When I started this blog, the original name was “The Rational Libertarian”. While that name doesn’t appear to have a copyright, I quickly realized that there are at least four other blogs with the same name (different URLs), so it really wasn’t original, though in my choosing that name initially for my own blog, I can feel validated in the comfort that great minds think alike (j/k lol).
I chose the name “Rational Ram” because I’m an Aries and the Ram is a spirit animal for me. I love taking on tough subjects and tough situations head on!
That said, I am a libertarian. I call myself a “small L” libertarian for two reasons:
1. I’m not big fan of political ideologies because I fully realize that they are based on wishful thinking. Like religion, ideology requires faith and while faith is a great thing to have and often builds resolve in individuals and groups, faith is not a strategy for building a country. All ideologies crumble when exposed to reality.
2. The Libertarian Party (big “L” libertarianism) tends to diverge greatly from libertarianism’s foundations. The Libertarian Party seem to attract crazies from the right and left who embrace ideas that make make them unappealing to the masses. Of course, the point of political ideology is to “rally the faithful and like-minded” to support the party platform. However, the Libertarian Party platform tends to embrace a plethora strange and unrealistic planks.
Critics of libertarianism opine that it is an ideology that promotes selfishness. An aloof disregard for man’s fellow man. I posit that libertarianism promotes individual freedom, which is often confused for selfishness. Libertarianism’s roots stem in part from Adam Smith’s treatise on economics, “The Wealth of Nations” which spawned classic liberalism, or the political ideology that supported laissez-faire economic policy.
Conservatives want freedom in economic matters with controls on individual freedom. Liberal/progressives want individual freedom with strict, government-controlled economic policies. Libertarianism wants freedom in both areas, and while on a descriptive level (how things are) this is unrealistic, on a normative level (how things ought to be), I can totally wrap my mind around what small L libertarianism promotes. Individual and economic freedom are far more appealing to me than controls on either.
I’m a small L libertarian because freedom needs an advocate no matter how unrealistic total freedom might be.
The Rational Ram 