Dharma and Freedom

Thanks, Jacob, for inviting me to share my thoughts on Enlightened Liberty. I have considered myself to be both a Buddhist and a libertarian for over three decades, so I know that this unconventional mix can indeed work within an individual’s psyche.

Yet, for most of those three decades, I knew of no one else with anything remotely similar to this type of perspective. The internet is so wonderful because it can connect people with common bonds. Thus, I run into you guys.

I have always known many Buddhists who scorn the making of money, who distrust any unhampered free market activity among consenting adults or who disdain libertarian defenses of extreme life-style choices and personal liberty. Many often gravitate toward fascism or other brands of socialism, seduced by an image of a benevolent state (Big Mommy). They imagine that government officials will become benign rulers like the Buddha’s friend, King Bimbisara. Dream on. I think that Lord Acton’s axiom – "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" – fits very well within the Buddha’s teachings.

I have also always known many libertarians (especially in the post-Objectivist circles I traveled in) who loathe Buddhism because they do not understand it and deem it "mystical," negativist, anti-life, irrational, and other such nonsense. The libertarian movement today also has some pathetic wannabe side-kicks who are more truly social conservatives who pick out a couple of libertarian issues they agree with (mostly involving economics) but reject social freedoms for individuals. Many of these conservatives are fundamentalist Christians who think Buddhists are idol worshipers.

Libertarian ideas fit Buddhism well because they promote peace and prosperity to a vastly higher degree than any other social order. People trampled by war, oppressed by the welfare/warfare state and crushed by poverty certainly can benefit from hearing the Dharma, but people living at ease in a peaceful environment and in a high standard of living will be more able to cultivate it within their lives. Notice the increasingly high interest in Buddhism today in the relatively free and capitalist West.

Anti-libertarian systems (e.g., socialism in its various forms, conservativism, etc.) obstruct the Dharma, because, by establishing authoritative control over various spheres of an individual’s life, the state suffocates the growth of self-responsibility -- that self-control needed to aspire upward on a spiritual path.

-Zenwind.