The libertarian paradox: November 16, 1998 issue of New Thinking

November 16, 1998 New Thinking:
The libertarian paradox

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November 16, 1998

The libertarian paradox

By Gerry McGovern

There seems to be a rule that everything embodies a paradox, that everything embodies its opposite.

From the very first period I used the Internet around 1994, I came across information by libertarians who were calling for government to get off the Internet. The more I learned about the Internet, the more strange this demand became. If ever there was a case of ‘biting the hand that feeds’ these libertarians were exhibiting it in spades.

What the hell is a libertarian, I hear you ask? According to the Advocates for Self-Government website, libertarians “want a win-win world of peace and plenty. And we believe that the only way to get it is through self-government... NOT others-government. Self-government is the combination of personal responsibility and tolerance. Responsibility means you govern yourself. Tolerance means you don't force your values on peaceful, honest people. Today, however, others-government is giving us insecurity, conflict and poverty. Let's revitalize our heritage of self-government to create a win-win world where everyone comes out ahead.”

A liberal believes in freedom in personal issues and in government support in economic issues. A conservative believes in freedom in economic issues and government control in personal issues. A libertarian believes in freedom in all issues – no interference anywhere.

So, if libertarians don’t believe in government, how come they have embraced the Internet with such energy? Surely, the Internet is one of the greatest examples of long-term government funding the world has ever seen? The libertarian philosophy is also evident in the open source software movement.

Again, surely libertarians would accept that without government-funded universities (not to mention the Internet), there would be very little open source software about today. (Linux, for example, having been originally developed at the University of Helsinki.)

The more I think about open source software, the more I come to believe that it is based on an essentially libertarian philosophy and thus exists within a paradox that will test it severely as it spreads out into the wider world.

The Internet is a frontier and libertarianism is very much frontier-thinking. It is, in essence, every man (and woman) for himself/herself. Open source software, which is thriving on the Internet, is very much a peer-based environment. Everybody helps out by throwing into the pot some of their free time. Everybody contributes, whether it is in lines of code or bug reports. Everybody pulls their own weight and everything is fine.

Although things are changing, the Internet has been very much a rarefied environment inhabited by a select group of relatively wealthy, technically literate individuals. Unfortunately, the great mass of people are not able to write lines of code, nor are they interested in sending in bug reports. If you market to them well, they might buy your product, but in that money they pay is an implicit contract that the product will work and that if it doesn’t work, you will fix it.

The Internet to me is one of the greatest validations of central government and taxation. Sure, I don’t like paying tax, but I like even less the alternatives. To further develop, open source software needs to square the circle – how to be built at the frontier and yet serve the mass market.

Gerry McGovern

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Open source software has a libertarian philosophy. It must square a circle - built on the frontier, serving the mass market.