Gary Johnson recently came to speak at my college. In an interview for the school paper, he claimed to have no intellectual influences. Heroes disappoint us, he said, and he preferred to avoid that disappointment. I found this answer deeply disappointing, and indicative of a larger problem: willful ignorance of tradition and the past in many libertarian circles. In the world of libertarianism, there is an understandable focus on the future. The vision of the libertarian of an age of freedom from oppression seems to be a utopian ideal that can only be realized through innovation and destruction of existing social order. The images of a libertarian future are distinctly tinged with science fiction: floating cities free from nation-states, or high-tech paradises of unbounded innovation. These images have led to the opinion that libertarians are dreamers stuck in a world of ideas that will never be realized. Coupled with the anti-institutional tendencies running through libertarianism, this is a recipe for a seemingly irreparable break between libertarianism and tradition. Libertarians are highly skeptical of traditional institutions like the church and family, and tend to be “socially liberal.” Libertarians reject state force as a tool to implement conceptions of marriage, family, or personal behavior. Often, by extension, libertarians favor behaviors that would be judged immoral by traditional standards. The combination of utopian vision and social libertinism has led to a sharp break with the traditional conservatism of Russell Kirk and others. While there are necessarily differences between advocates of tradition and libertarianism, let us not forget that traditional conservatives like Kirk were vehemently anti-Empire. Unlike the neo-conservatives of our day, Kirk was appalled by atrocities like the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Kirk’s conservatism was more an attitude toward the wisdom of the past than specific advocacy of any set of positions (he hated ideologies.) Libertarians must rediscover tradition, for it has many lessons to teach about the modern state and how to fight it.

Understanding of the past indicates the humility of a generation that realizes we are not alone in our pursuit of the liberty due to human beings. Libertarianism is deeply concerned with the human person and human identity. To assert that we can understand ourselves without considering our origin, our forefathers, and our history is pure arrogance that too often is mixed in with libertarian theory. The libertarian conception of human dignity depends on something from the past, whether a theory of origins like the image of God, common law (the development of customs protecting liberty over generations), or even reason, resting on the work of Aristotle, Aquinas, Locke, and Jefferson. The contribution of tradition and history is a sense of place and gratitude. As Kirk puts it in The Problem of Tradition, tradition includes

“[G]ratitude not merely to the generations that have preceded us in this life, but gratitude toward the eternal order, and the source of that order, which raises man above the brutes.”

Despite all their faults and disagreements, libertarians should honor those who have gone before in the struggle for liberty. Tradition also contains an element of beauty and understanding of community.

“Traditions are the wisdom of the race; they are the only sure instruments of moral instruction; they have about them a solemnity and a mystery… and they teach us the solemn veneration of the eternal contract which cannot be imparted by pure reason.”

No matter how suspicious libertarians are of tradition, we must realize that it is how we train our children and how we came to appreciate liberty. The works of Mises, Bastiat, Rothbard, Proudhon, Spooner, etc. form a tradition of a type. Most libertarians can recount stories of reading books published by men long since dead as they grew in their understanding of liberty. Nor need tradition be confined only to those with whom we agree. Those who have failed to appreciate certain elements still made contributions to human understanding. As Kirk himself recognizes,

“I do not say that tradition ought to be our only guide, nor that tradition is always beneficent. There have been ages and societies in which tradition, stifling the creative faculty among men, put an end to variety and change, and so oppressed mankind with the boredom of everlasting worship of the past. In a healthy nation, tradition must be balanced by some strong element of curiosity and individual dissent.”

But blind rejection or ignorance of the past will leave us poorer. Tradition is not merely the record of oppression by the powers that be, but reflects the human desire to find justice and understand our place in relation with others. Tradition certainly has its place, a testimony to humility and memory of wise men throughout the ages.

Tradition grounds opposition to oppression in the “eternal verities” or “permanent things” of the human person, truths that stand across time and era. Libertarianism is especially devoted to principles of liberty, property, and non-aggression. From Rothbard to Ron Paul, this has led to the “extremist” label. Libertarians often take this even to a fault, constantly fighting and dividing on internal issues. Why is this the case? It is because libertarians believe in unchanging truths. Libertarians believe in principles like the non-aggression principle and private property rights. These are universal assertions about morality and human behavior. A person has a right to their body, and thus not to be harmed, or conversely, a person has an obligation not to harm another person. Without some type of tradition, this is simply an unsupported statement. Why is it wrong to stop a person from doing what they want with their bodies on their property? Because we believe human beings are persons worthy of certain treatment. Tradition provides a reference point for abstract concepts like the non-aggression principle. The Golden Rule, taught by Christianity and other world religions, teaches respect of the human person and the necessity of treating others as we would like to be treated. The oral tradition of teachers like Buddha and Christ provide inspiration for many libertarians. Others find liberty in biblical or even Islamic law. Men in the past have left us records of their commitment to freedom. The Declaration of Independence and the writings of the anti-Federalists contain great wisdom, eloquently warning of the evils of tyranny. Other documents like the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights offer checks placed upon the state throughout history. Tradition can also teach the success or failure of policies in the past. Libertarians frequently appeal to the Wild West or stateless societies in Iceland and other places in their defense of libertarian ideals. The fact is that our very way of reasoning depends of the contributions of thinkers across history, including the ancient Greeks, Christian scholars like Aquinas, Enlightenment thinkers, and advocates of natural law. Without the past, the libertarian ideology could not exist. If we ignore the past, driven by arrogance or religious intolerance, we are losing an essential element of the human person, a glimpse of the permanent things. If I could presume to offer advice to libertarians like Gary Johnson who feel betrayed by heroes and the past, I would advise a return to the eternal verities, to great men of the past who have wrestled with us to protect liberty. In success or failure, their experiences provide us with a new understanding of the human person, a prerequisite in any search for liberty.

For more from Timothy Troutner, please visit his blog at….http://dkmz.net/

Works Cited

Epperson, Emmaline. “The Interview: Gary Johnson.” The Hillsdale Collegian. 4 April 2013: page 1. Print.

Kirk, Russell. A Program for Conservatives. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1954. Print.