the state – is opposed both ethically
 and economically on a number of substantive grounds. The proposition
 that without the state we would have inequality, destitution for the
 masses, rampant greed, and so on is a familiar charge which attempts
 to point out that libertarianism is undesirableand/or unjustifiable.

 A further point of opposition is that libertarianism and the drive
 towards it is simply utopian or idealistic, and that libertarians
 are hopeless day dreamers, lacking any awareness of how the world
 “really” works. In other words, that, regardless of whether it may
 be desirable, some combination of one or more of impossibility,
 improbability or the simple unwillingness of anyone to embrace the
 libertarian ideal renders libertarianism either wholly or primarily
 unachievable. It is this specific objection that we will address in
 this essay.

 Let us first of all recount the libertarian ethic of non-aggression,
 which states that no one may initiate any physical incursion against
 your body or your property without your consent. From this we can
 state that the goal of the libertarian project, broadly, is a world
 of minimised violence and aggression. Consequently, the questions we
 have to answer is whether a world of minimised violence and
 aggression is unachievable and, hence, utopian.

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