A Course in Miracles: Libertarians Becoming Conservative?

Why do libertarians (and classical liberals) evolve into conservatives?

Many cultures identify wisdom with advanced age. We've all heard statements like, "the older I get the more I realize how little I really know." No one can deny that the longer one has lived the more beliefs held when young have been proven wrong.

In fact, it is a principle of enlightenment that the universe tends to rearrange itself to prove to the open-minded observer that beliefs once "set in stone" in one's mind do not after all warrant being "set in stone."

One might argue: "but if I'm not to have beliefs set in stone, wouldn't that make me swishy-washy with no solid foundation?"

Quite the opposite. Not having one's mind fixed in set beliefs means one's mind is open to hearing inside the truth of the universe here and now ... the most solid foundation of all.

Okay, but what fixed belief do many young libertarians hold in mind which they later discover is not true?

Young people often believe they are separate, that each person consists of a separate body and mind ... not connected to others. Such a belief allows them to say things like, "if people's rights are being violated by some brutal dictator in some other country, that's not our problem," or "if a man is destroying his own life with drugs, that's his business as long as he is not hurting others."

The vast majority of people know better. Why? Because their minds are open to knowing intuitively the universal truth that we are not separate, that there is only one mind, that we are all connected, that we are all in this together.

In the Bible, it is reported that Jesus said it this way: "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." (Matt. 25-45)

But then in his modern revelation for the 21st Century, A Course in Miracles, Jesus makes this much clearer in almost every chapter:

"Either there is a gap between you and your brother, or you are as one. There is no in between, no other choice, and no allegiance to be split between the two.This world is but the dream that you can be alone, and think without affecting those apart from you." (ACIM Text Chap. 28)

"Minds ARE joined; bodies are not. Only by assigning to the mind the properties of the body, does separation seem to be possible. And it is mind that seems to be fragmented and private and alone. Its [the mind's] Guilt, which keeps it separate, is projected to the body, which suffers and dies, because it is attacked to hold the separation in the mind, and let it not know its unity." (ACIM Text Chap. 18)

The longer one lives the more one experiences this universal truth that what is done to one is done to all, we are all in this together, and beneath the illusion of separation we are all one.

With an open-mind comes enlightenment. With enlightenment a libertarian who once watched people self-destruct and said, "Your pain doesn't affect me!" now says, "Your pain is my pain." A libertarian who once watched brutal oppression taking place elsewhere in the world and said, "It's not my business!" now says, "Is there anything I can do to relieve these people? They are my brothers. They are me."

An enlightened libertarian would still not try to use government to attempt to solve sickness, pain and death, because such a use of government would require non-voluntary funding via taxation based on threats. "If even one person is threatened, we are all threatened." "If even one person's property is robbed by government, we are all robbed."

But no longer would an enlightened libertarian give the impression that "anything goes" as long as there is no initiation of aggression, that it's alright to do anything you want as long as you don't violate the rights of others. An enlightened libertarian now understands that if a man violates his own rights (if his actions are wrong, not right, by an objective standard), then that man is violating every one's rights at the same time.

Now such a libertarian has "grown up," become wiser, evolved in a direction ... dare we say ... more conservative.

To really understand the evil psychology of modern "liberal progressives," read Ayn Rand's entire novel "Atlas Shrugged"

"God's laws will keep your minds at peace, because peace IS His Will, and His laws are established to uphold it. His are the laws of freedom, but yours are the laws of bondage. Since freedom and bondage are irreconcilable, their laws CANNOT BE UNDERSTOOD TOGETHER. The laws of God work only for your good, and there ARE no other laws beside His. Everything else is merely lawLESS, and therefore chaotic." -Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles