Libertarianism

There have been some comments lately seeking clarification on the meaning of libertarianism so here is the wiki link to libertarianism.  Some key excerpts:

The word stems from the French word libertaire. The use of the word "libertarian" to describe a set of political positions can be tracked to the French cognate, libertaire, which was coined in 1857 by French anarchist Joseph Déjacque who used the term to distinguish his libertarian communist approach from the mutualism advocated by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.[11] Hence libertarian has been used by some as a synonym for left anarchism since the 1890s.[12] The term libertarianism is commonly considered to be a synonym of anarchism in countries other than the US.[9] Albert Jay Nock and H.L. Mencken were the first prominent conservatives in the US to call themselves "libertarians," which they used to signify their allegiance to individualism and limited government, feeling that Franklin D. Roosevelt had co-opted the word "liberal" for his New Deal policies, which they opposed.

So looks like this whole concept came out of France in the latter half of the 1800s.  No coincidence then that the "Statue of Liberty" idol came from France to the U.S. in the late 1800s.  It must have been really big in France back then and eventually just spilled over into the U.S. and got in.

More information about the characteristics of this secular philosophy:

Libertarianism is the group of political philosophies which advocate minimizing coercion and emphasize freedom, liberty, and voluntary association. Libertarians generally advocate a society with significantly less government compared to most present day societies. There is no consensus on the precise definition of libertarianism. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines libertarianism as the moral view that agents initially fully own themselves and have certain moral powers to acquire property rights in external things.[1] George Woodcock, author of a history of libertarianism, defines it as the philosophy that fundamentally doubts authority and advocates transforming society by reform or revolution.[2] Libertarian philosopher Roderick Long defines libertarianism as "any political position that advocates a radical redistribution of power from the coercive state to voluntary associations of free individuals", whether "voluntary association" takes the form of the free market or of communal co-operatives.[3] According to the U.S. Libertarian Party, libertarianism is the advocacy of a government that is funded voluntarily and limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence.

So it looks like this philosophy "libertarianism" has no place in human history before the mid 19th century, and this relatively new to the scene philosophy is basically anti-authority and anti-civil government, really anti-civilization and anarchical.  It has found a place both on the political left and the political right in the present era which is interesting... hedged in from both sides!

This philosophy is at core what blinds the minds of those who are ignorant of, adverse to and oppose a tax "driven" state currency system like that which we have in place today here in the U.S.  Even though this is the type of system we have, the libertarians continue to deny this reality and are living in some sort of fantasy world of gold standards or private currencies, reserve banking, you name it; all sorts of ignorant libertarian ficticious alternatives to reality.

Some opposed are more overt about their opposition and up-front about it, for instance the Rothbardian right-libertarians, the right "gun culture", "gold lovers", etc..;  but this philosophy is also blinding the minds of the left-libertarians who just can't seem to embrace and understand the idea of a state currency system, and cling to the "we're out of money!" and "we're a debtor nation!" and the "we need a balanced budget!" mantras.

These left-libertarians are the ones Bill Mitchell has referred to as:  "friends like these...".

The left's libertarianism is covert, but it is always there and is a powerful enemy in this intellectual warfare we are engaged in.