Liberty in Our Lifetime?

A common saying within Libertarian circles is “Liberty in our lifetime.” This is how we center and pace ourselves to our purpose. Recently it came up in a chat with a constituent who is half my age, and it dawned on me that even in the best of circumstances, no two minds share the same timeline for this saying.

Our movement attracts people of all ages, which is very encouraging as it shows Liberty’s universal appeal. Were ours a movement only for the young, the middle aged or the elderly, critics would dismiss it as a fad for that age group. Instead our philosophy finds adherents at all stages of life, so we should be conscious of people’s differing expectations for results. For example, an older person – all things being equal – may have less time to see results than a young blood. On the other hand, the young tend to be more impatient for results.

It may be less vague for us to say “Liberty in my lifetime,” but even that leaves an interlocutor unsure of what timeline you have in mind. Are you expecting to be around another thirty years, or are you a NASCAR driver a race away from hubcap heaven?

Facetiousness aside, let me propose a new interpretation for this saying. In any biological sense, no such thing as “our lifetime” truly exists; there is only your life, and mine, and neither of us knows for sure how much time remains to us. But in the collective sense, those of us working towards the Voluntaryist Society do share a common lifetime. We circulate the same ideas and values, then transmit them to the next generation. In a world dominated by those who forcibly extort their neighbor on the premise that they’re helping him, we show that people can and do voluntarily assist others in need. As so much of history is marked by the strong plundering the weak, we prove that relationships based on consent are far more productive overall. Ours is a unique perspective, and our lifetime is however long we’re allotted to share it.

The torch is handed from one to another, but never dropped!

Originally published November 3rd, 2022, on Facebook.