Liberty VS. Prosperity

The astute among you would argue that with liberty comes prosperity and you'd be correct in your assertion. That, however, isn't the topic of discussion today. What I'm more concerned with is motive. Should we aim for liberty for liberty's sake or prosperity for prosperity's sake? Well, the former, and I'll explain why.

The "pragmatist" crowd in the liberty movement is very concerning nowadays. Before, they simply wanted the borders closed until the welfare state was abolished, which is at least reasonably rational. Unfortunately, this is prosperity for prosperity's sake, which isn't the purpose of the liberty movement. Our purpose is to achieve liberty for all people. Our primary focus isn't achieving a free market; that would come in due time.

The "pragmatists" are the "anarchists" you saw claiming that the only solution to communism is revving up the helicopters and dropping leftists from a staggering height. While this started out as a joke because of Pinochet, many people are starting to believe that something analogous to a purge is the only way of achieving a libertarian society. Even if that was true (which it isn't) it raises some major red flags. Once you reach the logical conclusion of these beliefs, the outcome is quite scary.

Some of them might argue that it isn't immoral because communists aren't people. Then, of course, they reach the logical conclusion of "anybody who disagrees isn't a person." What I mean by this is that it goes from "communists" aren't people to, "Well the Jews aren't either because of the banking cartel," "Well the Muslims can't be either," and "The illegals aren't people either." This is Stalin-esque thinking. They've become the very thing they sought out to destroy and, in the process, have become a shadow of their former selves. No longer a beloved member of the liberty movement, they decide they need to act immorally to achieve a morally upstanding society.

Achieving a prosperous society should come second to achieving a free society. Like I stated in the first paragraph, with the first comes the second. Once we free every individual, the free market will generate a very prosperous society. Eliminating all opponents of anarcho-capitalism (or other kinds of free market anarchism or libertarianism) is not the way to go. Would you drop your own parents from a helicopter if they refused to take on your beliefs? Brothers? Sisters? Children? Would you become the very thing that you sought out to destroy in order to achieve your utopia?