[ronmicle]

Does anyone else just feel really discouraged and hopeless?

I’m in my early 20s and have only discovered the philosophy of liberty within the past 4 years (I stupidly voted for Obama in 2008). Being as this is my first election since being educated in liberty, I can’t help but feel extremely pessimistic about the future. I feel like I don’t really need to go into detail (since everyone on here probably already knows), but everything about the election has been a complete joke; the debates, the mainstream media’s coverage, and the general political discourse about the “important issues”. I don’t know if I can handle something like this happening every 4 years.

Is there a reason to be optimistic about the future? I just can’t see people ever not holding politicians with high regard. With what I’ve learned from Tom DiLorenzo and the lectures here at Liberty Classroom, I can’t believe that people will go see the new Lincoln movie and eat everything up. But that’s exactly what will happen. Challenging the Lincoln myth will probably lead me to being labeled “pro-slavery” and a “revisionist” in the most pejorative sense.

Similarly, I am currently reading the Creature from Jekyll Island. I am thoroughly convinced by the book’s reasoning about the destructive nature of the Federal Reserve (and central banks in general), but I can’t imagine trying to explain this to the layperson without being labeled a “conspiracy theorist”.

How can you convince people to be distrustful of government? With the way people are taught in public schools and the awful mainstream media, it seems like an impossible task.

[cboyack]

When talking about the Federal Reserve system, I personally try to avoid stuff that will cause people to label me a kooky conspiracy theorist. Instead, I get into Austrian Economic theory and history that is generally accepted as fact.

Start mentioning the Rothschilds and people will either instantly put up mental blocks and won’t be as receptive, or simply dismiss you as being obsessed with inconsequential and irrelevant stuff.

-Andrew

[derosa8]

Enron! I am exactly in your situation (22 yrs old, voted for Obama in 2008, and now learning liberty).

I don’t know what the future will hold, but my plan is to do the best I can to learn liberty and then try to explain it to people when appropriate situations arrive.

One thing that makes me OPTIMISTIC is that I think people have an instinctual love for liberty. I think there are many people who would love freedom and free markets but have been bullied into believing that those things are immoral. I believe when people (especially young people) are exposed to the actual justifications for liberty, they will be hooked for life.

I may be wrong but that’s just my two cents.

[rt]

I’d say that it depends who you’re talking to. If you’re talking to a conservative about the Fed, I’d say something like this “You support and trust the free market and you know that central planning leads to chaos, money and banking are no exception….” If you’re talking to a liberal you might stress out how the Fed hurts the poor by destroying their savings through inflation and that the Fed bails out the big corporations etc. Liberals also tend to be more skeptical about US foreign policy and you might argue that just like today there were economic interests involved in the Civil War. You need to find out what the other person cares about and construct your argument respectively.

I’m 18 years old, have never voted and will never vote. The presidential elections have shown to me that we cannot break the chains of modern slavery through the political process. Once I realized this I’ve been more relaxed and less frustrated. I think we can only change things if we educate ourselves and others, knowledge is our most important weapon.

[derosa8]

“Knowledge is our most important weapon” – That deserves to be posted again

[glenn.jacobs]

I’m 45 and it is folks like you that give me hope. Young people who are actually seeking knowledge and exercising critical thinking. I wish I was your age when I learned the things that you (and I) are learning now.

It sounds sort of melodramatic, but I once heard Sharon Harris from the Advocates for Self Government say that survival of western (liberal) civilization rests with libertarians. I believe that this is indeed the case. So take heart and keep doing what you are doing.

[porphyrogenitus]

Hope is found thinking beyond the election. Out of this particular election; – well I was going to write “nothing good can follow” but even that is too melodramatic. It’s possible that tiny amounts of good could follow, depending upon how it goes. And if people re-elect their permanent government, then opportunities for the future will follow.

We should be neither panglossian nor defeatist: the next five-to-ten years of American life, of Western life, promise to be very grim and difficult indeed. It is quite possible that during this, electorates will turn to even worse options, if, once again, out of this those who set The Narrative are able to promote the belief that “freedom failed, and only giving more money and power to the state can save you.” After all, so much is “baked into the cake” this election time, due to already-ongoing fiscal & monetary policies that no sane person would want to win and thus be in office holding the bag when it implodes.

But out of this also comes the opportunity to do what people here are doing; not just learn, but share and expand belief in liberty, and the understanding that personal liberty is directly tied to economic liberty (and thus that the alternative of the left, “economic rights” – rights in the sense of “right to have your needs provided for you by someone else – are a chimaera).

Me, I have a hard time still disassociating myself from elections and which establishment party (the Inner Party, the permanent party of government, or the Outer Party, the party that exists as its foil, and as a scapegoat claimed to embody “capitalism”) wins or loses. I’m still unable to emotionally disconnect from that. But if you can, you’ll realize that getting worked up over the election is unnecessary. You can focus on the big picture, and sharing, thus expanding, the knowledge of real liberty and sound economics. This gives an achievable goal for a better future. Out of this will come opportunities in the future.

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