Libertarian Ritual: Republicans have prayer breakfasts – Libertarians have the Statement of Principles, Nolan Chart, None of the Above, the Pledge, and the Dallas Accords.
There is no ritual more important to Libertarians than the Statement of Principles. Written by a small clutch of people, including Dr. John Hospers and Sarah O'Connor Foster in a hotel room during the course of the national Convention in the Statement is mortared into the platform of the LP and cannot be excised with less than a 7 / 8th vote of all of the delegates attending the convention. The wording reflects the verbiage of Ayn Rand, sacred to so many early Libertarians.
The Statement of Principles
We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual.
Governments throughout history have regularly operated on the opposite principle, that the State has the right to dispose of the lives of individuals and the fruits of their labor. Even within the United States, all political parties other than our own grant to government the right to regulate the lives of individuals and seize the fruits of their labor without their consent.
We, on the contrary, deny the right of any government to do these things, and hold that where governments exist, they must not violate the rights of any individual: namely, (1) the right to life -- accordingly we support the prohibition of the initiation of physical force against others; (2) the right to liberty of speech and action -- accordingly we oppose all attempts by government to abridge the freedom of speech and press, as well as government censorship in any form; and (3) the right to property -- accordingly we oppose all government interference with private property, such as confiscation, nationalization, and eminent domain, and support the prohibition of robbery, trespass, fraud, and misrepresentation.
Since governments, when instituted, must not violate individual rights, we oppose all interference by government in the areas of voluntary and contractual relations among individuals. People should not be forced to sacrifice their lives and property for the benefit of others. They should be left free by government to deal with one another as free traders; and the resultant economic system, the only one compatible with the protection of individual rights, is the free market.
The Nolan Chart
If you go on line to most Libertarian groups, including the Libertarian Party, you will find an announcement about the World's Smallest Political Quiz. It is very handy and useful as a tool for ascertaining your political viewpoint. David Nolan designed it many years ago when tech was not so high and we relied on things like vacuum tubes, wires and switches.
When I was Southern Vice Chairman for the California LP from 1979 – 1984 we used much the same quiz, minus the computer references, naturally. The Quiz was housed in a big, clumsy metal box filled with wires and little lights that lit up to tell you the same thing. It was built by Ed Ogawa, a long time Libertarian from Pasadena, and burned up in a barn fire at my then home in North Hills in 1989.
You can find the test at several Libertarian sites on the Internet. No matter what they call it, Diamond or whatever, it is the Nolan Chart Quiz.
The test became one of the main Libertarian ritual and you will come across people tabling with it at all sorts of places across the United States. Sometimes they have a computer sitting there and sometimes the test is on paper. Tabling a means used by many groups to spread their ideas; Libertarians now often share tabling with Greens, who are curiously enough, frequently working in coalition with Libertarians in parts of the country.
Personal Issues
(Choose A if you agree, M for Maybe, D if you disagree.)
Government should not censor speech, press, media or Internet
There should be no laws regarding sex for consenting adults
Military service should be voluntary. There should be no draft
(Choose A if you agree, M for Maybe, D if you disagree.)
Repeal laws prohibiting adult possession and use of drugs
There should be no National ID card
Economic Issues
(Choose A if you agree, M for Maybe, D if you disagree.)
End "corporate welfare." No government handouts to business
End government barriers to international free trade
Let people control their own retirement; privatize Social Security
Replace government welfare with private charity
Cut taxes and government spending by 50% or more
In all Libertarian elections None of the Above is always a candidate. Libertarians recognized that sometimes all of the choices are so bad that you need a way to register that disapproval without having to vote for the lesser of two or more evils.
Over the past decades occasions have arisen when None of the Above filled the office. When this happens it means that none of those flesh and blood candidates who presented themselves for consideration are eligible to be considered in the subsequent election for the same office.
This took place in California when I was active when a candidate named William Wagner presented himself as a candidate for party office and was soundly defeated by None of the Above. B. J. was certainly disappointed but remained a Libertarian to the chagrin of many.
Since 1996 the champion for None of the Above has been unofficially Dean Ahmad. Dean is an astrophysicist who is also the President and Founder of the Minaret of Freedom located in Bethesda, Maryland. Dean Ahmad has become Mr. None of the Above for all those occasions when it is clear that the power-maddened have again grabbed the steering wheel.
Rituals tell us a lot about organizations and their histories if we know what to look for. Rituals always focus attention either towards something or away from something. American rituals, such as the Pledge of Allegiance, familiar to all Americans, was adopted to displace a previous focus on the founding documents of our nation, for instance the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution which were at that point in time routinely studied in schools along with the Federalist Papers so that all Americans would be aware of their rights and history. Ironically enough, today it is the Liberals and Progressives who oppose the Pledge to the Flag without realizing that it was originally their idea while those opposed to its adoption, Conservatives, defend the Pledge with fervor.
Life is filled with strange reversals.
The Libertarian Pledge was dreamed up by David Nolan, a very busy guy back then, and used the emotionally powerful language familiar to the two groups who made up the majority of those who then considered themselves to be Libertarians, the Randians and the Miseans. Randians followed the ideas of Ayn Rand and Heinlein and Miseans followed the ideas of Ludwig von Mises, one of the economists who most influenced the work of Murray Rothbard. To join the LP you have to sign the Pledge which is as follows:
“I certify that I do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force as a means of achieving political or social goals.”
Today, David Nolan says he only inserted the Pledge to ensure that Libertarians would not be accused of being engaged in attempts to violently overthrow the government. But that is not how most Libertarians view the Pledge. The idea of asserting standards and values for behavior has been an issue within the Libertarian Party for as long as it has been around and many believe firmly that the Pledge should be broader and read more like,
“I certify that I will initiate deceit, manipulation, or violence to achieve any of my goals, personal, social, or political.”
The idea of a pledge would give those involved in political action the security of knowing that the organizations had objective standards for what is acceptable and what is not tolerated. This is a blind spot for many Libertarians who, like the stereotype referred to at the beginning of this chapter and others now still sleeping on those Star Wars sheets, that a political party can be an excellent way to redirect funds, power, and sexual favors into your own use. Libertarians and their movement brought with them the seeds of their own destruction and those we will be examining a little later.
All organizations that survive past the first beer bust develop ritual that knits its members together. If organizations persist long enough they develop a working mythology that functions to set the limits and expectations for behavior within the group. The Pledge is effectively a piece of Libertarian Ritual that could have grown from its original form to the foundations for an internal justice system. This did not happen. The LP is a State sanctioned political party that has no consistent and reliable means for conflict resolution. It could have adopted one, as did the Green Party. It did not so choose.
David Nolan, the LP founder, claims that the Pledge was just a PR gesture to ensure that whatever administration did not stamp down on LPers as potential terrorists. For the record, that is not the understanding of most long time LP members, who believe it is supposed to mean something. What that is they are not sure. Attempting to excise or change the Pledge could result in blood being spilled along with a lot of yelling. Messing around with theology is likely to make people testy.
The National Pledge has been around since before I was first a member, meaning at least since 1973.
The Dallas Accord has also taken on the status of ritual.
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