The Great Libertarian Speech

He stood there, lean and strong, walking with a spring in his step as if he was a professional dancer. This was it for him, it was 2028, and at 55 he had spent most of his adult life in the pursuit of liberty and freedom for all. He had joined the libertarian movement at 17 when he started university, studying engineering, aerospace engineering to be exact. He enjoyed a great career with General Engineering, a consulting firm. At 38 he was chosen by his state to represent them at the capital, after all he lived in a democracy, a country that voted who should represent them. Today at 55 he was in the primaries to be a presidential candidate. The conference center he was in had a capacity of 3 000 people, it was packed to the seams with many others waiting outside the doors listening on headphones, the turnout was unexpected.

He began to talk, the expectations where high, one could feel the expectations in the air. There was silence, the expectations had created great tension, the silence was thick, the silence signaled the hopes of those who had come to listen, the silence represented hope, hope of great words, hope of inspirations to come. “What can I say,” began the campaign of the day, “what can I say about anything, today is a great moment. I sense the expectations from you, am I going to let you down, or am I like those great who came before me and will speak the truth against known and massive adversity. What should I say, what can I say?

Should I get into debate about current policy, should I let them control the debate. Should I talk about how I will act according to policies that they have begun, putting a mockery to democracy because the debate has already been controlled, I will do this, I will do that. What am I expected to say, because the debate is we are not in control of the debate. I am supposed to talk about the economy. How am I as a president going to manage the economy? Manage the economy to ensure growth and prosperity. I will inherit all these institutions that will want to advise me on what economic policies I should take. They will come with a whole lot of data and tell me best policy would be to take this route, maybe this one, maybe that one. A whole load of data telling me how best for me to control you. Should I control you this way, should I control you that way, the debate is already staged. The networks have the questions, they pose them to me and I must answer them. I must answer them what is the best way to control you, to affect your destiny. I don’t know if I should answer that question now, I don’t feel it is right for me to answer that question today, today is a day of us taking control of the debate.

How will I react to the phone call at 3 in the morning about some foreign problem. Well first of, I hope I am not woken up at 3 in the morning because I will not be bothering some people somewhere, why should I bother them, for who to gain. Then they will tell me I am not being real, I should expect trouble, what am I going to do. I don’t want expensive trouble, I get out, because that money is your money, I don’t want to waste your money. Another loaded question if you think about it, what am I going to do at 3 in the morning because of some trouble involving us somewhere around this world.

The debate is controlled, they ask me what am I going to do about this and that, what policies shall I implement.

I am not going to control you, many policy analysts will have to find real jobs producing goods and services. I am not going to look at their statistics very much, my first bill will be too give you freedom and myself and government less power over you. They will scream nonsense, a government is supposed to govern, tell you I am a joker, they will say I am not serious about governing this great nation of ours. Govern who shall be my reply. Govern my equals, I represent my equals I do not govern them. I get out of the way of my equals. They will say you need governance, good governance to make it sound nice and pretty. We need good governance. A good way to make you do this and that, hmmm.  A good way to tell you that you can’t do this and that, it all makes me sick. I want you to have what is rightfully yours.

My first bill, you have a right to be what you desire if you have the capacity. As long as any citizen is allowed to do an activity to earn a living, no law will stop you from being allowed to undertake that activity because you are both equal in the eyes of the law. None is more equal than the other. I want you to have what always should have been yours. The people must build the society in their image, not in the image of government. You must build the society in your image, the common image can only be built by free interactions amongst us all. Free interaction, your right to choose who you interact with, and that is completely tied to the notion that you can do any activity that another does with their property, use your property as you see fit, don’t harm others, that is a given, we are a civilized society.

Money bags has a bank. The law does not say he is better than you, go ahead, go and work for him, show him your qualifications, go work for them. You really want to be a banker, you believe you have what it takes. Put in your application, hopefully he will give you a job. But this is society, what if they all say your don’t fit with the profile of their ideal employee, what then? Go and start your own bank, you good be better than money bags, he has been protected from competition, go ahead, start your own bank, you sure as hell could prove more capable than money bags, society will benefit. You are equal, he is not more of a citizen than you, that is why these big corporate types don’t send any campaign contributions to me. I refuse to accept they are or should be more equal than you.

You want to import something, import it, from whomever you want to import it from, from any country. Who am I to tell you what you can and can’t do with your money? You earned it, do what you like with it. I mean it, do what you like with your money. I will return to you what should have been yours all along, your freedom.

I am serious, you are here because you believe that you deserve to be equal citizens, that no citizen should have greater rights than you, otherwise voting is just a gimmick. Let us not make voting a gimmick, let us make it real. See these people they like to govern, a need to tell others what to do, always promising to do this and that for you. I make no promises about what I will do for you, how can I know your circumstances, how can I know your mind. Only a slave mind believes that others will do something for them, that master will provide. But we are not a nation of slaves, we are a nation of free people, equal people, equal in terms of the law. We are a people who believe in our rights to our property, to make profit from our property, and mature enough to realize it is possible to make loses in a venture.

