The Simple Life: A Value Liberals Share With Libertarians

Maybe it's because I'm involved in it myself, but these days it seems like I can't turn on the computer without seeing an article about urban farming, homesteading and living off the grid. Among the liberal crowd - no doubt fueled by the likes of Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingslover and Joel Salatin (who is no liberal by any means) - urban farming and local food is all the rage.

What many "locavores" and "foodies" don't know is that a very similar movement has been going on for decades on the other side of the party line. Or, I should say, on the other side of the other side of the party line...

The farthest of the right thinks anarchy is coming after the collapse of a bloated government. The farthest of the left thinks we are headed for disaster as a result of abusing the Earth's resources. Both are preparing in similar ways for what they see as a possible, if not inevitable, fall of modern civilization as we know it. In-between the extremes lies a tapestry made up of many types of people with different party affiliations, beliefs and values who just yearn for a simpler life.

The violent, apocalyptic end foreseen and feared by many on the far right is in contrast to the forced-but-necessary return to simplicity that is all but hoped-for from the far left. Yet both visions of the future, and distaste for present political, social and economic realities, have led each of these farthest-of-far flung poles to some of the same basic values.

Hope For The Best. Prepare For The Worst.
John Silveira writes about "The Coming American Dictatorship" for Backwoods Home Magazine, which could generally be described as Mother Earth News for Libertarians. Of course, that applies to the days when "Mother Earth" was a meatier, more independent publication.

We're not talking about the kind of pseudo/neo-Libertarians you see at tea parties; the ones who don't know the difference between fascism and socialism; the ones who are just afraid of whatever Glenn Beck tells them to be afraid of this week. Mr. Silveira is a true Libertarian; an intelligent, articulate, independent American who subscribes to a certain ideology after having informed himself and come to his own conclusions. And although his political and economic ideologies differ greatly from the average Mother Earth News reader, they may have more in common than you would think. For example, topics like renewable energy, self-sufficiency, simple living and environmental stewardship.

Let's explore how the same interests and values can be obtained through vastly different viewpoints.

PREPAREDNESS
Mr. Silveira's readers might have a "doomsday shelter" in the boondocks with a wood burning stove, guns buried in the yard and canned goods in the basement. Such "eccentricities" may strike you as odd until they are compared to an off-the-grid earthship built by an aging hippie in the middle of the desert. Both are hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.

RENEWABLE ENERGY
Mother Earth News authors will write about things like solar electric, wind turbines and micro-hydro because readers are interested in renewable energy topics as solutions to environmental problems. Backwoods Home will tell you, step-by-step, how to build your own wind turbine, or wire solar panels in a daisy chain primarily because their readers are interested in getting off the grid for political, economic, and religious reasons - among others.

ORGANIC GARDENING
Liberals love organic food. That is no secret. And, while some liberals like to think they're the only ones hip or smart enough to care about the topic, conservative Libertarians like Jacky Clay have also been writing about it for decades. It's just a way of life in the country, especially when you're trying to be self-sufficient.

SELF SUFFICIENCY SKILLS
The serious modern Liberal is a do-it-yourself type of person. At least, one gets that impression by reading all of the articles about building your own backyard chicken coop, top bar bee hive, greenhouse, etc... If there is anything at all the far right and far left can agree on, it is the importance of DIY skills for self-sufficiency such as: canning, building, growing, making your own clothes, raising livestock.... The right will further add skills like hunting, butchering and gun maintenance to the list. Other than that, both sides are pretty much aligned in these interests.

SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE
As mentioned above, Earthships are a prime example of a post-apocalyptic dwelling invented by so-called "liberals". But did you know strawbale homes were being built by conservative, protestant settlers in the heartland of America long before "green" took on a new meaning? Think about the Libertarian battle cry of "less government". By definition, a Libertarian home - as in free of government power lines, government water, government sewerage - would ideally be green. It would have to generate its own power, treat its own waste, conserve water, maintain a high level of energy efficiency, be buildable with local materials, and so-on.

NEIGHBORLINESS and COMMUNITY
Liberals and Libertarians both generally value community and neighborliness, and demonstrate those values in very similar ways. Every issue of Backwoods Home is full of stories about neighbors helping each other out, and they often write about rural communities coming together to get through the tough times. What seems to separate Liberals from Libertarians is the notion that the government should be involved in "helping" the community in such ways. I know plenty of self-described Liberal friends who volunteer in the community, but most of them are just as happy to pay higher taxes for government programs to do the same. Americans are generally good people with big hearts who want to help their friends and neighbors. We just don't always agree on the best way to go about it.

INDEPENDENT THOUGHT
Despite the "baa-a-a-a-a-a-a" sound coming from town halls these days, the Libertarian movement is fiercely independent in thought and action. Just as Liberals value higher education as a means to acquire knowledge, Libertarians value experience as a means to acquire wisdom. And both groups value the idea of "thinking for yourself" over "following the crowd". I don't think even the most judgmental of Liberals could read articles by Dave Duffy or follow a conversation between author John Silveira and his alter-ego MacDougal and come to the conclusion that these men follow blindly behind talking heads like Glenn Beck.

SIMPLE LIVING
There has been a lot of talk about "voluntary simplicity" lately. It seems to be something that always pops up as a point of Liberal discussion in times like these. Henry David Thoreau published Walden in 1854, in which he shared his thoughts on simple living and life in the woods. Helen and Scott Nearing famously wrote about "The Good Life" they made for themselves during The Great Depression. Encouraged by the Nearings' success, a wave of "back to the landers" followed suit during the 1960's and 1970's.

Thoreau, the Nearings, and back-to-the-land hippies valued nature, hard work, time with family and friends, and wide-open spaces where they could contemplate. In other words, like today's urban homesteaders, they valued a simple life. These are values you find again and again when speaking with Libertarians. The major difference is that they see government and bureaucracy as unnecessarily complicated things that keep them from living a "simple" life. Healthcare reform aside, it is easy to see how Libertarians can come to such a conclusion.

Recognizing our similar interests and knowing where and why we disagree is probably as close as we can get to empathy in this politically charged time. As a subscriber to both Backwoods Home Magazine and BackHome Magazine (a much closer comparison than BWH and Mother Earth), I often read what seems to be the same article written through totally different lenses. It has taught me that the "far right" can no more be stereotyped than the "far left". Libertarians are not all (or even mostly) ignorant, ranting religious fanatics who hate something without being able to articulate what or why they hate. And Liberals are not all (or even mostly) over-educated, ivy-tower, anti-religion miscreants who want the government to wipe their bottoms for them.

I urge you to pick up a copy of Back Woods Home, or an old Foxfire Book. Skip the "editor's note" and move into the meat of the articles. You may find, after you get over the rhetoric, that it is a far better publication than the glossy advertorial rags you're buying at the Whole Foods checkout counter.

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Comments

[dougbob]

i'm sure that joel salatin is out back puking into the compost pile after reading that he's a "liberal".

[Everett Sizemore - Huffpost Blogger]

Dougbob - Funny you should mention that. The original had (who, by the way, is no liberal by any means) after his name, but cut it out for brevity and the fact that I never said he was a liberal. I said the liberal crowd was motivated by him, which is very much true.

But thanks for your comment.

[drkazmd65]

I've always thought of myself as a Liberal with Libertarian leanings. We should all strive to be as independent as possible, to NOT depend on Government programs - but instead on ourselves and our communities.

In my opinion - the Government is primarily there (or at least should be) to set groundrules, serve as a backstop to set a minimum standard for those down on their luck while they get back to self-sufficiency, and to make sure those big-picture items like a good military, good roads, solid infrastructure, and an organized economic & foreign policy happen.

We should be willing to pay for that Government though - and those that have done well because of the system need to pay more into the maintence of that system - especially the corporations.

[research]

I consider myself a liberal libertarian. Unfortunately the Libertarian party has been taken over by folks who want anarchy, and fail to realize, it will be Plutocracy.

Still I would much rather see the Conservative republican parties go away, and have those who can't stand Liberal Democracy join the Libertarian party.

Conservatism was formed to fight the french revolution and the Enlightenment:

"Historians use the word "conservative" to describe governments and leaders from the earliest recorded times, but it was not until the Age of Enlightenment, and the reaction to events surrounding the French Revolution of 1789, that modern conservatism rose as a distinct political attitude or train of thought. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/users/profile/research

[gbrooks]

Everett,

Thanks so much for your very thoughtful article, you effectively voiced many of the similarities that I have noted myself. I was raised by status quo pro-Reagan republicans (and no, they weren't horrible people), became a Democrat in college because of the classic liberal philosophy as espoused by Locke, Hobbes, Voltaire, et al., and naively thought that the Democratic party espoused such beliefs. I was an independent for years, until I discovered libertarianism, and that's the political philosophy that I found I've always been most closely aligned with.