You are not slaves, I don’t want to ever treat you like slaves, like experimental rats, it is statistically proven that a rat will take this route to the cheese. Well damn your statistics, we are talking about human beings, we are talking about our equals, we are not rats, we don’t accept to be their underclass.Think of the message of Ron Paul, he did a man's job in spreading the message.

Your property is private, its your property. I have no right to know what you have, how much you have, it is your property. Unless you have committed some crime, a proven crime, nobody has any right to know how much you have, how little you have. If you want to tell the world how much you have is good, if you believe discretion is better part of valor, we don’t need to know how much you are worth. It’s a free society. You do not have to declare how many shares you own in a company, you vote like any other shareholder. If other shareholders do not like you or style of management, then sell, do your so called duties as a citizen and all will be fine. We don’t need to know how much you own, that is your business, and we should stay out of your business.

My stand is to give you your rights, to make all equal before the law, a truly mature society. A mature society has got rid of mentality that others should be lower than them, should have less rights, I don’t believe in that.

He has a right to own a casino, go ahead, go and work for him, if he says you are not the right fit, go to your basement and start your own thing, go get a deck of cards, they have a right to open a casino, you are not less than them, the law allows them right to a casino, the law will allow you when I am president.

Listen to the thief’s, to those who will see themselves as our masters, already calling me a bringer of chaos, how can everybody be equal, there will be chaos, society needs aristocracy, those that are more equal so to say. Your right to open your own poker joint is seen as a crime just because I say everybody is equal because we are a mature society way above serfdom. But these would be masters that call us lunatics because we say everybody is equal say we are the immature, the unrealistic, because to them for everybody to be just citizens is insanity. They need to make themselves better, and you are a good candidate, a realistic candidate if you promise that. I am realistic if I agree the majority should be legal serfs, to serve them. I do not agree with that. I can never agree with that because when I talk to you, as I stand here telling you my views, I see human beings, we are all human beings and our society must reflect that. Our society must reflect that in the laws that we have, we are a beacon to the world, that here reside a free people. We all deserve to be a free people. To them, a free people means chaos.

They don’t understand what competition means. They talk of competition, they don’t even understand what it means. You make swords and you sell swords, you could be the only sword maker in town, but so what? If another feels they can also make swords a law should not be there to hinder them if they so desire. They could prove to be better sword makers, society gains. If there is only room for one sword maker, then the one who is of no good should not be protected, they can either leave sword making or ask for a job and get a chance to learn from the better sword maker. 

Monopoly you scream, there is only one sword maker who will charge exorbitant prizes. True, we all know the power of a monopoly. If the prizes are so exorbitant import swords, if not possible somebody will find a way to make a more efficient weapon than a sword, that is how society progresses. These controllers of fiat money refuse to understand that, the money authorities must print money for them to survive, because they believe they are better than us, that they deserve more rights than us.

They scream all day that we are beyond fossil fuels, but they caused this situation. A century ago they broke up the monopoly oil company, said there must be competition. Well there was competition, no incentive to find an alternative. The monopoly oil company was better organized than its competitors, that is how it got its monopoly status. So what, humans will find a way if the monopolist over charges. Now we are stuck with fossil fuels, whose fault is that, the same people who broke up the monopoly ensuring no incentive to search for better fuels are now complaining, they don’t care about cause and effect, they care about their emotions now,  they have their statistics to lie for them and say this is the road society should take.

All I want to do is give you your freedom, return our rights to us. The right to pursue our happiness, the right to allow society to progress in the manner that the majority see fit through the process of the market. I don’t want to control society, I want society to control itself, and how does that make me less pragmatic, how is it evil to say we are all just human beings and all have a right to contribute to the society that they live in, all have a right to be the best they can be, how on earth does that make us evil, to say human beings must have a choice. The evil ones are the ones that want to tell us what to do, do this, do that, you can’t do that, only they can do that, society should not be a hoax on us, we deserve to be free.

Human beings need to mature, we need to mature, they will always tell us we need to be governed for their benefit of course, I say we are the same, no more slavery, no more serfs, we are all just human. Man like Hayek warned you about how they always want to bring back serfdom, so that we serve them, even if we have better knowledge than them.”

He walked to take a glass of water, his passion had risen beyond limits, shown in his rising voice when it came to what he considered crucial points. The crowd was not disappointed, the continued silence showed they were paying attention to every word.

“Your right to be, only the most mature society can understand that. What is less government. It is a government out of your way. It is a non elitist government, a government for the people by the people treats all as equal citizens in every sense. By giving you your rights, by us taking our rights back, less government is needed to make sure we are breaking less laws, breaking less regulations. The more you are allowed to do, the smaller the government will be as they need to monitor society less....." feel in the rest yourself, what greater points could he mention.

Bhekuzulu Khumalo