Like the far left, I'm anti-war, pro-conservation and pro-self-reliance. Unlike the far left, or the far right libertarians, I don't even attempt to guess how a breakdown may occur and am involved in preparedness simply for the love of it and because it's a very creative/scientific hobby. It's part environmentalism, part conservation, part science, part art and, admittedly, no small part thumbing my nose at the government or people who insist that I need them.

One of the things we've seen, so dramatically with the changing of the guards in the presidency, is that everything has changed so much, that it's just the same. More big government, more war, more empire-building and killing overseas, while we crumble here at home.

Oh, and I read both Backwood Home mag AND Mother Earth News, though I do prefer BHM because the people who write just seem more real to me.

[Scott Dudley]

I grew up all over, from California to Virginia. I spent a fair amount of time in the country. We had gardens, raised chickens, raised goats, and even had horses for a little while. I ate fish we caught from rivers and lakes. I've eaten rabbits, birds, deer, and even squirrels caught in the wild. I love nature.

I consider myself a political independent. My parents are right wingers. Most of my friends are fairly liberal. I can't consider myself in alignment with any political party.

But the simple life is so very important to me. I can talk to my Dad about living off the land. We chat about what one would need to do to survive entirely off the grid in the Yucatan jungle. I can chat with friends at Burnign Man about the same stuff. Those radically self-reliant types are all about it.

It really is a thread that seems to run through so many of us, regardless of our political views. I'm so happy to see an article that so clearly points this out. Sometimes understanding where the common ground lies is a huge first step for positive progress.

[sheila]

Thanks for reminding (or in some cases) informing us of this truth. I am a (very liberal - Green Party) tireless advocate for point of use energy solutions like rooftop solar, microwind, conservation, efficiency, etc and have found that my closest colleague is a libertarian who agrees with me completely. The Big Enviros have some ridiculous and unholy alliances with Big Energy, hoping that they can keep Chevron, BP, Bechtel and Goldman Sachs rich and save the planet by encouraging them to monopolize Big Solar and Big Wind instead of Big Coal and Big Oil. Meanwhile, the free thinkers among us are clamoring for feed in tariffs and loans so that all properties can be self-sufficient or even net exporters of clean energy.

No, my libertarian friend is not blind to the benefits of a specialized society and the role government can play in that (thank god), but nor am i rabidly against profit motivations in a meritocracy (ditto). We both own our own successful businesses and houses and believe that it is just as bad to have Big Corpa running our lives as it is to have Big Government. I believe more in the safety net than he does, he believes more in social darwinism, but at our cores, we agree that the more we can all do for ourselves, the better. As you say, how we get there is somewhat different.

so, thanks again, and please keep posting!

[umorera]

This is an interesting pov that i've never really contemplated. It's always us and them and this article really questions...who is us? who is them? thanks!!!

[Everett Sizemore - Huffpost Blogger]

Winchestereast, I never said you had voting records, economic policy and corporate justice issues in common. It is precisely this sort of emotional outrage that keeps us from working with other parties to achieve mutual goals. You totally missed the point. And Grover Norquist isn't the first name, by any means, that would come to mind when I think about Libertarianism.

We are losing our chance to FINALLY reform healthcare meaningfully because we didn't choose our battles and failed to see - even if we didn't agree - the other side's perspective as being legitimate. Vitriol will get you nowhere. I want to move forward.

[winchestereast]

am thinking i don't really have much in common with grover norquist - unless he grows his own vegetables, voted for Obama, wants to see an end to welfare for corporations and millionaires - his small government usually seems to me to mean no tax spending on people who need jobs, better access to medical care, - am thinking he's not pushing for an end to subsidies for private insurance monopoly with billionaire ceo's, tax loopholes, havens and scams for the millionaire class - don't think his kind of libertarian is, like me, a small business owner or an entrepreneur - mostly his libertarians are billionaires who snuck into corporations and raided the coffers, leaving share holders and taxpayers paying for the corporate jets that take them golfing -

[mrbadmood]

Oh, the Cowboy and the Farmer should be friends. . . ..